Assessing Workplace Bullying and Its Outcomes: The Paradoxical Role of Perceived Power Imbalance Between Target and Perpetrator

Adolescents' Self and Bullying Victimisation: The Key Role of Gender

Background/Objectives: The primary factors influencing victimisation in bullying have recently become a topic of debate in the psychological literature. This research sought to explore the association between self-criticism (as captured in terms of inadequate self, hated self, and reassured self) and bullying victimisation, also addressing the moderating effects of gender. Methods: This study relies on a cross-sectional research design, enrolling a sample of 328 adolescents (Mage = 14.93; SDage = 0.81; 162 females, 49.4%). Participants completed a short questionnaire about their age, gender, and family's socio-economic status. They also answered questions from the Forms of Self-Criticising/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale and the Florence Bullying and Victimisation Scales. Results: Statistical analysis indicated gender moderated only the interplay between hated self and bullying victimisation. Conclusions: Through a multidimensional approach, these findings provided further insight into the primary factors of self to the phenomenon of bullying victimisation, also yielding further evidence about the key role of gender during a critical developmental stage, such as adolescence. Limitations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.

Psychometric properties and cut-off scores for the Swedish version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire: The full scale and short version

The present study investigates the psychometric properties and cut-off scores of a Swedish version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire, the most frequently used instrument to measure exposure to workplace bullying. Based on a probability sample of the Swedish workforce (n = 1853), we investigate the validity of both the full version (NAQ-R) and the short version (SNAQ). We suggest optimal cut-offs for the NAQ-R and SNAQ, and for the subscales measuring work- and person-related bullying. Based on the cut-off scores we provide estimates of prevalence in a Swedish context. The factor structure and psychometric properties are comparable to the Norwegian original and the English versions of the instrument. We also tested the criterion validity using 11 outcome and antecedent variables to bullying, and all provided support for its validity. The identified cut-off scores differentiate clearly when tested against the 11 variables used to test criterion validity in the study. The results showed that the Swedish version of the NAQ-R, including the SNAQ, is a valid measure of workplace bullying. To our knowledge, this study is the first study presenting statistical cut-offs for the NAQ-R subscales as well as investigating both the NAQ-R and the SNAQ simultaneously. The present study also provides some criticism against and suggestions for improving the NAQ-R, aiming to capture even more of the overall experience of exposure, ability to defend oneself, overall duration, and on- and offline exposure.

Leaders as the targets of workplace bullying - prevalence and outcomes

PURPOSE

Bullying of leaders is an underexplored topic in organizational research. To fill this knowledge gap, the aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of bullying of leaders and to examine whether holding a formal leadership position influences the relationships between exposure to bullying and the outcomes job satisfaction and depression.

METHODS

Data from two separate surveys were employed: (1) A cross-sectional occupation specific sample comprising 678 Norwegian child welfare social workers; (2) A nationally representative probability sample of 1,608 Norwegian employees with two time-points (6 months' time-lag).

RESULTS

Analyzing multiple indicators of workplace bullying, holding a formal leadership position had no impact on the initial risk of being bullied. Analyses of prospective data showed that leaders report a somewhat stronger increase in levels of bullying over time compared to non-leaders, although the effect size was small. With exception of a small buffering effect on the cross-sectional association between exposure to bullying behaviors and job satisfaction in the second sample, holding a leadership position had no effect on the strength of the association between bullying and outcomes.

CONCLUSION

The findings show that leaders have the same risk of being bullied and are influenced by bullying in roughly the same manner as non-leaders. Organizational measures and interventions against bullying should therefore consider leaders as a risk group in line with other employees.

Differentiating social environments of high-risk professionals and specialised nurses: a qualitative empirical study on social embeddedness

Objective: High-risk professionals and specialised nurses in hospitals are frequently exposed to potentially traumatic events. Psychotrauma researchers have extensively studied personal risk factors of traumatisation among high-risk professionals, but it is hard to understand psychological functioning when professionals are decontextualised from their social environment. Generally, it has been well documented that to reduce the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other mental health problems related to traumatisation, it is essential to be embedded in a supportive social environment. However, study results among and within these occupational groups show great variety and even inconsistencies as to what is a supportive social environment.Method: This ethnographical research, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, explored the social environment of firefighters, police officers, ambulance paramedics, specialised nurses, and military personnel and aims to explore their social connections and embeddedness. We performed a thematic content analysis of data to identify themes related to social or emotional support, social relationships, and stress or traumatisation.Results: An analysis of the observational field notes, which covered 332 h of participant observation and 71 evenly distributed formal in-depth interviews, identified four themes related to social connections and embeddedness: Family, Hierarchical relations versus autonomy, Group versus individual, and Conditional family 'love'. Results revealed that the military, police, and professional firefighters have family-like hierarchical connections and highly value group unity. Paramedics and most specialised nurses, however, tend to value individuality and autonomy in their work relationships.Conclusion: This research shows noticeable differences in the social environments and social connections of these professionals, which implicates that prevention and mental health treatment might also have to be differentiated among occupational groups.

The reverse buffering effect of workplace attachment style on the relationship between workplace bullying and work engagement

Using the Job Demands-Resources model, this study investigates workplace attachment styles as predictors of work engagement and moderators of the well-established disengaging effect of workplace bullying. As a personal resource, we hypothesized that secure workplace attachment would foster work engagement, whereas both types of insecure workplace attachment (i.e., avoidant and preoccupied) would do the opposite. Previous work also led us to expect the relationship between workplace bullying and engagement to be stronger when targets expect it to act as job resource (i.e., secure workplace attachment) and weaker when their working model is consistent with workplace aggression-i.e., reverse buffering effects. Using the PROCESS macro, we tested these hypotheses in a convenience sample of French office employees (N = 472) who completed an online survey. Secure workplace attachment was associated with higher work engagement while insecure workplace attachment and bullying perceptions related negatively with work engagement. Supporting our hypotheses, feeling exposed to workplace bullying was most associated with disengagement in employees with a secure workplace attachment style and less so in others. Far from recommending insecure bonds as protection, our results rather highlight the need to prevent all forms of workplace aggression, thereby allowing employees to rely on their work environment as a job resource.