Do gender differences matter to workplace bullying?

BACKGROUND

Workplace bullying has become an omnipresent problem in most organizations. Gender differences have recently received increasing attention in the workplace bullying domain.

OBJECTIVE

Integrating social dominance theory with gender role theory, this study explores whether male minority and supervisor gender are related to the incidence of workplace bullying.

METHODS

Data from 501 public servants employed in the tax administration institute of Taiwan was collected via a questionnaire and analyzed using hierarchical regression.

RESULTS

Male minority reported more workplace bullying than did the female majority. Subordinates working with male supervisors had more exposure to bullying than those working with female supervisors. However, male supervisors did not exacerbate the relationship between male minority and workplace bullying, while females exposure to workplace bullying was attenuated when working with male supervisors.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings confirm the important role of gender differences when predicting bullying at work and support the view that gender is not merely an individual antecedent of bullying, but rather acts as a social factor to influence the incidence of workplace bullying.