BACKGROUND

Workplace bullying is a serious stressor with devastating short- and long-term consequences. The concept of organizational social capital may provide insights into the interactional and communicative dynamics of the bullying process and opportunities for prevention.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explore the association between organizational social capital and being a target or observer of workplace bullying.

METHODS

Based on self-reported cross-sectional data from a large representative sample of the Danish working population (n = 10.037), logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore at the individual level the associations between vertical and horizontal organizational social capital with being a target or observer of workplace bullying.

RESULTS

In the fully adjusted models, low organizational social capital (vertical and horizontal) was associated with significantly increased odds ratios of both self-labelled (vertical: OR = 3.25; CI = 2.34-4.51; horizontal: OR = 3.17; CI = 2.41-4.18) and observed workplace bullying (vertical: OR = 2.09; CI = 1.70-2.56; horizontal: OR = 1.60; CI = 1.35-1.89), when compared with high organizational social capital.

CONCLUSIONS

This study supports that characteristics of the psychosocial work environment are of importance in the development of workplace bullying, and provides focus on the importance of self-reported organizational social capital.