Institute of Psychology Faculty in Wroclaw Social Behavior Research Center, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw, Poland.
Norwegian Police College University, Oslo New University College, Oslo, Norway.
Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2022 Dec;95(10):1955-1969. doi: 10.1007/s00420-022-01896-y. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
A central focus of research and literature on workplace bullying is the importance of explanatory factors such as individual dispositions (i.e., the vulnerability hypothesis) and work environment factors (i.e., the work environment hypothesis). Although several studies address the importance of the two approaches, as well as their individual and combined effects, the unique contribution of each of the competing approaches remain unexplored in a single longitudinal study.
Based on Affective Events Theory, we explore the contribution of work environment and individual hostility in the occurrence of workplace bullying over time, using two-wave survey data, collected with a 6-month time lag among 152 employees from 7 private and public workplaces.
Results confirmed that work environment factors predicted later exposure to bullying. Exposure to workplace bullying at T1 was also related to a poor work environment at T2. Results further showed that higher exposure to workplace bullying at T1 and T2 was related to higher levels of almost all aspects of individual hostility over time. Moreover, poor working conditions especially in T1 predicted individual hostility at T2.
The present study thus documents that a poor work environment fosters bullying, and when bullying exists in a workplace, this elicits interpersonal hostility. Results points to the importance of addressing, through research and practice, work environment factors as predictors of workplace bullying.
workplace bullying（工作场所欺凌）研究和文献的一个核心焦点是解释性因素的重要性，例如个体性格（即易损性假设）和工作环境因素（即工作环境假设）。尽管有几项研究探讨了这两种方法的重要性以及它们的单独和综合影响，但在单个纵向研究中，每种竞争方法的独特贡献仍未得到探索。
基于情感事件理论，我们使用两波调查数据，在 7 个私营和公共工作场所中，对 152 名员工进行了为期 6 个月的时间滞后调查，探讨了工作环境和个体敌意在工作场所欺凌发生中的作用。
结果证实，工作环境因素可以预测未来的欺凌暴露。T1 时的工作场所欺凌暴露也与 T2 时的工作环境较差有关。结果进一步表明，T1 和 T2 时的工作场所欺凌暴露越高，与个体敌意的几乎所有方面的水平越高有关。此外，T1 时较差的工作条件尤其可以预测 T2 时的个体敌意。
因此，本研究表明，恶劣的工作环境会助长欺凌行为，而当欺凌行为存在于工作场所时，这会引发人际敌意。研究结果表明，通过研究和实践，关注工作环境因素作为工作场所欺凌的预测因素非常重要。
