Purpose Although workplace bullying has often been considered a significant source of health-related problems, only a handful of studies have deeply examined this relationship. This paper aims to fill this gap by inspecting the direct as well as indirect relationships between bullying and emotional exhaustion. This study also explores the buffering role of religion between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach This correlational paper used the quantitative method of data collection (N = 102) from employees in Malaysia and used SmartPLS to analyze the data. To operationalize workplace bullying as the second-order factor, partial least squares was used to estimate the two-stage model through the repeated use of a manifest variable. Findings The result of the current study showed that workplace bullying has a positive impact on job insecurity as well as emotional exhaustion while also having a positive indirect effect on emotional exhaustion through job insecurity. Moreover, the result of this study reveals that religion has a moderating (buffering) influence on the relationship between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion. Research limitations/implications The study merely applied self-report measures, thus potentially involving the common method variance problems. Practical implications Human resource professionals must be aware that employees who are exposed to bullying actions may consider emotional exhaustion and job security needs to be restored among targets. For instance, they need to ensure that no unwanted and illegitimate relocation or alternation of work task has occurred. Furthermore, it is significant to encourage employees to regularly attend religious services because religious involvement could foster mental health, in part by lowering the risk of exposure to stressful life events such as job insecurity. Originality/value This study could be beneficial for organizations and researchers looking to address emotional exhaustion, security and bullying in a context broader than physical health and may further supplement the discussions around workplace bullying, mental health and religion.

Many countries worldwide have considered workplace bullying as an important national agenda. This issue has been extensively discussed by scholars who have determined that bullying severely affects an organization. However, discussions on workplace bullying in the perspective of the perpetrators still remain inadequate. This study aims to examine the relationship between the personal factors and job insecurity of the perpetrator with workplace bullying. It intends to understand the factors that contribute to workplace bullying among Malaysian workers. This research applied the quantitative method of data collection and used SmartPLS M2 version 2.0 to analyse data. The regression analysis showed that personal factors positively affected workplace bullying. In contrast, no significant relationship was found between job insecurity and workplace bullying.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between three key factors that cause workplace bullying among subcontractor managers toward intention to quit the undertaken project within the context of Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized the simple sampling method to select its study sample, while the questionnaire survey approach was implemented amidst 500 G6 and G7 contractor managers across Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 210 completed questionnaires were returned. Partial least square-structural equation modeling was administered to analyze the data via SmartPls 3.0 software. Findings This study discovered three significant factors (main contractor leadership, construction culture, work organization and job design) that displayed positive effect on workplace bullying among subcontractor managers toward intention to quit. The study outcomes can serve as a direction for policy makers to reduce bullying within the construction project environment. Practical implications This study serves as an instruction for main contractors to reinvent their style of management in overcoming bullying in construction projects. This paper guides that collaborative relationship among various parties in construction projects, including the representatives of main contractors and subcontractor managers, may assist in addressing the hostile environment of construction project, in order to create a constructive relationship between them that leads to overall project success. Originality/value Recognition of the three key factors that lead to workplace bullying among subcontractor managers in the construction industry, which are bound to enhance intention to quit based on the data set with strong statistical results, has made the research original.

Workplace bullying is currently a normal issue that proliferates worldwide. Essentially, research related to this topic has been conducted in many different fields and industries, but it remains scarce in construction sector. This paper explores the subcontractor bullying in Malaysian construction industry and identifies the impact of main contractor to subcontractor bullying. Data collection was implemented on 210 contractors of Grade 6 and 7 across Peninsular Malaysia. Based on Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis, the findings reveal that main contractor leadership and project organisation affect work-based bullying. However, the relationship between project organisation and job design with physical intimidating bullying was found to be not significant. The result of this study may assist the main contractors to understand their role in providing a better environment for the sake of project success.