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Background: The negative effects of in-person workplace bullying (WB) are well established. Less is known about cyber-bullying (CB), in which negative behaviours are mediated by technology. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the current research examined how individual and organisational factors were related to WB and CB at two time points three months apart. Methods: Data were collected by means of an online self-report survey. Eight hundred and twenty-six respondents (58% female, 42% male) provided data at both time points. Results: One hundred and twenty-three (15%) of participants had been bullied and 23 (2.8%) of participants had been cyber-bullied within the last six months. Women reported more WB, but not more CB, than men. Worse physical health, higher strain, more destructive leadership, more team conflict and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more WB. Managerial employees experienced more CB than non-managerial employees. Poor physical health, less organisational support and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more CB. Conclusion: Rates of CB were lower than those of WB, and very few participants reported experiencing CB without also experiencing WB. Both forms of bullying were associated with poorer work environments, indicating that, where bullying is occurring, the focus should be on organisational systems and processes.

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted, to date, in an estimated 29 per cent of the New Zealand (NZ) workforce moving quickly from centralised work locations to full time working from home (WFH).  The literature prior to these extraordinary events suggests WFH is beneficial for employee wellbeing and performance, and organisational outcomes, notably productivity, retention, and business continuity in times of disruption.  Lack of organisational preparedness, technological limitations, managerial reluctance, and the potential drawbacks of social isolation have meant that the rates of regular, planned WFH as a flexible work option have traditionally been low.  This paper summarises the knowledge base of benefits and limitations of WFH prior to COVID-19 and speculates how the experiences of WFH during the pandemic are likely to shape the future of WFH for workers, organisations, and employees.

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Purpose. This paper examines the direct and buffering effects of three workplace contextual factorsconstructive leadership, perceived organizational support, and organizational antibullying initiativeson bullying and its relationships with relevant criteria. Further, the paper investigates the effectiveness of organizational initiatives against bullying as perceived by targets and non-targets. Method. Data were collected from 727 employees in nine New Zealand healthcare organizations. Of these, 133 employees were classified as bullied, as they had experienced at least two negative acts per week over the last 6 months. Findings. Correlations revealed negative relationships between the three contextual work factors and bullying. Moderated regression showed that perceived organizational support buffered the relationship of bullying with self-rated job performance, and that organizational initiatives against bullying buffered the relationship of bullying with both wellbeing and organizational Neutralizing workplace bullying 2 commitment. Targets consistently gave lower ratings than non-targets of the effectiveness of organizational initiatives to address bullying. Implications. These results show that contextual factors are important in workplace bullying. They were directly associated with lower levels of bullying and buffered the negative impacts of workplace bullying both through anti-bullying initiatives and perceived organizational support. Further research is needed into effective ways for organizations to counter bullying. Originality. There is scant research on workplace factors that may reduce bullying and buffer its negative effects. Our paper makes an original contribution in providing evidence of the importance of three contextual factors, and of buffering effects for perceived organizational support and organizational initiatives against bullying.