How Workplace Bullying Jeopardizes Employees’ Life Satisfaction: The Roles of Job Anxiety and Insomnia

Abstract

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the underlying mechanism through which workplace bullying (WB) affects employees’ life satisfaction via job-related anxiety and insomnia. Time-lagged data were collected at two points in time from 211 doctor interns working in various hospitals in Pakistan. Our results fully supported a proposed serial multiple-mediator model. Workplace bullying was indirectly related to life satisfaction via job-related anxiety and insomnia. This study provides evidence of a spillover effect as to how workplace bullying increases employees’ job-related anxiety which in turn leads to insomnia resulting in reduced employees’ life satisfaction. The present study extends research on workplace bullying to display its theoretical as well as empirical effects on life satisfaction. It demonstrates that workplace bullying as an occupational and psychological stressor has multiple effects on employees’ life satisfaction through a serial mediation model in the context of a developing country. It further explains that workplace bullying not only affects an employee’s workplace behaviors but also extends to the employee’s overall life satisfaction.

The Relationship between Workplace Violence and Innovative Work Behavior: The Mediating Roles of Employee Wellbeing

“…Recently, OB scholars have been increasingly paying attention to COR theory and it is used to investigate the relationship between workplace environment and employee behaviors [44,45]. According to the definition, IWB is that employees must invest extra time and energy in generating behaviors in addition to routine tasks.…”

“…This can lead to a sense of loss where the employees' efforts are not rewarded; that is, the reduction in IWB due to the actual loss of resources. Second, workplace violence will reduce employees' expectations of the resources they can obtain in specific jobs in the future [45], including opportunities for promotion, income improvement and job satisfaction. Therefore, employees will also reduce their efforts in this position due to their low expectation of future resource acquisition, thus affecting the production of IWB.…”

Exploring the Relationship between Innovative Work Behavior, Job Anxiety, Workplace Ostracism, and Workplace Incivility: Empirical Evidence from Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

“…Job anxiety is defined as “an unpleasant emotional state characterized by concerns, fright, distress, and restlessness that is a response to perceived physical and/or psychological danger” [ 24 ] and is experienced in a state of threat to valued resources [ 25 ]. Furthermore, job anxiety can also be a result of exceeding demand for the job from an employee [ 26 ].…”

Identification of Workplace Bullying: Reliability and Validity of Indonesian Version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R)

“…On the one hand, experiencing bullying at the workplace could decrease job satisfaction; hence, it is important to control work-related stressors that could impact satisfaction with life among workers [75]. Bullying among workers can trigger an individual suffering in terms of a career progression, safety, self-esteem, and anxiety, causing life satisfaction issues [76]. Interestingly, bullying at the workplace can be conceptualized as the manifestation of stigma, which is caused by discrimination, especially for those facing situations that are socially seen to have devalued characteristic such as Hepatitis C, HIV, and people with leprosy; this stigma then affects self-esteem [77].…”