Subordinates’ silence: the consequence of bullying behaviour and psychological insecurity among policemen

Abstract

Purpose There has been a growing concern about employee silence (ES) within an organization. ES is associated with low creativity and innovativeness, unethical organizational practices, avoidable errors and safety-related issues. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mediating role of psychological insecurity (PI) in the relationship between leaders’ bullying behaviour (LBB) on defensive (DES) and acquiescent employee silence (AES). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected among police personnel working in Plateau state Nigeria. In all, a total of 350 responses were found useable for further analysis, of the 398 copies of the questionnaire administered. A structural equation modelling technique was used via SMART-PLS version 3.3.3 to test the hypothesized relationship. Findings The findings of this study revealed that leaders’ bullying positively and significantly influences both AES and DES, and PI was found to mediate the relationship between LBB and AES and DES. Originality/value LBB among the police has been under-researched, even when there is clear evidence of its existence. PI explains the mechanism through which LBB influences officers' silence.

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“…Spirituality is seen as values that an individual brings to the workplace and how such values influence both ethical-related and ethically unrelated worker interactions and outcomes. Therefore, based on the findings that suggest consistency, the present study will add to the literature on deviant behaviour as suggested by Goman et al (2017) and Vem et al (2022), who have earlier suggested more studies on deviant behaviour. Therefore, introducing spirituality as a mediating variable, in the relationship between informational justice and deviant behaviour had made this study a novel one.…”

“…Secondly, none of the previous studies examined the role of spirituality as a mediating variable in the relationship between informational justice and deviant behaviour among university academics; this calls for investigation in this field of study. This is because spirituality has been studied in relation to organisational-related factors, work-related factors, and personal factors (Sulaiman and Bhatti, 2013;Vem et al, 2022: Alias, Rasdi, Ismail, & Samah, 2013, but previous studies have ignored spirituality as a factor that influences employees' behaviours in the workplace, as suggested by Milliman (2018) and Vem et al (2020). Hence, this study will add to the limited literature on spirituality, as suggested by Goman et al (2017) and Milliman (2018).…”

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“…Leader inclusiveness captures attempts by leaders to include others in discussions and decisions in which their voices and perspectives might otherwise be absent (Edmondson et al, 2004;Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006). Someone who has the capability and mindset which makes their organization inclusive and values and maintains employee uniqueness, provides them autonomy for job crafting (Jaleel and Sarmad, 2024) and empowers the followers for career growth (Vem et al, 2024) and thereby greater workplace belongingness can be called as an inclusive leader. Such leaders focus on removing the hurdles in the path of employees, provide a relaxed state of mind (Lee and Dahinten, 2021) and reduce psychological pain (Ahmed et al, 2020).…”