The effect of workplace bullying on burnout: the mediating role of affective well-being

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of workplace bullying on employees’ burnout by investigating the mediating effect of affective well-being (AWB). Design/methodology/approach Data of 532 employees from diverse organizations in Portugal were collected. These data were collected using anonymously completed structured questionnaires available online. Findings The results support the research hypotheses proposed, confirming that workplace bullying is related to both AWB and burnout. Moreover, affective workplace bullying partially mediates the relationship between workplace bullying and burnout, indicating that the victims have their AWB reduced, and, consequently, increase their burnout levels. Practical implications The findings suggest that organizations can foster employees’ AWB and reduce the level of burnout by encouraging organizations to develop preventive policies and practices to safeguard against bullying at work. Originality/value To this date, only a few studies have examined mediating and moderating variables (Nielsen and Einersen, 2018) and none include AWB as a mediator of the relationship between workplace bullying and burnout. This study answers the call for further empirical research from those who have argued that more information is needed to understand the workplace bullying phenomenon and contributes to the growing debate on this topic and its effects on employees.

The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Metacognition in Teachers’ Stress during Pandemic Remote Working: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…The experience of a stressful teaching work environment also has clinical implications for burnout syndrome. Burnout has been defined as "a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job" [40] (p. 103) and, therefore, as an occupational psychological syndrome [41][42][43], often affecting medical professionals, teachers, police officers, army soldiers, and many other professionals [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. Certain studies have detected relationships between burnout and EI [54,55], as an important personal resource that can facilitate effective emotion regulation [56] and play a crucial role in teachers' occupational well-being models [57].…”

Coping With Burnout? Measuring the Links Between Workplace Conflicts, Work-Related Stress, and Burnout

“…Another study disclosed that workplace bullying is related to burnout. Furthermore, victims of bullying have an increased level of burnout and a reduced level of affective well-being (Ribeiro et al, 2021). This implies that workplace conflict could make a long-term damage.…”

Understanding the psychology of workplace bullies: the impact of Dark Tetrad and how to mitigate it

“…Significantly, a 2019 survey conducted on Monster.com found that 94% of 2,081 interviewed employees had been bullied in the workplace; less dramatic data, but still very considerable, from the USA and other countries, showed that 25%–30% of the employees in the interview samples had been bullied at work in 2021 [Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), 2021]. These effects may result in employees leaving the organization and/or going through severe psychological trauma (Ribeiro et al , 2022), which have detrimental effects on the whole organization (Kerse and Babadag, 2019).…”

“…The study presents some new aspects that contribute to advancing the existing literature on WB, fitting into the current debate in the pages of Management Research Review (Kerse and Babadag, 2019; Rai and Agarwal, 2018; Ribeiro et al , 2022). In particular, this is the first study that explicitly verifies a mediated-moderation model on DT-WB while proposing a further explanation (i.e.…”