Workplace Mobbing in Polish and Lithuanian Organisations with Regard to Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

The ‘mobbing’ phenomenon is regarded as the actions or behaviour referring to an employee or directed against an employee, comprising persistent and drawn-out harassment or intimidation of that employee. This phenomenon causes substantial negative workplace consequences, but, above all, one should stress the consequences for the victims, which are devastating. This has been observed in a variety of organisations, regardless of the sector and country. Given these facts, the purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of workplace mobbing in Polish and Lithuanian organisations with regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The research sample included a group of 823 entities operating in both countries in both the private and public sectors (410 from Lithuania and 413 from Poland). A closed-type questionnaire was used in the survey. Several research methods including factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman–Brown, factor loading, and total item correlation were used in our study. The results achieved showed that there were both similarities as well as differences between the analysed organisations. More specifically, our research revealed that: (1) Employee attitude to CSR depends on the company’s sector of activity and the country; (2) In Poland, workplace mobbing is more prevalent in the public sector than in the private, whilst in Lithuania there were no substantial differences; (3) Organisations that implemented the CSR concept showed less imposed mobbing prevalence; and (4) Employees who faced mobbing in the workplace had worse relationships with clients and users of the company’s services/products.

Is a CSR Policy an Equally Effective Vaccine Against Workplace Mobbing and Psychosocial Stressors?

“…The empirical study was conducted employing the questionnaire “Mobbing as a Psychosocial Stressor in the Organizations Accessing and Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility—MOB-CSR”. This instrument is valid and reliable [ 83 ]; correlation relationships between subscales show interconnectedness and statistically reliable relationships except for work content vs. environmental responsibility. The correlation relationships between the scales of the instrument, presented in Table 3 , show that despite the strength of Spearman’s correlation coefficient (i.e., strong, moderate strength, weak or very weak), statistically significant relationships were found between all scales ( p = 0.000).…”

Mobbing and corporate social responsibility: does the status of the organisation guarantee employee wellbeing and intentions to stay in the job?

“…Sometimes mobbing causes dysfunction of relationships between employees. As a result, negative consequences, including, inter alia, resignation of employees may appear (Vveinhardt & Sroka, 2020). Research conducted in different countries show that the consequences for victims may be devastating.…”

“…Nevertheless, only a few articles examining workplace mobbing/bullying in the context of CSR were detected in the scientific research database (the search was performed in Web of Science, Sagepub, Springer, Ebsco). For example, it is noted that the implementation of the CSR agenda can reduce bullying and harassment, which encourage employees to leave the organization (Ram, 2018;Vveinhardt et al, 2018), but it has been found that the prevalence of mobbing was lower in CSR-implementing organizations, although the phenomenon was not completely eliminated (Vveinhardt & Sroka, 2020). In addition, Zhao et al (2020) has pointed out that a better understanding of stakeholders' motivation can have a positive effect in reducing corporate hypocrisy that is also reflected by tolerance to bullying.…”

“…Some authors (e.g. Lewicka-Strzalecka, 2006;Wilk, 2018;Tetrevova, 2018;Vveinhardt & Sroka, 2020), looking for the ways to solve the mobbing problem, focus on the corporate social responsibility (CSR). The CSR includes ethical, economic and legal responsibilities towards stakeholders (Carroll, 1991(Carroll, , 1999Schwartz & Carroll, 2003;Androniceanu, 2019) and is defined as actions that increase social good, going beyond the interests of the enterprise and legal requirements (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001).…”

Employee Volunteerism—Conceptual Study and the Current Situation

“…The new environment might have a negative effect, such as mobbing or bullying, which is more prevalent in the public sector [41]. • It causes a so-called preselection and schemes whereby an organization only selects those applicants who demonstrate shared organizational values on personal traits and fit into its voluntary and involuntary turnover [29].…”