DISPOSITIONAL, SOCIAL AND WORK-RELATED DETERMINANTS OF WORKPLACE BULLYING

Abstract

Workplace bullying is a well-known and emerging concept in the field of research and academics. It is a negative phenomenon that has been reported to have high prevalence rates in different countries. The present study aims to find out the different determinants of workplace bullying among Pakistani employees. These determinants comprised of dispositional (personality traits and affectivity), social (group compliance) and work-related (work environment) factors. The sample of the study was comprised of 621 employees belonging to four different occupational sectors including (bank, telecommunication, health and education). Negative acts Questionnaire, Neo-Five Factor Inventory, Positive Affectivity and Negative Affectivity Schedule, Group Compliance Scale, and Work Environment scale were used to measure the workplace bullying and its determinants. The minimum job experience of 1 year and 16 years of education have been used as an inclusion criterion. Findings of the study depicted the high correlations between the study variables and results further revealed that from dispositional factors, neuroticism and negative affectivity positively predicted the workplace bullying whereas agreeableness, consciousness, positive affectivity, group compliance and work environment negatively predicted the workplace bullying. The study revealed that the determinants from each category are very crucial and play an important role in the experience of workplace bullying.

Keywords:affectivity, group compliance, personality traits, work environment, workplace bullying