LINKS AMONG BULLYING, PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE, AND THE WORK ENGAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES: CAN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AS A MEDIATOR REDUCE THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF BULLYING ON WORK ENGAGEMENT?
LINKS AMONG BULLYING, PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE, AND THE WORK ENGAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEES: CAN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AS A MEDIATOR REDUCE THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF BULLYING ON WORK ENGAGEMENT?

Summary/Abstract: Although the prevalence of bullying at work varies from country to country, organizations of all types, natures, and sizes face this problem. The phenomenon of bullying at work is identified as a critical stressor, with serious consequences at both the individual and organizational levels. The aim of this research is to determine the links among bullying, psychological resilience, and the work engagement of employees. It is hypothesized that: a) more frequent bullying in the work environment will be negatively related to employees’ psychological resilience and work engagement; b) psychological resilience will be positively related to employee work engagement; and c) the psychological resilience of employees acts as a mediator between the bullying they experience in the workplace and their work engagement. This research involved 187 participants from Lithuanian organizations of various types and sizes. Three measures were used for the research: the Negative Acts Questionnaire – Revised (NAQ-R); the Resilience Scale (RS-14); and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). In addition, sociodemographic questions were included in the research questionnaire. The main results of the research revealed that bullying in the workplace is significantly negatively related to the psychological resilience and work engagement of employees. The correlation analysis indicated that the psychological resilience of employees had significantly positive correlations with the work engagement of employees. The mediation analysis demonstrated that psychological resilience mediates the relationship between the bullying of employees at work and their work engagement. It was found that the inclusion of a mediator reduced the magnitude of the effect, i.e., psychological resilience slightly reduced the negative effect of bullying in the workplace on the work engagement of employees.

• Details
• Contents