Role stressors and exposure to workplace bullying: Causes or consequences of what and why?

Abstract Stressful working environments are commonly assumed to create conditions that can lead to bullying. Although environmental factors may relate to both exposure to and perpetration of workplace bullying, empirical knowledge is still limited regarding how environmental factors and bullying is causally linked. In line with interpretations of previous cross-sectional findings, the present study investigated an individual-level target-oriented model of role stressors as antecedents of exposure to workplace bullying, applying a two-wave longitudinal sample of the Norwegian working population. Results from structural regression analyses failed to identify any significant relationships between the role stressors and subsequent exposure to workplace bullying. However, prior exposure to workplace bullying accounted for subsequent variation in role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload alike. The findings of the present study question conclusions regarding causality made in previous cross-sectional research on work-related factors as antecedents of exposure to workplace bullying. We argue that future research may benefit from adopting multilevel and actor-oriented perspectives in order to more fully understand how causal relationships between environmental factors and workplace bullying unfold. Keywords: BullyingCross-laggedHarassmentLongitudinalRole stress Additional informationNotes on contributorsLars Johan Hauge This study is a collaborative project between the University of Bergen and Statistics Norway. The project was made possible by a grant from the Research Council of Norway and by joint grants from two Norwegian employer associations (the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities), the Norwegian government (the National Insurance Administration), and its FARVE programme. Thanks to Bengt O. Lagerstrøm and Maria Høstmark of Statistics Norway, and Stig B. Matthiesen and Morten B. Nielsen of the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, for their contribution to the data collection. Thanks also to Professor Evert van de Vliert for his valuable feedback.