Unpacking the Psychological Processes of Workplace Bullying: A Weekly Diary Comparison of Motivational and Resource Pathways

Workplace bullying is a pervasive interpersonal stressor with well-documented negative consequences for employees; however, the understanding of the psychological processes linking bullying to employee outcomes remains fragmented and constrained by methodological similarity. As a result, it remains unclear which psychological mechanisms are most central in explaining how bullying affects employees, particularly at the within-person level. Addressing this gap, the present study compared within-person variation in two mediating processes: basic psychological need (BPN) frustration and psychological capital (PsyCap). Eighty-five participants participated in a five-wave weekly diary study, completing a total of 356 surveys. As predicted, within-person variation in weekly bullying exposure predicted poorer outcomes (i.e., lower energy, higher stress, reduced belonging, and greater turnover intentions). Multilevel mediation analyses showed that BPN frustration mediated these relationships: weeks with more bullying were associated with greater need frustration and poorer outcomes. In contrast, PsyCap did not mediate these relationships. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models provided no support for lagged mediation effects, indicating that neither BPN frustration nor PsyCap transmitted the effects of bullying across weekly intervals. These findings demonstrate that workplace bullying undermines employee outcomes primarily through the contemporaneous frustration of BPN and underscore the importance of organizational interventions that support employees’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness.