In line with the work environment hypothesis, interpersonal conflict has been proposed as an important antecedent of workplace bullying. However, longitudinal studies on this relationship have been scarce. The aim of this study was to examine whether co‐worker conflict predicted new cases of self‐reported workplace bullying 2 years later and whether laissez‐faire leadership moderated this relationship. In a sample of 1,772 employees, drawn from the Norwegian working population, the hypotheses that co‐worker conflict increased the risk of subsequently reporting being a victim of workplace bullying and that laissez‐faire leadership strengthened this relationship were supported. This study empirically supports the work environment hypothesis by showing that co‐worker conflict within a true prospective research design is a source of new cases of bullying and that the lack and avoidance of leadership, through the enactment of a laissez‐faire leadership style, likely is a main source for co‐worker conflict to develop into workplace bullying.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the workforce moved from office setting to home-office and virtual teamwork. Whereas the relationship between leadership and team cooperation in physical settings is well documented – less is known about how daily virtual team cooperation is influenced by daily constructive as well as destructive leadership, and how intervening mechanisms influence this relationship. In the present study, we test the direct effect of daily transformational- and passive avoidant leadership, respectively, on the daily quality of virtual team cooperation – and the moderating effect of task interdependence. Using virtual team cooperation as outcome, we hypothesized that (a) transformational leadership relates positively to virtual team cooperation, (b) passive-avoidant leadership relates negatively, and (c) moderated by task interdependence. Our hypotheses were tested in a 5-day quantitative diary study with 58 convenience sampled employees working from home in virtual teams. The results show that virtual team cooperation is a partially malleable process – with 28% variation in daily virtual team cooperation resulting from within team variation from day to day. Surprisingly, the results of multilevel modeling lend support only to the first hypothesis (a). Taken together, our findings suggest that in virtual settings, inspirational and development-oriented transformational leadership plays a key role in daily team cooperation, while passive-avoidance has little impact – independently of task interdependence. Hence, in virtual team settings, the study shows that “good is stronger than bad” – when comparing the negative effects of destructive leadership to the positive effect of constructive and inspirational leadership. We discuss the implications of these findings for further research and practice.
The aim of this study was to examine laissez-faire leadership as a predictor of role ambiguity in the workplace. It also endeavoured to uncover whether occupational selfefficacy and competence uncertainty moderated this relationship. In a sample of 386 Norwegian employees who were also students at Folkeuniversitetet, laissez-faire leadership showed a significant association with role ambiguity. Hierarchical multiple regression was used in the analysis of the possible moderating effects occupational self-efficacy and competence uncertainty had on this relationship. We found a significant interaction effect of occupational self-efficacy on the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity. Specifically, the positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity proved stronger at low levels of occupational self-efficacy. Contrary to our predictions, the analysis showed no significant interaction effect of competence uncertainty on the same relationship. Demonstrating that the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity can be moderated by individual characteristics asserts the need for further research on how organisations can establish measures to strengthen employees' personal resources, in addition to preventing the occurrence of laissez-faire leadership.
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