Rocking at 81 and Rolling at 34: ROC Cut-Off Scores for the Negative Acts Questionnaire–Revised in Serbia

Abstract

Researchers are still searching for the ways to identify different categories of employees according to their exposure to negative acts and psychological experience of workplace bullying. We followed Notelaers and Einarsen’s application of the ROC analysis to determine the NAQ-R cut-off scores applying a “lower” and “higher” threshold. The main goal of this research was to develop and test different gold standards of personal and organizational relevance in determining the NAQ-R cut-off scores in a specific cultural and economic context of Serbia. Apart from combining self-labeling as a victim with self-perceived health, the objectives were to test the gold standards developed as a combination of self-labeling with life satisfaction, self-labeling with intention to leave and a complex gold standard based on self-labeling, self-perceived health, life satisfaction and intention to leave taken together. The ROC analysis on Serbian workforce data supports applying of different gold standards. For identifying employees in a preliminary stage of bullying, the most applicable was the gold standard based on self-labeling and intention to leave (score 34 and higher). The most accurate identification of victims could be based on the most complex gold standard (score 81 and higher). This research encourages further investigation of gold standards in different cultures.

Work Engagement in Serbia: Psychometric Properties of the Serbian Version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)

“…Continuously struggling with the hostile conditions, workplace in Serbia has been fluctuating with the numbers of new organizations, new business owners, either as a part of privatization or green-field investment, different work contracts, new technologies and work processes. Nevertheless, contemporary Serbian economy is still characterized by low economic activity ( Petrović et al, 2017 ). GDP per capita is among the bottom 6% of the countries covered by the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey ( Eurofound, 2016 ).…”

Experience of nursing leaders with workplace bullying and how to best cope

“…Scores from 22 to 32 are categorized as little evidence of workplace bullying; 33 to 45 suggest respondents are at least in the preliminary stage of bullying (with occasional bullying occurring); and scores exceeding 45 indicate respondents can be characterized as victims of severe bullying in the workplace. (Notelaers & Einarsen, 2013;Petrović, Vukelić, & Čizmić (2017).…”

“…Several researchers (Berry et al, 2012;Castronovo et al, 2016;Johnson & Rea, 2009;Rodwell, Demir, & Flower, 2013;Wilson, 2016) have reported frequencies of bullying from 20% to up to 70% for nurses and 58% for leaders (Gilbert et al, 2016). Petrović, et al (2017) reported a mean NAQ -R score of 33.67 in a large sample (n = 1,998) of employees from varied private and public organizations in Serbia, and Charilaos et al (2015) reported a mean score of 34.8 in a sample of 265 primary and secondary school teachers in Athens and other regional areas in Greece. Thus, the prevalence of bullying in nursing leadership ranks, as demonstrated by the NAQ-R score of 39 for this study, is high in comparison with levels reported in some other settings.…”

Influence of Tunisian Revolution on Bullying at Work in Interns and Residents

“…Many practical and scientific studies have concluded to its validity and reliability on evaluating this phenomenon. It has also been validated in several countries of the world as a standardized instrument for assessment of moral harassment at work [9][10][11].…”