The Spiraling and Spillover of Misconduct: Perceived Workplace Bullying, Subclinical Psychopathy, and Businesspersons’ Recognition of an Ethical Issue

Abstract

Workplace bullying can potentially spiral into numerous counterproductive behaviors and negative organizational outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which increased perceptions of workplace bullying were associated with stronger expressions of (subclinical) psychopathic traits and weakened ethical decision making. Data were collected from national and regional samples of selling and business professions using a self-report questionnaire that contained relevant measures and an ethics scenario, and structural equation modeling was employed to investigate the proposed relationships. Findings indicated that perceived workplace bullying operated through psychopathy to influence the recognition of an ethical issue (or full mediation). The implications of these findings are discussed, along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.

Leader Power and Agency-Communion Orientations as Moderators of the Effects of Organizational Characteristics on Workplace Bullying

“…Workplace bullying can lead to tragic events ranging from the report of two separate airline accidents that resulted from flight crews that were afraid to question pilot decisions, to life threatening medical mistakes in the health care industry where the stress and fear created by bullying interfered with medical practices and procedures (Keashley & Neuman, 2004 ). Even when the effects are not catastrophic, they may still have a substantially negative impact on individual behaviors and organizational outcomes (e.g., Valentine et al, 2017 ). For instance, one survey of bullying targets indicated that more than half lost work time as a result of the bullying, more than one third reduced their commitment to the organization, more than one fourth lost work time trying to avoid the bully, nearly one fourth decreased their effort at work, and 12 percent changed jobs as a direct result of the bullying (Pearson et al, 2000 ).…”

Workplace bullying, socially aversive attitudes, reduced work group effectiveness, and organizational frustration

“…We investigated perceptions of workplace bullying in T1 with the five‐item Bergen Bullying Index (Einarsen et al, 1994), which has been used in past work (Matthiesen & Einarsen, 2007; Valentine et al, 2015, 2017). Sample items include ‘Bullying is a serious strain in my daily work’, and ‘Bullying at my workplace reduces my work motivation’.…”

“…Some research also suggests that elevated state forms of Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopathy in employees may be triggered by bullying and other ethics‐related contextual factors (Valentine et al, 2017, 2018; Valentine & Fleischman, 2018), leading to counterproductive tendencies and negative preferences. This is important, because it suggests that bullying precipitates socially aversive attitudes in others that may cause a downward spiral in the ethical environment.…”

“…), job performance, and creativity/innovation (Harvey et al, 2009; Vega & Comer, 2005a). Workplace bullying also creates noteworthy ethical issues (LaVan & Martin, 2008; Vega & Comer, 2005b), with some research indicating that perceived/reported bullying functions in concert with or through other individual and organizational factors to attenuate ethical decision‐making (Valentine et al, 2017, 2018; Valentine & Fleischman, 2018). Consequently, workplace bullying is often considered to be a serious ethical concern in organizations (Boddy, 2011; Samnani & Singh, 2016; Valentine et al, 2018).…”

“…To address these literature gaps and calls for additional work, this study employs the Samnani and Singh (2016) multi‐level, interactionist approach to workplace bullying, combined with social identity theory, to assess the capacity of workplace bullying to prompt a unique set of negative work outcomes (Figure 1). In particular, we assess the degree that perceived bullying is related to employees' socially aversive attitudes (i.e., distrust for others and a view that job success is political), which provides new insight into how the work context can influence individual perceptions and tendencies (Baysinger et al, 2014; Valentine et al, 2017, 2018; Valentine & Fleischman, 2018). This study also investigates the degree to which perceived bullying and socially aversive attitudes are related to work group effectiveness (i.e., cohesion and communication), addressing the need for new research that isolates how groups may be harmed by counterproductive behaviors and tendencies (Samnani & Singh, 2016).…”