Workplace Bullying and Job Satisfaction: The Buffering Effect of Social Support

Abstract

Linkages between social support, incidents of workplace bullying, and job satisfaction have received limited attention in the workplace bullying literature. Hence, the purpose of this study is to contribute to this particular literature by examining (1) the relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction and (2) the moderating effect of social support on this relationship. A total of 249 Canadian workers from various organizations, in both private and public sector, took part in this study. As expected, results of this study showed that workplace bullying negatively affects job satisfaction. Furthermore, hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that social support is a moderator for the workplace bullying and job satisfaction relationship. This study provides clarity on some of the negative effects of workplace bullying. It also suggests that social support can protect workers from a particular damaging consequence of workplace bullying. Such support appears to function as a buffer for targets of workplace bullying by providing them with resources to cope with these types of difficult workplace situations. Implications from the findings and suggestions for future research are presented.

Bullying, mental health and absenteeism: A moderated mediation approach

“…Secondly, one of the contributions of our study is to clarify what form of support of social support (supervisor vs. colleagues) could moderate the effects of bullying. As in other studies (Carroll and Lauzier, 2014; Rossiter and Sochos, 2018) our results revealed that supervisor support significantly buffered the bullying effects. When a worker is bullied by colleagues, the supervisor can act to limit bullying and its consequences.…”

“…Being able to exercise control over the way they do their work allows workers to access the organizational resources that are useful to them. Such workers may also be able to modify social interactions so that they are less vulnerable to workplace bullying (Carroll and Lauzier, 2014; Djurkovic et al. , 2008; Rousseau et al.…”

“…Concerning the moderating effect of colleagues support, our results are more nuanced than those of some previous works. Some researchers have suggested that colleagues support could break the isolation of employees, and, consequently, moderate the supervisor bullying effects (Bowling and Beehr, 2006; Carroll and Lauzier, 2014). Unlike these studies, we found no significant moderating effect of colleagues support on the relationship between supervisor bullying and psychic troubles.…”

“…, 2011). Supervisory support was also found to moderate the relationship between bullying and job satisfaction (Carroll and Lauzier, 2014) and intention to leave (Srivastava and Agarwal, 2020). Using analyses of variance, Quine (2001) also showed that there were a moderating effects of social support for depression and intention to quit (but for anxiety the effect is non-significant).…”

“…According to our observations, supervisor support may protect employees from some of the detrimental consequences of bullying. Employers should therefore strive to create an organizational culture that fosters supportive leadership styles (Carroll and Lauzier, 2014). Our results also point to the need to provide adequate support to targets when bullying situations occur.…”