A Prospective Study of Employee Response to Bullying in a Workplace Environment: Does Assertiveness Actually Help or Hurt?

Abstract

The aim of the present two-wave prospective study was twofold: (1) to identify the role of assertiveness in exposure to workplace bullying and (2) to determine causal and reverse causal long-term associations between workplace bullying exposure, working conditions and assertiveness. In the present two-wave panel design study (N = 128), with a six-month lag, high assertiveness predicted exposure to bullying. Furthermore, in line with the work environment hypothesis, the results indicate that negative workplace conditions in the first wave led to workplace bullying exposure. The findings suggest that assertive communication may be inappropriate in the case of workplace bullying. As such, we argue that functional assertiveness could be useful.