Bullying Behavior, Mediating Role of Employee Silence and their Effects on Organisational Citizenship Behavior: Evidence from Seven Iranian Metropolises

Abstract

Depending on dominant organisational conditions, various factors may affect the service quality and employees' willingness to behave positively. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of bullying behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) through employee silence. This is an applied-descriptive survey consisting of drivers (1820 in total) of private bus companies in seven Iranian metropolises. The statistical population was selected through simple random sampling. After that, questionnaires were distributed, and the collected data were analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM) in SPSS and AMOS. The results revealed the effect of bullying behaviour on employee silence and OCB. Moreover, bullying behaviour had a negative effect on OCB with the mediating role of employee silence. The analysis of employee silence can provide opportunities to prevent negative behaviours in the workplace. Since there is scant research literature on the role of employee silence in the relationship between bullying behaviour and OCB, addressing this issue can help to fill the existing research gap.