Do Interpersonal Conflict, Aggression and Bullying at the Workplace Overlap? A Latent Class Modeling Approach.

Guy Notelaers,Morten Birkeland Nielsen,Hannes Guenter,Ståle Valvetne Einarsen,Beatrice Van Der Heijden

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01743

Abstract

In this paper, we tackle an important but unresolved research question: How distinct are workplace conflict, aggression and bullying? We study this question by means of latent class (LC) analysis using cross-industry data from 6,175 Belgian workers. We find a two-factor solution (conflict-aggression versus bullying) to provide the best fit to the data. Employees with low exposure to conflict-aggression and bullying perceived the phenomena as mostly overlapping. Employees who were exposed more frequently to the phenomena reported them to be more distinct - especially so for workplace bullying. We also find conflict-aggression and bullying to have distinct relationships with well-being and strain outcomes. These findings entail that a simple unifying approach or a single label for all three phenomena is not appropriate, at least from a measurement point of view and from the perspective of those exposed. Our results have important implications for the theoretical understanding of conflict, aggression and bullying, and for practitioners who provide support to affected employees including policymakers who help prevent and manage these problems at the workplace.

Highlights

Notwithstanding the enjoyment people experience from their job and the effort and engagement they put into it, work can have negative effects
To deal with the limitations mentioned above, and their resulting challenges, we propose the use of latent class cluster (LCC) and latent class factor (LCF) analysis
Our findings suggest that companies, at a minimum, would need to raise awareness for the potentially grave implications of conflict, aggression, and bullying and would need to design policies to help prevent those social stressors at work from occurring in the first place

Summary

Introduction

Notwithstanding the enjoyment people experience from their job and the effort and engagement they put into it, work can have negative effects. Social stressors at work like interpersonal conflict, aggression and workplace bullying have been found to have severe negative consequences for employees, organizations, and society, for example, by negatively affecting employee commitment, engagement, and health (Bowling and Beehr, 2006; Nielsen and Einarsen, 2012). Despite a lack of primary studies investigating conflict, aggression, and bullying in conjunction, meta-analytical evidence has provided support for the potential overlapping nature of these phenomena and some scholars have called for a unifying approach (Hershcovis, 2011; Hershcovis and Reich, 2013). The study provides insights for managers and HR practitioners as well as for law and policymakers on how to address, label and handle those social stressors at work

Results

Discussion

Conclusion