Examining the Influence of Workplace Bullying on Job Burnout: Mediating Effect of Psychological Capital and Psychological Contract Violation

Abstract

Workplace Bullying (WB) is a general and severe issue on workplace in the current era resulting in adverse concerns for both employees and organizations. The issue of workplace bullying needs to be investigated on workplaces to identify the adverse effect on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. The study investigates the direct association between linking between workplace bullying and Job Burnout (JB); and indirect association through the mediation of Psychological Contract Violation (PCV) and Psychological Capital (PC). The data were collected by using purposive sampling technique from 310 nurses though self-administered questionnaires employed in public and private hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis was utilized for hypotheses testing. The outcomes demonstrate that workplace bullying is directly positively related to job burnout. In other words, employees who face the workplace bullying or being bullied experience the burnout. The findings also reveal that workplace bullying indirectly influence the JB through intervening role of PC and PCV. In other words, workplace bullying reduces psychological capital which result in job burnout among employees, and result in psychological contract violation which lead toward job burnout among employees. This study provided initial empirical evidence regarding the intervening effect of psychological capital and psychological contract violation between the relationship of workplace bullying and job burnout. The implications, limitations and future directions are also discussed.