Sharpening the “essence” of mobbing: An examination of constructive leadership behaviors and negative employee outcomes

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange and affective events theories, this study investigates the relationship between constructive leader behaviors—those associated with ethical, authentic, transformational, and transactional supervision—and employees’ experiences of withdrawal intentions and behaviors (intentions to leave the organization, absenteeism, job neglect, and organizational silence) by examining the mediating role of downward mobbing (DM). The investigation of the research model of this work relies on data (collected from 335 employees in varied workplace settings) and using structural equation modeling, this paper examines the postulated relationships. Results suggest that ethical, authentic, and transformational leadership are negatively related to employee experiences of withdrawal reactions through employee perceptions of being the victims of DM. Interestingly, transactional leadership is the sole significant predictors of DM. Additionally, it was revealed that exposure to DM triggers revenge type social exchanges through the appearance of psychological withdrawal behaviors: job neglect, organizational silence, as well as intentions to leave the organization. However, absenteeism is not related to mobbing, suggesting that mobbing targets choose to be psychologically rather than physically absent from work.