The effect of team factors on workplace bullying in team

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of workplace bullying, a magnifying issue in various local organizations, at the individual and the team level, and to examine the effects of distributive fairness and competitive climate on workplace bullying. The study also examined whether effects of the antecedents show different patterns by team-level power imbalance, which indicates the interaction effect on bullying in the workplace in terms of the locus of level. The data was collected from 175 team members of 33 teams. In order to test the research hypotheses, WABA (Within And Between Analysis) was used as a multilevel analysis and the interaction effect of power imbalance was analysed by Multiple Relation Analysis (MRA) of the WABA. Results showed that the relationship between fairness and bullying primarily existed at both the team and individual levels, and the competitive climate was related with bullying at the team level. Interaction effects of power imbalance were also significant, making the effects of antecedents locate at different level. The fairness of evaluation is high at the team level when the power imbalance is low, whereas the competitive climate showed a relationship at the individual level when the power imbalance is high. Based on the results, the study provided theoretical and practical implications.