Abstract
Workplace bullying is a significant cause of stress at work. Existing studies, primarily based on Western-oriented frameworks and instruments, have largely overlooked the role of culture. This oversight questions whether understandings generated from those studies can be generalised to employees working in Eastern countries, which differ on important cultural dimensions. To date, there is no Eastern-based instrument for measuring workplace bullying. In two studies, we developed and validated such a measure: the Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI). Study 1 entailed a content validation of bullying behaviours via written records (diaries) completed by Malaysian bullying victims. The 19 validated behaviours formed the basis of Study 2, with additions from the wider literature. Study 2 used survey data collected at three time-points from Malaysian employees exposed to bullying at work. The final result was an 18-item scale with two nine-item factors: work-related bullying and person-related bullying. Overall, the MWBI is a psychometrically sound measure of workplace bullying in Eastern workplaces.
Highlights
Workplace bullying is a major work stressor
The aim of this study was to develop and validate a bullying tool which could be applied within multi-cultural Eastern society–the Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI)
All participants reported that they have been requested to do work which is supposed to be done by other coworkers Table 1 shows the number of episodes of bullying, positions of perpetrators, and frequencies of exposure according to the targets and witnesses from Study 1
Summary
Workplace bullying is a major work stressor. Many studies have been conducted to investigate issues relating to workplace bullying. It is unwise to assume, that the dominant understanding and ways of measuring workplace bullying are applicable to employees and organisations in Eastern countries. The understanding of ‘I love my job’ differs amongst employees from different countries [3, 4]. While this statement would be common among English native speakers, in Spain [4] and Malaysia [5] the word ‘love’ refers to people
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