Abstract
In line with the work environment hypothesis, interpersonal conflict has been proposed as an important antecedent of workplace bullying. However, longitudinal studies on this relationship have been scarce. The aim of this study was to examine whether co‐worker conflict predicted new cases of self‐reported workplace bullying 2 years later and whether laissez‐faire leadership moderated this relationship. In a sample of 1,772 employees, drawn from the Norwegian working population, the hypotheses that co‐worker conflict increased the risk of subsequently reporting being a victim of workplace bullying and that laissez‐faire leadership strengthened this relationship were supported. This study empirically supports the work environment hypothesis by showing that co‐worker conflict within a true prospective research design is a source of new cases of bullying and that the lack and avoidance of leadership, through the enactment of a laissez‐faire leadership style, likely is a main source for co‐worker conflict to develop into workplace bullying.
Highlights
Negative social events are claimed to affect people more strongly than do positive events (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001)
Positive correlations were found for both T1 co‐worker conflict and T2 laissez‐faire leadership with T2 self‐labelled workplace bullying
We only found a significant relationship between co‐worker conflict and bullying for respondents who perceived their immediate supervisor as portraying a laissez‐faire leadership style
Summary
Negative social events are claimed to affect people more strongly than do positive events (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001). Studies of such events should have high relevance in organisational research An example of such negative events at work is exposure to workplace bullying, which has been established as a prevalent social stressor with severe detrimental outcomes for exposed employees, organisations, and the society at large (Hauge, Skogstad, & Einarsen, 2010; Hoel & Cooper, 2000; Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012). Handle, and treat cases of workplace bullying in the organisation, we first need a better understanding of organisational antecedents and mechanisms that explain how and when bullying arises, develops, and impacts those exposed These mechanisms are not very well understood above the fact that bullying is related to interpersonal conflict and high levels of demands and role stressors in the work environment (Baillien, Bollen, Euwema, & De Witte, 2014; Salin & Hoel, 2011; Skogstad, Einarsen, Torsheim, Aasland, & Hetland, 2007). We change the focus from leaders as perpetrators of bullying to leaders ignoring their subordinates and add to the present sparse empirical knowledge about how the omission of adequate leadership behaviour may play a vital role in how co‐worker conflicts may develop into workplace bullying
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