Abstract
Anxiety arising from workplace bullying is a key concern for job performance. Anxiety can explain the effects of workplace bullying: individuals may seek to deal with their anxiety by applying specific behaviors. However, anxiety research does not carefully distinguish between state anxiety and trait anxiety, and so the impact of anxiety in general has been seen as complex and contradictory. Individuals may respond to bullying and anxiety through “passive resistance” or by “swallowing the insult.” However, under what circumstances do individuals choose between these options? This paper summarizes the mechanisms of state anxiety and trait anxiety and uses cognitive balance theory to measure loss of self-control and the strategic choices. A moderated mediation model is presented for the relationship between workplace bullying and job performance using key variables of state anxiety and trait anxiety. Employee-supervisor pairs from 20 organizations and institutions from Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Hainan participated in a two-point longitudinal survey in 2019, 82.67% effective. Analysis verified that trait anxiety is the decisive perspective for choosing between “passive resistance” and “swallowing the insult.” This provides theoretical and practical contributions to psychology and organizational behavior research.
Highlights
Workplace bullying is a persistent series of mistreatments of others in the workplace
Participants were asked questions related to their own demographic information, workplace bullying, and trait anxiety, and their level of state anxiety was assessed a month later
This study reviewed the results of workplace bullying and its negative influence, and the theoretical basis for staff in choosing between “passive resistance” or “swallowing the insult” when faced with workplace bullying
Summary
Workplace bullying is a persistent series of mistreatments of others in the workplace. Through integration of ego depletion theory and cognitive balance theory, this paper investigates the choice between “passive resistance” and “swallowing the insult” by adopting trait anxiety as a moderating variable This deepens the research on the relationship between workplace bullying and employee job performance. Bullying events in organizational situations can be consistent with their stable anxiety experience They alleviate their sensitive response to negative information based on internal pressure, reduce state anxiety by reducing ego depletion, and reduce the negative effect on behavioral performance, so that they are more persistent with their goals and tasks (Moriya, 2018). The cognitive difference between the meaning of hostile attack through workplace bullying and the original psychological pattern induces intense discomfort, and subsequent ego depletion strengthens the individual’s inner sense of situational anxiety, undermines behavioral motivation (Magee et al, 2017), and involves deteriorating performance
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