A 1-year longitudinal study on experiencing workplace cyberbullying, affective well-being and work engagement of teachers: The mediating effect of cognitive reappraisal

Research on experiencing workplace cyberbullying (WCB) and its underlying mechanisms that impact the well-being of teachers is scarce. We propose that cognitive reappraisal, which is a useful and adaptive emotion-regulation strategy for reinterpreting emotion-eliciting situations, is a mediator explaining the inverse relationships between experiencing WCB and well-being. A three-wave longitudinal survey (baseline, T1; 3 months, T2; and 1 year, T3) was conducted with a sample of 444 primary and secondary schoolteachers in Hong Kong, China. Exposure to WCB, cognitive reappraisal, affective well-being and work engagement of participants was assessed. In line with the hypotheses, results showed that cognitive reappraisal mediated the associations between WCB and well-being. WCB at T1 was negatively associated with cognitive reappraisal at T2, which in turn was positively associated with positive affect and work engagement and negatively associated with negative affect at T3. Findings suggest that the intrusive nature of WCB renders its victims emotionally exhausted and helpless, thus negatively impacting the process to reinterpret the situation in a positive light, resulting in undesirable consequences. This study has illuminated WCB's inhibitory mechanism and its long-term detrimental impact. Practical implications are discussed.

Consequences of Enterprise Social Media Network Positions for Employees

Employees often use enterprise social media (ESM) for communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, leading to ESM networks–that is, social networks of interrelated employees based on ESM. Many organizations possess ESM networks, and there is increasing research on their consequences for employees depending on how these employees are positioned in such networks. ESM network research is complex and consists of various interrelated dimensions. However, a synthesis of the abovementioned studies is lacking. Therefore, the current body of knowledge may obfuscate how the different dimensions interrelate, impeding a more holistic understanding of the consequences that employees may experience depending on their network positions. Moreover, there is little understanding of which research topics in this area have been addressed to date and where further research is needed. This paper addresses these gaps by means of a literature review and research agenda that synthesizes past studies. The results emphasize that whether ESM are beneficial for and exert a positive influence on employees largely depends on the employees’ positions in the underlying networks.

Suffering doubly: Effect of cyberbullying on interpersonal deviance and dual mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and anger

Research on employee harassment, in the form of workplace bullying, has increased over the past decade. However, there is little research on the prevalence and impact of cyberbullying, a type of cyber-related violence in the workplace. Thus, it would be interesting to examine the impact of cyberbullying on interpersonal deviance through the serial mediating effect of emotional exhaustion and anger. Drawing from the conservation of the resource theory and the affective event theory, this proposed study clarifies the mediating effects of emotional exhaustion and anger. The time lag approach was used to collect the data from the sample of 385 employees in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. By employing SPSS and PLS, bootstrapping was performed to conduct the mediation analysis. Findings indicated that workplace cyberbullying increased interpersonal deviance by enhancing emotional exhaustion and anger. The current research contributes to the literature by considering the behavioral outcomes of workplace cyberbullying with the practical implications for human resource practitioners.

Prevalence, characteristics, and psychological outcomes of workplace cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan: a cross-sectional online survey

Background

The rapid introduction of teleworking due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has led to concerns about increases in cyberbullying (CB) worldwide. However, little is known about workplace CB in non-Western countries. The first objective was to clarify the prevalence and characteristics regarding workplace CB victimization in Japan. The second objective was to demonstrate the psychological outcomes of CB victimization in combination with traditional bullying (TB).

Methods

We conducted an anonymous, cross-sectional, Internet-based survey targeting regular employees in Japan (N = 1200) in January 2021. We investigated CB victimization using the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work and TB victimization by using the Short Negative Act Questionnaire. Possible explanatory factors for TB/CB victimization were sociodemographic variables, personality trait, chronic occupational stress, organizational climate, and gratitude at work. We also measured psychological distress, insomnia, and loneliness to assess adverse effects of workplace bullying. Two-step cluster analysis was used in determining the patterns combined with TB and CB victimization. Hierarchical binomial logistic regression analysis was used.

Results

In total, 8.0% of employees reported experiencing CB on a weekly basis. CB victimization was associated with younger age, managerial position, higher qualitative workload, and active information dissemination via the Internet, and frequency of teleworking. Three clusters based on TB and CB victimization patterns were identified: those who belong to the first cluster suffered neither from TB and CB (81.0%), the second cluster suffered only from TB (14.3%), and the third cluster suffered from both TB and CB (4.8%). The third cluster exhibited higher odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for psychological distress (OR = 12.63, 95% CI = 4.20–38.03), insomnia (OR = 6.26, 95% CI = 2.80–14.01), and loneliness (OR = 3.24, 95% CI = 1.74–6.04) compared to the first cluster.

Conclusions

These findings firstly clarify the prevalence and correlated factors of CB victimization among employees in Japan. Further, we showed that psychological wellbeing can be impaired by the coexistence of TB and CB. Our research could be the first step to develop the effective countermeasures against workplace CB.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13481-6.