When workplace bullying goes online: construction and validation of the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work (ICA-W)

ABSTRACT

There has been an increase in the use of Information Communication Technologies in the workplace. This change extends the scope of bullying behaviours at work to the online context. However, a generally accepted measure of workplace cyberbullying is still lacking. The purpose of the present paper is to construct and validate the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work, in order to contribute to this emerging field. Building on existing knowledge, we expected three types of cyberbullying behaviours to emerge in the work context: person related, work related and intrusive. First, the items of the scale were constructed and the three-dimensional structure of the scale was tested in two different samples. Then, the reliability and the convergent validity of the scale were assessed. Finally, we tested the predictive validity of the scale by assessing the impact of exposure to cyberbullying acts at work to individuals’ mental well-being six months later. Our analyses confirmed the three-dimensional structure of the scale. In addition, the scale was found reliable and valid. The construction of this scale offers an avenue for further research on cyberbullying in the work context.

KEYWORDS:

• Workplace cyberbullying
• workplace bullying
• scale
• validation
• measurement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [G.0335.14N].