Do Personal Dispositions Affect the Relationship Between Psychosocial Working Conditions and Workplace Bullying?

Abstract

There is scarce research on the interaction between psychosocial working conditions and being a target of workplace bullying with individual characteristics as a moderator. We therefore examined 3,363 employees from 60 Danish workplaces to test whether sense of coherence moderates the relationship between the job demand-control model and bullying. This work is exploratory in nature, as no previous study to assess this moderation was found. Hierarchical linear regressions showed that demand-control model was significantly associated with bullying. Sense of coherence displayed a significant though practically negligible moderating effect. This suggests that negative psychosocial working conditions are associated with bullying independently of personal characteristics, at least in terms of sense of coherence.

Keywords:

• job demand-control model
• sense of coherence
• workplace bullying

FUNDING

The Working Environment Research Foundation (j.nr. 20050072524/4) and the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark, supported the study. We thank Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen for her contribution in the collection of the data employed in the present study, and we are grateful to Jeremy F. Dawson for his statistical contribution.

Additional information

Funding

The Working Environment Research Foundation (j.nr. 20050072524/4) and the National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Denmark, supported the study. We thank Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen for her contribution in the collection of the data employed in the present study, and we are grateful to Jeremy F. Dawson for his statistical contribution.