Workplace bullying in Serbia: The relation of self-labeling and behavioral experience with job-related behaviors

• Main Authors: Petrović Ivana B., Čizmić Svetlana, Vukelić Milica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Drustvo Psihologa Srbije 2014-01-01
• Series: Psihologija
• Subjects: workplace bullying; NAQ-R; self-labeling approach; behavioral experience approach
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0048-5705/2014/0048-57051402185P.pdf

Workplace bullying has been identified as a widespread problem in contemporary organizational research. The aim of the paper was to acquire theoretically based and comparable findings about workplace bullying in Serbia: to explore the behavioral experience and self-labeling approaches (applying the Negative Acts Questionnaire - Revised, NAQ-R) and their relationship with job-related behaviors. The sample comprised 1,998 employees. Prevalence rates of workplace bullying based on self-labeling and behavior experience approaches overlap significantly (70% of employees operationally identified as bullied had also labeled themselves as bullied). Both the self-labeling and behavioral experience approach showed significant correlations with job-related behaviors (perceived threat to a total job, absenteeism, intention to leave, and perceived productivity). Previously bullied, presently bullied and non-bullied employees differed significantly on all four job-related behaviors, with large effect size for the intention to leave and medium effect size for the perceived threat to a total job. The findings support combining self-labeling and behavioral experience approaches in workplace bullying research. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179018]