TY - JOUR
T1 - Daily work pressure and exposure to bullying-related negative acts
T2 - The role of daily transformational and laissez-faire leadership
AU - Ågotnes, Kari Wik
AU - Skogstad, Anders
AU - Hetland, Jørn
AU - Olsen, Olav Kjellevold
AU - Espevik, Roar
AU - Bakker, Arnold B.
AU - Einarsen, Ståle Valvatne
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - The present study integrates the work environment hypothesis and the effort-reward imbalance model to argue that work-related antecedents of workplace bullying are moderated by the day-to-day leadership practices of one's immediate leader. Specifically, we propose that individuals’ daily experiences of work pressure are positively related to their daily experiences of bullying-related negative acts. Moreover, we claim that this relationship is weaker on days when those individuals report high (vs. low) levels of transformational leadership behaviour, and stronger on days when they report high (vs. low) levels of laissez-faire leadership behaviour. To test these three hypotheses, we asked 61 naval cadets on a tall ship sailing from Northern Europe to North America to fill out a diary questionnaire for 36 days yielding 1509 observations. The results of multilevel analyses supported our hypothesis of a positive relationship of cadets’ daily reports of work pressure with their daily reports of bullying-related negative acts. In addition, laissez-faire leadership behaviour (but not transformational leadership behaviour) moderated the work pressure–bullying-related negative acts relationship. Our findings support the assumption that laissez-faire leadership is an important component in the development of conflict escalation and workplace bullying, while transformational leadership is not. We discuss theoretical as well as practical implications of these findings.
AB - The present study integrates the work environment hypothesis and the effort-reward imbalance model to argue that work-related antecedents of workplace bullying are moderated by the day-to-day leadership practices of one's immediate leader. Specifically, we propose that individuals’ daily experiences of work pressure are positively related to their daily experiences of bullying-related negative acts. Moreover, we claim that this relationship is weaker on days when those individuals report high (vs. low) levels of transformational leadership behaviour, and stronger on days when they report high (vs. low) levels of laissez-faire leadership behaviour. To test these three hypotheses, we asked 61 naval cadets on a tall ship sailing from Northern Europe to North America to fill out a diary questionnaire for 36 days yielding 1509 observations. The results of multilevel analyses supported our hypothesis of a positive relationship of cadets’ daily reports of work pressure with their daily reports of bullying-related negative acts. In addition, laissez-faire leadership behaviour (but not transformational leadership behaviour) moderated the work pressure–bullying-related negative acts relationship. Our findings support the assumption that laissez-faire leadership is an important component in the development of conflict escalation and workplace bullying, while transformational leadership is not. We discuss theoretical as well as practical implications of these findings.
KW - Bullying
KW - Laissez-faire leadership
KW - Negative acts
KW - Transformational leadership
KW - Work pressure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091688897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.emj.2020.09.011
DO - 10.1016/j.emj.2020.09.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85091688897
SN - 0263-2373
VL - 39
SP - 423
EP - 433
JO - European Management Journal
JF - European Management Journal
IS - 4
ER -
