Citation

Salin D. Scand. J. Psychol. 2014; 56(1): 69-77.

Affiliation

Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland and Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Scandinavian Psychological Associations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sjop.12169

PMID

25330234

Abstract

Workplace bullying has been shown to be a severe social stressor at work, resulting in high costs both for the individuals and organizations concerned. The aim of this study is to analyze risk factors in a large, nationally representative sample of Finnish employees (n = 4,392). The study makes three important contributions to the existing literature on workplace bullying: first, it demonstrates the role of the physical work environment alongside the psychosocial work environment - employees with a poor physical work environment are more likely than others to report having been subjected to or having observed bullying. Second, contrary to common assumptions, the results suggest that performance-based pay is associated with a lower, rather than higher risk of bullying. Third, the findings suggest that there are gender differences in risk factors, thereby constituting a call for more studies on the role of gender when identifying risk factors. Increased knowledge of risk factors is important as it enables us to take more effective measures to decrease the risk of workplace bullying.

Language: en