The role of organizational change in the process leading to the development of bullying has received only little attention so far. The present longitudinal study aimed at filling this gap by examining a moderated mediation model through Structural Equation Modelling where the mediating effect of psychological strain in the relationship between workload and workplace bullying is moderated by the experience of organizational change. Data were available for 141 university employees (65.2% females). The moderating role of organizational change was tested through the multi-group method by including in the analysis two groups of employees of the same organization: employees who directly experienced organizational change (e.g. change of job tasks and supervisor) and employees who were not involved in organizational change. Bootstrap test of the indirect effects provided evidence of a mediating effect of strain in the relationship between workload and workplace bullying in the group of employees who directly experienced the organizational change process. Implications and limitations of the obtained results are discussed, together with suggestions for future research.

Introduction

Workplace bullying represents a severe form of harassment in organizations and it is considered an extreme type of social stressor at work (Zapf, 1999). Specifically, it can be defined as repeated behaviours that occur over a period of time which harass, offend, socially exclude and/or adversely affect the work of an employee (e.g., Einarsen et al., 2003; Moayed et al., 2006). Research has shown a relationship between exposure to workplace bullying and negative health effects, such as higher levels of psychological distress (e.g., Agervold and Mikkelsen, 2004), poorer general health (e.g. Høgh et al., 2011; Vignoli et al., 2015), and mental health problems (e.g. Nielsen and Einarsen, 2012). Moreover, research has reported evidence of a relationship between workplace bullying and increased absenteeism (Nielsen and Einarsen, 2012), decreased organizational commitment (Hoel and Cooper, 2000), and job satisfaction (e.g. Nielsen and Einarsen, 2012; Moayed et al., 2006). Factors predicting workplace bulling include, beside personality traits and demographic characteristics of victims and perpetrators (e.g. Nielsen and Knardahi, 2015; Salin, 2015), work and organizational aspects, such as job stressors and poor environmental conditions (e.g., Agervold and Mikkelsen, 2004; Notealers et al., 2013). Despite some steps towards a better comprehension of workplace bullying have been done, research on the development of the phenomenon still needs to advance (Balducci et al., 2011). In particular, research on the potential role of stressful and frequent organizational situations, such as workload and work intensity and organizational change, is scant. For example, although several authors referred to organizational change as one of the potentially most important causes of workplace bullying, only few empirical studies have explicitly focused on this relationship (e.g. Baillien and De Witte, 2009; Baron and Neuman, 1996; Skogstad et al., 2007). The theoretical assumption from which the current study starts is the well-known ‘work environment hypothesis’ on the development of bullying (Einarsen, 2000; Leymann, 1996), according to which a poorly organized work environment may fuel the conditions (e.g., a conflicting work climate) that are implicated in the development of bullying. However, the mechanism linking a poor work environment to bullying has been rarely explored empirically.