HEAD Workplace Bullying and Social Identity Keeping A Distance : Social Identity , Workplace Bullying , and Job Satisfaction

Workplace bullying has been widely researched due to the negative effects it has on employees’ psychological well-being and job satisfaction (Bowling & Beehr, 2006). At the same time, social identity theory has been applied to the study of work place bullying as a potential means to understand and reduce the experience of it. In this study, participants (N = 65) took part in an online questionnaire where experiences of bullying, social identity, and job satisfaction were measured. Analyses indicated that social identity fully mediates the association between bullying and job satisfaction, such that experience of workplace bullying leads to a reduction in social identification, and a resultant increase in job satisfaction. The implications of these findings for a social identity account of workplace bullying, and the ways in which these findings might inform workplace anti-bullying interventions are discussed. Workplace Bullying and Social Identity 3 Keeping the Distance: Social Identity, Workplace Bullying, and Job Satisfaction Workplace bullying has become a widely researched area due to the publicity it has received through media exposure of single and multiple cases from employees who have been mistreated in their organisation (e.g., Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2003). The phenomenon was originally coined by Leymann (1990), who found that bullying in the workplace was similar to bullying behaviours among children in the playground. This led to increased research on the prevalence rates of bullying in organisations. It is considered an extreme stressor at work (Zapf, Knorz & Kulla, 1996) which costs companies millions of pounds a year as a result of low productivity, high turnover, absences and sickness (Samnani & Singh, 2012). Further, a meta-analysis by Bowling & Beehr (2006) found that there was a negative association between experiencing bullying at work and job satisfaction. It is now clear that reduction of bullying at work would be beneficial to employees and to organizations. Another vein of research in a social identity framework has shown that increased social identification with a workplace leads to increased well-being (Cruwys, Haslam, Dingle, Haslam, & Jetten, 2014). Accordingly, this paper will explore the role of social identification with colleagues as a mediator of the relationship between workplace bullying and job satisfaction. Workplace bullying Workplace bullying is defined as a range of repeated (at least once a week) negative acts that are directed at one or more individuals over time (minimum of six months), who typically cannot defend themselves (Rodriguez-Munoz et al., 2009; Einarsen, et al., 2003). These acts are often unwanted by the target, and may be carried out either consciously or unconsciously, which can lead to disruption of job performance, distress, humiliation and an unpleasant working environment (Einarsen Workplace Bullying and Social Identity 4 & Raknes, 1997). According to Einarsen and colleagues (2003), power imbalance plays a central feature in workplace bullying as it can appear between people in different positions namely; between individuals, between managers and subordinates, and between groups and an individual. Therefore, it can be regarded as distinct from one-time acts of aggression and conflicts as behaviours are persistent throughout a longer period of time (Tepper & Henle, 2011). Bullying has previously been measured using the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) which includes measurement of excessive monitoring of workload, and undermining and humiliation, without explicitly labelling the behaviours as “bullying” per se (Einarsen, Raknes & Matthiesen, 1994). The current study will be using a revised version of the NAQ (NAQ-R) from Einarsen, Hoel & Notelaers’s (2009) study to measure workplace bullying as the items specifically measure workplace bullying from a factor analysis that was conducted in their study. Workplace bullying and Well-being Workplace bullying has been found to have detrimental effects on well-being such as mental and physical health (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012), emotional exhaustion (Tuckey & Neall, 2014), and job satisfaction (Carroll & Lauzier, 2014). In line with previous research, it is predicted here that individuals who experience bullying will show less job satisfaction compared to individuals who have not experienced workplace bullying (Einarsen, Matthiesen & Skogstad, 1998). Carroll & Lauzier (2014) carried out a questionnaire study on 249 Canadian workers and found that workplace bullying negatively affected job satisfaction. It would suggest that workplace bullying can be regarded as one of the main stressors in the work environment as it has been found to have detrimental effects on satisfaction at work Workplace Bullying and Social Identity 5 and, increased employee intention to leave resulting in higher turnover within organisations (Glambek, Matthiesen, Hetland & Einarsen, 2014). Here we will measure job satisfaction as an important indicator of well-being, using. The Role of Social Identification The central element to the current study is that the link between bullying and job satisfaction may be affected by social identification. According to Social Identity Theory, (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) people acquire a significant part of their self-esteem not only based on their individual characteristics, but also, as members of different social groups. People are motivated to establish and maintain a positive social identity through comparing similarities and differences with out-groups to which they do not belong. Tajfel & Turner (1979) further suggested that the more individuals identify with the group identity the more motivated they become to behave in a way that represents their group identity. It is further suggested that organisations create and maintain formal groups that are given goals, tasks, and responsibilities which represent salience for people within groups based on similarities and social needs (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Haslam, Jetten & Waghorn (2009) asked 30 participants from two production teams in a theatre company to participate in a longitudinal questionnaire study on five different occasions from the audition stage to post performances. They found that high identification with the workgroup predicted lower levels of burnout during times of stress. This suggests that support from work colleagues and increased self-esteem from being part of a group may help to reduce some of the symptoms felt from work related stress, such as bullying. On the other hand, decreased identification with the workgroup and organisation can result in higher intention to leave the organisation (Glambek et al. 2014). Workplace Bullying and Social Identity 6 Further evidence for the positive impact of social identification at work comes from McNeill, Kerr & Mavor (2014), who found that there is a strong association between group membership and well-being whilst studying the perceived group norms of medical students. They found that there was a positive correlation between identification and xxxxxx. However, they found that medical students were reluctant to seek help if they were experiencing stress and mental health problems as this was perceived as a weakness because medical students perceive high resilience to be a normative trait of a medical student (Chew-Graham, Rogers & Yassin, 2003). This suggests that high identification with a group can result in reduced well-being due to unhealthy choices made in order to be consistent with group norms. Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) has already been used as an antecedent of experiencing bullying to explain when individuals may be targets of bullying behaviours. One suggestion is that how much one identifies with a group can predict being a target of bullying, as individuals who are viewed as being distinct from their group members can be perceived as a member of the out-group rather than the ingroup (Alexander, MacLaren, O’Gorman & Taheri, 2012). In support of this, Escartin et al. (2012) found in their questionnaire study that individuals who identified strongly with their group were less likely to be targets of bullying within their own group and also other groups. However, an alternative hypothesis to the one given above is that experience of bullying has an effect on social identification. In other words, bullying is predictive of changes in one's social identification. This hypothesis is in line with research showing that group identification can be an important outcome of intergroup processes, and reflects (among other things) how committed individuals are to the group (e.g., Doosje, Spears, & Workplace Bullying and Social Identity 7 Ellemers, 2002). An event that has positive implications for group identity (e.g., when the ingroup or an ingroup member acts in a norm-consistent manner) may lead ingroup members to report higher levels of identification (e.g., Kessler & Hollbach, 2005; cf. ‘basking in reflected glory’, Cialdini et al., 1976). Conversely, an event that has negative implications for group identity (e.g., when an ingroup or ingroup member acts in a counter-normative manner, or when an ingroup compares unfavourably to an outgroup) can result in less strong identification with the ingroup (Ellemers, 1993; Kessler & Hollbach, 2005; cf. ‘cutting off reflected failure’, Cialdini & Richardson, 1980). Similarly, Matschke and Sassenberg (2010) showed that in the face of negative group-relevant events group members use individual strategies of exit from or integration with the group, depending on their internal motivation to belong to the group. In this respect, experience of bullying might lead to a decrease in social identification with the work group (Glambek et al., 2014). Glambek et al. (2014) conducted a longitudinal questionnaire study on Norwegian offshore workers and found that workplace bullying significantly predicted job insecurity and the inten