Understanding Workplace Cyberbullying: more than just an old problem in a new guise

Cyberbullying – aggressive behaviour occurring through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) (Smith et al., 2008) – has been substantially studied in research on childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood. However, despite the impressive body of research on cyberbullying amongst youngsters as well as on offline workplace bullying, studies in the work context have largely neglected its electronic counterpart. We aim to address these lacunae by (a) defining the workplace cyberbullying construct, (b) proposing an Emotion Reaction model to predict workplace cyberbullying occurrence and by (c) testing this model in different contexts (at work and at home), using different designs (cross-sectional and longitudinal) and analytical methods (structural equation modelling and multilevel modelling). Furthermore, in doing so, we account for the current gaps in the traditional bullying literature by (a) focusing on both targets and offenders in the cyberbullying process, by (b) investigating longitudinal processes and by (c) testing the model on both between-person and within-person level.

This PhD dissertation consists of five studies. In Study 1, we integrate insights from the literature regarding traditional workplace bullying, cyberbullying amongst youngsters, computer-mediated communication, and emotions in building the Emotion Reaction model (ERM) of workplace cyberbullying. In Study 2 we develop and validate a measure of workplace cyberbullying – the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work. In Study 3, we test the main propositions of the ERM regarding cyberbullying victimization on a between-person level. That is, we test the hypotheses that workplace stressors are associated with discrete negative emotions of sadness and fear, which in turn predict cyberbullying victimization. We also test whether this process is moderated by emotion regulation strategies of reappraisal and suppression. In Study 4, we investigate whether different groups of cyber-victims can be distinguished based on the negative acts they experience online and whether these groups have different associations with the emotion regulation strategies reappraisal and suppression. Finally, in Study5, we test the main propositions of the ERM regarding cyberbullying perpetration on a within-person level in dual-earner couples. That is, we test whether daily work stressors are associated with daily feelings of anger and whether the latter in turn predict daily antisocial behaviours online in working men and women. Throughout this dissertation, we find that stressor-evoked emotions play a crucial role in our understanding of the workplace cyberbullying phenomenon, both from the victim’s and the perpetrator’s perspective.