The Longitudinal Effects of Organizational Change on Experienced and Enacted Bullying Behaviour

This paper investigates the relation between organizational change and enacted or experienced workplace bullying. We find that there is a longitudinal relation between organizational change and bullying behaviour and that this effect varies depending on the type of preceding organizational change (task-related or relational change). Task-related change predicts experienced bullying behaviours and relational change predicts enacted bullying behaviours. Within a relationistic process precipitation framework, we find that among moderators at the organizational level (leadership quality) and individual level (affectivity), only positive affectivity slightly moderates the relation between relational change and enacted bullying behaviours. The findings are relevant for the development of evidence-based strategies for the prevention of workplace bullying during different types of organizational change.