Date
12-19-2024
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Laura Belier
Keywords
Workplace Bullying, Organizational Commitment, Virtual vs Traditional Workplaces
Disciplines
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Bartholomew, Christa Lynn, "The Relationship Between Workplace Bullying and Organizational Commitment: Virtual v. Traditional Working Environment" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 6391.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/6391
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between workplace bullying and organizational commitment in a virtual workplace compared to a traditional workplace. The importance of conducting this study was due to workplace bullying having serious implications on physical health, psychological health, family conflict, burnout, and intentional turnover which can have an effect on organizational commitment. A survey utilizing the Negative Acts Questionnaire (Einarsen et al., 1991) and the Organizational Commitment Scale (Balfour and Wechsler, 1996) was distributed to a total sample size of 83 participants. Participants in this study were between the ages of 22-65 years old with the mean age being 42.71 years of age. Hypothesis 1 was not supported, a Chi-Square was utilized and found that there was no significant difference in the amount of workplace bullying taking place in a virtual and traditional working environment.X(2) = .071, p = .965). A Two-way ANOVA was used in order to analyze the interaction between workplace bullying levels and organizational commitment. The results indicated no significant interaction between workplace bullying and working environment F(2,77 = .710, p = .495) for Identification Commitment. For Affiliation Commitment, there no significant interaction between workplace bullying and working environment F(2,77 = .449, p = .640). For Exchange Commitment: there was a significant interaction between workplace bullying and working environment F(2,77 = 3.54, p = .034). For medium levels of workplace bullying, virtual workers had lower levels of exchange commitment than in-office workers, and both virtual and in-office workers with high levels of bullying had low levels of exchange commitment. Employees experiencing low levels of bullying reported higher levels of organizational commitment on all three subscales (ps < .001). The data formulated from this study may add to current research and has the potential to aid organizations in minimizing workplace bullying and maximizing organizational commitment.
