Workplace Bullying, Job Burnout, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Moderating Effect of Core Self-Evaluations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between an employee’s exposure to workplace bullying and his or her experienced job burnout and participation in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). In addition to the direct relationships between workplace bullying and the two criterion variables, core self-evaluations was examined as a moderator. Responses to an online survey from 281 participants were analyzed using Pearson correlations and hierarchical multiple regression correlation analyses. Results indicated a strong direct relationship between workplace bullying and exhaustion and cynicism, a moderately strong direct relationship between workplace bullying and professional efficacy, and a weak direct relationship between workplace bullying and OCB-O (OCBs directed towards the organization). The addition of core self-evaluations as a moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying and each of the job burnout dimensions yielded significant results for the exhaustion dimension. The addition of core self-evaluations as a moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying and each dimension of OCB did not yield significant results. It is concluded that workplace bullying leads to higher levels of job burnout and reduced levels of engagement in OCB-O and that core self-evaluations mitigates the negative effects of workplace bullying on exhaustion. Explanations and implications of these findings are discussed