The chicken or the egg: cross-lagged relationships between person-environment misfit and workplace bullying

The current study examines the causal relationship between the different types of person-environment (P-E) misfit and both targets’ and perpetrators’ reports of workplace bullying. In line with the occupational stressor-strain model, we integrated P-E fit literature with workplace bullying research; where this phenomenon is seen as a form of a social-behavioral strain. We hypothesized that a low fit between the employee and his/her job (P-J), his/her work unit (P-G) as well as her/her organization (P-O) increases workplace bullying over time (i.e. normal causation). Based on scholars’ findings of reversed strain-stress relationships, we also tested a reversed causation where workplace bullying predicts low fit. Finally, we compared these two causal relationships with a reciprocal model in which both misfit and bullying influence each other over time. In all, this study adds to the literature by (1) being among the first to explore the combination of both personal and environmental factors as antecedents of workplace bullying by integrating the P-E fit theoretical lens, (2) applying a cross-lagged design which may indicate causality and (3) extending previous research on P-E fit theory by focusing on misfit and exploring its relation with workplace bullying using the recent multidimensional approach of fit theory. Our hypotheses were examined in a full panel two-wave longitudinal design of Belgian employees (N=333) with a time lag of one year. Preliminary results – in which we tested the manifest SEM model using AMOS 22 – revealed a reversed negative causal relationship between being a target of workplace bullying at Time 1 and P-G fit at Time 2. The other hypothesized relationships were not significant. These findings suggest that being a target of workplace bullying could be regarded as a possible cause of perceived misfit within the group instead of being its consequence. However, since these findings are preliminary, further analyses – applying a latent SEM – will also be presented at the symposium allowing us to compare the results and discuss them in view of theory and future research.status: publishe