The Organizational Context of Supervisory Bullying: Diversity/Equity and Work-Family Policies

Abstract

The impact of harmful social relations in the workplace, such as workplace bullying, has become abundantly clear to the social sciences. However, data limitations have prevented researchers from fully examining the organizational component of workplace bullying. Using a sample of linked-employer-employee data collected from the German working population, this paper shows how the interaction of organizational attributes and individual characteristics of workers (specifically, gender) is associated with how workplace bullying manifests itself. A series of diversity/equity and work-family policies are examined. Results show that some programs, but not all, are associated with workplace bullying. More frequent organizational use of mentoring programs for women is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying, while more frequent use of work-family policies is associated with higher levels of supervisory bullying in cases where the employee and supervisor are different genders.