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PurposeUsing the stressor‐strain model and media richness theory, this study seeks to investigate the relationship between receiving a harassing message via computer‐mediated communication and psychological health.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 492 individuals completed an online questionnaire. Three media characteristics are examined as potential moderators: media richness, anonymity of the harasser, and location where the victim received the harassing message.FindingsThe results suggest that virtual harassment is associated with diminished psychological health (both directly and mediated by fear of future harassment), and each media characteristic plays a role in understanding the level of fear of future harassment. Anonymity and location moderate the mediator's (fear) role in the stressor‐strain model.Research limitations/implicationsThis research addresses the need for explicit testing of the differentiating factors of various forms of workplace aggression as moderators. Specifically, media characteristics are relevant in the psychological experience of virtual harassment.Practical implicationsVirtual harassment appears to occur more frequently than face‐to‐face harassment, and often the two forms co‐occur. Implications for EAP counselors, computer usage and harassment policies are discussed.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine how media richness, anonymity and location of harassing message impacts the individual outcomes of workplace non‐sexual virtual harassment. The results indicate that, while related to face‐to‐face harassment, virtual harassment appears to have more nuanced considerations for both practitioners and researchers.

PurposeThis paper seeks to theorize the interpretations and reactions of targets and witnesses to subtle forms of bullying.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical approach was used to understand target and witness interpretations and reactions. Learned helplessness theory and social influence theory are drawn upon.FindingsThis paper revealed that subtle forms of bullying behaviors will be more likely to induce confusion from both targets and witnesses. Targets will tend to be more confused in response to subtle bullying and attribute environmental factors for the behaviors. This will decrease their likelihood to react against the bullying. Witnesses will also experience greater confusion and will tend to side with the perpetrator, particularly when the perpetrator is an important organizational member (e.g. supervisor). Witnesses may internalize the behaviors, leading to greater permeability of the bullying through the organization.Originality/valueThis paper sheds light on two important and under‐researched aspects of workplace bullying, i.e. subtle bullying behaviors and witnesses of bullying. This paper counter‐intuitively suggests that subtle bullying behaviors may in fact be more harmful to targets than explicit bullying behaviors. Also, witnesses may represent a "dark side" of bullying in which they enable the bullying to be increasingly difficult to defend against. This contributes to our understanding of the intensification of bullying.

PurposeThis study aims to examine sex and position status differences in the experience of workplace aggression. Based on the imbalance of power thesis, the aim is to posit that: women would report targeting other women; men would report targeting either sex; supervisors would report targeting a peer or subordinate; victims would report that a supervisor more often uses indirect forms of aggression; a peer more often uses direct forms of aggression; and; after controlling for position status, men would report using direct forms of aggression more often than women who, in turn, would report using indirect forms of bullying more often than men.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 180 Canadian supervisory and non‐supervisory workers from several industries completed a questionnaire that included measures of aggressive acts.FindingsMost men reported being targeted by another man, and most women reported being targeted by another woman. Similarly, most men reported that they targeted another man, and most women reported that they targeted another woman. Most respondents reported that their aggressor had either higher or the same position status as them, whereas, if the respondents targeted others, their victim had the same or lower status. Compared to similar status aggressors, higher status aggressors were reported by the respondents as using both direct and indirect forms of aggression more often. After controlling for position status, compared to women, men reported using both forms more often as well.Originality/valueThe findings have implications for how victims cope with workplace aggression and for developing organizational anti‐harassment policies.

The common practice of characterizing organizations as having a family environment assumes that organizational and family functioning constructs are conceptually congruent. To date, this assumption has not been examined in a systematic fashion. This study examined the congruence of organizational and family functioning concepts using the Work Environment Scales and the Beavers Self-Report Family Inventory in a sample of 204 government employees. A canonical correlation analysis found a moderate amount of shared variance between these two sets of data, suggesting that there may be an underlying congruence between work and family constructs. Additionally, specific dimensions of work unit climate and group conflict were predictive of equivalent family functioning dimensions. The implications of these findings for managers and organizational development practitioners are discussed.

The literature on organizational politics has focused on the proactive promotion of self-interests but has neglected the reactive defense of self-interests. Defensive behaviors are argued to: (1) avoid action, via over-conforming, passing the buck, playing dumb, depersonalizing, smoothing and stretching, and stalling, (2) avoid blame via buffing, playing safe, justifying, scapegoating, misrepresenting, and escalating commitment, and (3) avoid change via resisting change and protecting turf. Organizational antecedents of defensiveness include bureaucratic rationality and various stressors, and individual antecedents include insecurity and anxiety, emotional exhaustion, work alienation, self-monitoring, and low self-efficacy. The effects of defensiveness on the individual, recipients, and organization are discussed, and directions for future research are presented.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue that bullying is a gendered, rather than gender‐neutral, phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews empirical findings on gender and bullying and identifies and discusses theoretical frameworks that can provide explanations for identified gender differences.FindingsThe paper shows that there are gender differences not only in reported prevalence rates and forms of bullying, but that gender also matters for the way targets and third parties make sense of and respond to bullying. It is shown that gendered conceptions of power, gender role socialisation theory and social identity theory are all relevant for explaining reported gender differences.Research limitations/implicationsThe theoretical frameworks that have been selected should not be seen as exhaustive, but rather as useful examples. The authors encourage researchers in the field of bullying to pursue cross‐disciplinary research and actively apply existing theoretical frameworks to integrate their findings more firmly in existing research on related themes.Practical implicationsThe finding that bullying is gendered rather than gender‐neutral has implications above all for the way managers, organisational representatives and policy‐makers should address and prevent workplace bullying.Originality/valueThe paper questions the prevailing notion that bullying is gender‐neutral and demonstrates the importance of gender in the experience of workplace bullying. It further identifies gaps in research and puts forward an agenda for future research in this area.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test whether communal orientation is a moderator of the relationship between the experience of social undermining in project groups and both group member well‐being and group‐directed citizenship behaviours.Design/methodology/approachA survey was carried out of 184 student nurses from a Canadian university working in 41 groups in the local community on projects designed to deliver care to specific populations. Student nurses worked in project groups for ten weeks. They completed two surveys: one approximately two weeks into group membership; and the other approximately six weeks later.FindingsAs predicted, and controlling for survey one well‐being, student nurses who experienced social undermining early in the life of their group reported poorer well‐being at the end of their group membership than their counterparts. Furthermore, communal orientation moderated this relationship, in that this relationship only existed for those individuals high in communal orientation. Counter to this paper's prediction, there was no relationship between the experience of undermining early in the life of their group and student nurses' reports of group‐directed citizenship behaviours later in the life of the group.Research limitations/implicationsAll study measures were self‐report. Future researchers should attempt to collect information from other sources.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the literature on workplace aggression by reinforcing how critical it is to consider not only the nature of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, but also how individual differences affect the way an aggressive act is perceived.

PurposeThis introduction aims to highlight the special contributions made by the articles in this issue in understanding how emotions are implicated in the process of managing.Design/methodology/approachPresents a model as a means of framing the discussion of the articles included in this issue.FindingsArgues that emotions and emotional skills are essential for everyday managerial work and that the traditional stereotype of the exclusively rational manager has been replaced by one in which managers are expected to create and nourish positive relationships by effectively managing their own emotions and those of their employees.Practical implicationsManagers need to be aware of the impact that their expressed emotions have on their work units' emotional climate, their employees' emotions, their effectiveness as well as that of their employees, and the organization's overall success.Originality/valueThe paper offers insight into the emotions of managing.

Research on how the context of work affects HRM practices in general, and socialization practices in particular, is relatively scarce. The present study assesses a model linking context, socialization, and newcomer adjustment. Self-report data from business school graduates after 4 months (N = 295) and 10 months (N = 223) on the job revealed that mechanistic (vs. organic) structure, organization size, and jobs of high motivating potential were each positively associated with organizations' use of what Jones (1986) refers to as institutionalized socialization, and this form of socialization was positively associated with newcomer adjustment. Contrary to expectations, neither a newcomer's bureaucratic orientation nor growth need strength moderated the relationship between socialization and adjustment.

PurposeThis paper emphasizes that employee attributional processing is a vital element in understanding employee aggression in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to summarize attributional perspectives and integrate recent theoretical advances into a comprehensive model.Design/methodology/approachThe paper achieved its objectives by reviewing and integrating research and theories on aggression, cognitive processing, and attribution processes to explain how employee aggression unfolds in the workplace. Propositions are suggested.FindingsIt was found that early conceptualizations proposing that employee attributions and attribution styles would play important and significant roles in predicting employee aggression were supported by recent research enabling theoretical advancements.Originality/valueOver the last 15 years, research advances show how attributions influence employee aggression. This paper integrates recent theoretical advances with prior empirical evidence and provides a comprehensive model exhibiting how attributions influence aggression in the workplace.