Workplace mistreatment refers to employee behaviour that falls outside accepted norms, involving engagement in negative actions or refraining from positive actions towards colleagues. Regular occurrences of incivility, social undermining, and bullying can create a perceived mistreatment culture (PMC) that negatively impacts occupational health. According to the conservation of resources theory, individuals are motivated to acquire, maintain, and protect their psychological, cognitive, and physical resources. The loss of resources can cause psychological distress and hinder coping with job demands. In organizations with uncivil norms, employees exert effort to make sense of events, maintain vigilance, and devise strategies to counter mistreatment. These deplete their sense of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (i.e., psychological capital; PsyCap). Therefore, it is hypothesized that PMC decreases PsyCap, leading to diminished affective well-being and heightened burnout and physical symptoms of distress. In a three-wave longitudinal study involving 490 full-time employees in the education sector in Hong Kong, China, data were collected at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Structured questionnaires assessed PMC, PsyCap, job-related affective well-being, burnout, and physical symptoms. Mediation analysis examined the direct and indirect effects. PMC at T1 was negatively associated with PsyCap at T2, which was positively associated with affective well-being at T3, and negatively associated with burnout and physical symptoms at T3. PMC showed significant indirect effects on affective well-being, burnout, and physical symptoms through PsyCap, controlling for baseline scores and demographics. The results suggest that workplace mistreatment culture detrimentally impacts employees’ occupational health by depleting PsyCap.

Authors:
Henry C. Y. Ho, The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Ming Ming Chiu, The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Angel N. M. Leung, The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Jianbin Li, The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Kai Tak Poon, The Education University of Hong Kong, China
Dannii Y. Yeung, City University of Hong Kong, China

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Henry Ho is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

Bookmark