A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between role stressors and negative social climate at work

According to the work environment hypothesis of bullying, poor working conditions lead to bullying through the development of a negative social climate at work which fuels interpersonal conflict, of which bullying is an extreme example. In the present study, by adopting a full panel longitudinal design, we contribute to research in this area by testing whether role stressors – which are considered the main potential antecedents of bullying – predicted negative social climate at work (e.g. “At my work, the interpersonal climate is strained”) one year later once personal vulnerability factors have also been controlled for. Data were collected from a sample of 215 employees of the Italian national healthcare system by using an anonymous questionnaire. Structural equation modelling analysis showed that role stressors had a positive lagged effect on negative social climate at work. Personal vulnerability, which was measured in terms of mental distress, had also a lagged effect on negative social climate. The results indicate that role stressors are implicated in the creation (or intensification) of negative social climate at work, suggesting that the path from role stressors to bullying which is proposed by the work environment hypothesis may indeed be mediated by the escalation of interpersonal conflicts.