Cyberbullying and the workplace: an analysis of job satisfaction and social self-efficacy

Relatively little research has been devoted to understanding the implications of adult cyberbullying on workers. However, recent research has begun to focus on how cyberbullying affects adults and results has indicated cyberbullying has negative implications for job satisfaction of workers. This study set out to investigate the impact of cyberbullying in the workplace by examining the relationship between cyberbullying and both job satisfaction and social self-efficacy.

In this study, 205 participants were recruited through the online data-collection service Mechanical Turk (MTurk). A link to the survey was posted on the MTurk website and the survey collected data on participants’ experiences with workplace cyberbullying, perceived social self-efficacy, and overall job satisfaction. The results suggested cyberbullying was negatively related to social self-efficacy. In other words, the more individuals were exposed to cyberbullying in the workplace the less confident they were in their ability to engage in social interactional tasks necessary to maintain interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, the results suggested social self- efficacy was negatively related to job satisfaction and served as a mediator in the relationship between cyberbullying and job satisfaction. In this study being cyberbullied led to lower social self-efficacy, and having lower social self-efficacy was associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. These results provide some preliminary information on the role of cyberbullying in workers’ lives and offer information for counselors who may be working with individuals who use social media regularly in their workplaces.