AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF A CAUSAL MODEL OF WORKPLACE BULLYING IN SENIOR REGISTERED NURSES

Abstract

Workplace bullying is a significant problem in nursing organizations. Senior registered nurses (RNs) are vulnerable to bullying in the workplace. The objectives of the study were to explore perceptions of workplace bullying among senior RNs and to test the causal relationship between the antecedents of workplace bullying at the organizational level (organization culture and authentic leadership) and at the individual level (nursing competence), and the consequences of workplace bullying (symptom experience and burn-out). A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to recruit a sample of 288 RNs from four regional hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. The Thai version of Negative Acts Questionnaire was used to measure workplace bullying and other self-report questionnaires were used to collected data. Descriptive statistic and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used analyzed the data.

The results indicated that 13.54% (39/288) of senior nurses reported that they had experienced workplace bullying. The modification of the hypothesized model fit the data well (χ2 = 159.006, df = 137, p = .096 and RMSEA = 0.024). This modified model showed that organizational culture had a negative direct effect on workplace bullying (β = -0.356, p < .05) and nursing competence had a negative direct effect on workplace bullying (β = -0.641, p < .05), but authentic leadership had no effect on workplace bullying. Workplace bullying had a positive direct effect on symptom experience (β = 0.667, p < .001) and on burn-out (β = 0.42, p < .001). Symptom experience has a positive direct effect on burn-out (β = 0.554, p < .001). This study demonstrates the relationship between antecedents of workplace bullying and to consequences. The findings can be used by nurse administrators to develop strategies for preventing workplace bullying by focusing on organizational culture and nursing competence.

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