The Impact Of Workplace Bullying On Employees’ Workplace Loneliness: The Serial Mediating Role Of Social Anxiety And Fear Of Negative Evaluation

Abstract

Workplace bullying has grown in many professions and has various negative effects, of which workplace loneliness should be paid special attention to. This study explored the relationship between workplace bullying and workplace loneliness, and constructed a chain-mediated model to investigate the chain-mediated effects of social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.  In this study, 361 employees from government units and enterprises in a city of China were surveyed by convenient sampling method and the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach was used to analysis the data. The results showed that: (1) workplace bullying, social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation were significantly positively correlated with workplace loneliness. (2) Social anxiety has a significant mediating effect between workplace bullying and workplace loneliness.  (3) Workplace bullying significantly predicted workplace loneliness through the serial mediating effects of social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation.  The results of this study reveal the impact of workplace bullying on workplace loneliness and its mechanism, and provide some guidance for the intervention of workplace loneliness.