ABSTRACT
The role of Big Five personality traits in exposure to workplace bullying has been a focus of numerous studies. Yet less is known about the incremental validity of narrower personality constructs. The aim of the present study was to investigate the incremental effect of gelotophobia (the fear of being laughed at) in predicting exposure to workplace bullying beyond the Big Five personality domains. The sample comprised 328 employees (77% females) from different regions of the Czech Republic. Correlational analysis showed that negative emotionality and gelotophobia were related to workplace bullying in theoretically expected ways. Results from a multiple regression indicated that gelotophobia had an incremental effect in predicting exposure to workplace bullying over and above the personality domains. Overall, this study provides new insights and extends previous investigations concerning the role of gelotophobia in workplace bullying. We also discuss the limitations of our study and provide suggestions for future research.
ABSTRACT
Much of the burgeoning research on adult attachment in organizational settings has utilized assessment methods developed for personal or social relationships contexts. Here, we propose and test a novel framework for assessing attachment orientations in the workplace, the Experiences in Work Relationships-Individual (EWR-I), based on a conceptualization of the regulatory functions of attachment dynamics. Using data from two samples comprising early career starters and employees in the Czech Republic (N = 588 and N = 633) analyses confirmed the bifactorial structure of the new scale corresponding to "interpersonal hyperactivation" (involving emotional instability, negative emotionality, and lack of appreciation in work relationships) and a second factor termed "interpersonal deactivation" (involving distancing from others and relationships at work, mistrust and inhibition of positive emotionality). Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity against general relational assessments of adult attachment, and predictive and construct validity against measures of workplace personality, organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior further documented the nature and utility of the new scale. We argue that interpersonal hyperactivation and deactivation represent two distinct and measurable key components of attachment behavior dynamics at work.
