How to prevent workplace bullying from escalating into thwarted ethical voice behavior: The beneficial roles of personal resources

Author : Dirk

Abstract :How and when does exposure to workplace bullying turn employees away from ethical voice behavior? To address these relevant questions, this research study unpacks the workplace bullying ethical voice link by postulating a mediating role of distrust in top management and moderating roles of two complementary personal resources (resilience and innovation propensity). The research hypotheses are tested with survey data gathered from employees who operate in the computer industry in Canada. The empirical findings reveal that a key mechanism that evokes the translation of repeated harassment at work into a refusal to speak up about ethical issues is that employees criticize top management for not being trustworthy. Employees’ ability to bounce back from adversity, as well as their intrinsic drive to generate novel ideas, subdues this harmful effect. For human resource management scholarship, this research details the harmful effect of employees’ exposure to workplace bullying on their interest in sharing their opinions about ethical matters, as explained by their beliefs that organizational authorities cannot be trusted. It also explicates how this process can be mitigated if employees have access to valuable personal resources. For human resource management practice, the study shows how employees who feel upset about being bullied at work might undermine their capability to revert such negative behaviors: They stop caring about the ethical performance of their employing organization. This risk can be averted, however, to the extent that employees have a strong ability to recover from difficult situations or an intrinsic motivation to find innovative solutions to these situations

Keywords :workplace bullying, ethical voice, distrust, resilience, innovation

Conference Name :International Conference on Human Resource Management and Performance (ICHRMP-25)

Conference Place Manila,Philippines

Conference Date 2nd Dec 2025