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The Relationship Between Toxic Leadership, Job Insecurity, Workplace Bullying and Turnover Intention in the Malaysian Context: A Multilevel Mediational Perspective

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Asian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying and Harassment

Abstract

Despite the long-standing relationship between job characteristics and workplace bullying, little focus has been devoted in literature to the role of leaders in shaping this relationship. Hence, a more comprehensive picture about how the work environment influences bullying at work by integrating leadership and job characteristics together into one set of processes is needed. Viewing toxic leadership as a negative phenomenon and as a top-down influence on employees, in recent multilevel study, toxic leadership enhances organizational intimidation through manipulating workers’ feelings of job insecurity, which contributes to higher turnover intentions. Two hundred and sixty-five employees (Male: 50.9%; Mean age: 29.6 years) from 48 organizations in Malaysia participated in the study. Results using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) found a significant relationship in the positive direction between bullying at work and turnover intention. Toxic leadership showed a significant and positive relationship with bullying at work and job insecurity. In addition, job insecurity was found to mediate the relationship between toxic leadership and bullying at work, while workplace bullying was found to mediate the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention. Current study extends current literature by showing how toxic leadership likely shapes employees’ perceptions of their job design within employees in an Eastern context. This study highlights the importance of adopting a multilevel method to establish the link between toxic leadership, job insecurity and workplace bullying. Future research should utilize longitudinal methods to test for reversed or reciprocal effects (job insecurity → toxic leadership; workplace bullying → job insecurity) and further untangle the relationships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

    Brenda Ying Hui Sim & Michelle Chin Chin Lee

  2. Faculty of Psychology and Education, University Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

    Sharon Sam Mee Kwan

  3. School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, Centre for Work Excellence, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

    Sharon Sam Mee Kwan & Michelle R. Tuckey

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  1. Brenda Ying Hui Sim
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  2. Michelle Chin Chin Lee
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  3. Sharon Sam Mee Kwan
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  4. Michelle R. Tuckey
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Correspondence to Michelle Chin Chin Lee .

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  1. Organizational Behaviour Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India

    Premilla D´Cruz

  2. Organizational Behaviour Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India

    Ernesto Noronha

  3. Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management Area, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur, Nagpur, India

    Avina Mendonca

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Sim, B.Y.H., Lee, M.C.C., Kwan, S.S.M., Tuckey, M.R. (2021). The Relationship Between Toxic Leadership, Job Insecurity, Workplace Bullying and Turnover Intention in the Malaysian Context: A Multilevel Mediational Perspective. In: D´Cruz, P., Noronha, E., Mendonca, A. (eds) Asian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying and Harassment. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2362-2_7

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