The moderating effect of laissez‐faire leadership on the relationship between co‐worker conflicts and new cases of workplace bullying: A true prospective design

• Author: Kari Wik Ågotnes,Ståle Valvatne Einarsen,Jørn Hetland,Anders Skogstad
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12200

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The moderating effect of laissez‐faire leadership

on the relationship between co‐worker conflicts

and new cases of workplace bullying: A true

prospective design

Kari Wik Ågotnes |Ståle Valvatne Einarsen |Jørn Hetland |

Anders Skogstad

Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty

of Psychology, University of Bergen

Correspondence

Kari Wik Ågotnes, Department of Psychosocial

Science, Faculty of Psychology, University of

Bergen, Christies Gate 12, 5015 Bergen,

Norway.

Email: kari.agotnes@uib.no

Funding information

Norwegian Research Council, Grant/Award

Number: 250127

In line with the work environment hypothesis, interpersonal

conflict has been proposed as an important antecedent of

workplace bullying. However, longitudinal studies on this

relationship have been scarce. The aim of this study was to

examine whether co‐worker conflict predicted new cases

of self‐reported workplace bullying 2 years later and

whether laissez‐faire leadership moderated this relationship.

In a sample of 1,772 employees, drawn from the Norwegian

working population, the hypotheses that co‐worker conflict

increased the risk of subsequently reporting being a victim

of workplace bullying and that laissez‐faire leadership

strengthened this relationship were supported. This study

empirically supports the work environment hypothesis by

showing that co‐worker conflict within a true prospective

research design is a source of new cases of bullying and that

the lack and avoidance of leadership, through the enactment

of a laissez‐faire leadership style, likely is a main source for

co‐worker conflict to develop into workplace bullying.

KEYWORDS

co‐worker conflict, laissez‐faire leadership, true prospective study,

workplace bullying

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Received: 7 December 2017 Revised: 9 May 2018 Accepted: 12 May 2018

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12200

Hum Resour Manag J. 2018;28:555–568. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj 555