EFFECTS OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS ON WORKPLACE CYBERBULLYING AND JOB CONSEQUENCES OF EMPLOYEES IN A THAI EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION: MODERATING ROLE OF POLITICAL SKILL OF EMPLOYEES

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a significant and prevalent problem in Thai society. Cyberbullying can cause devastating consequences for the victim without physical violence. The dangers of cyberbullying are that cyberbullying can be more damaging to the victims because the bully can remain anonymous, it can rapidly occur at anytime, and the audience access is uncontrollable. Although research about cyberbullying has been conducted among teenagers and employees at private organizations, there remains a research gap regarding the issue of cyberbullying in educational institutions, particularly the antecedents and outcomes associated with it. The present study investigated the effect of ethical leadership and organizational politics on employees’ exposure to workplace cyberbullying at one public university in Thailand. Theoretically, the role of ethical leadership and organizational politics were based on the emotion reaction model. Furthermore, this study investigated the outcomes of workplace cyberbullying by focusing on the effects on organizational commitment and burnout of employees. In addition, political skill of employees was proposed as the moderators to explain individual differences in handling with organizational politics and workplace cyberbullying experience for victims. Survey data were collected from 358 employees using stratified sampling. The results from Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling supported the positive effect of organizational politics on cyberbullying exposure. The analysis also found the relationship between ethical leadership and cyberbullying through organizational politics, as well as the effect of cyberbullying exposure on organizational commitment and burnout. Additionally, the political skill significantly moderated the effects of organizational politics on cyberbullying exposure. This research provided two implications to the educational institution. Firstly, it is crucial to understand that cyberbullying can happen when employees have low political skill at work. Secondly, although it is inevitable to regulate employees to have political skills, the role of the supervisor’s ethical leadership plays a vital role in creating the supportive and ethical climate in the work units to prevent organizational politics in the workplace which can reduce the chance that someone will be a victim for workplace.