WORKPLACE BULLYING AMONG EMERGING ADULTS

Abstract

The increasing number of reports on workplace bullying, shows the gravity of this issue. Workplace bullying is a behaviour perceived as intentionally negative, malicious, persistent and consistent with the desire to control. It has detrimental effects on an individual’s psychological wellbeing and is related to issues of anxiety, low self-esteem, psychiatric damage and even suicide. This research aims to investigate the prevalence of workplace bullying among emerging adults as well as its correlation to self-esteem. Differences in exposure to workplace bullying among gender will also be looked into. Investigating workplace bullying in the local context will help mental health professionals to better understand the phenomenon and to support target’s mental wellbeing. A total of 212 emerging adults working in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor participated in this study. The Negative-Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) was distributed using simple random sampling. Findings showed workplace bullying is prevalent among emerging adults working in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Analysis shows that the most common type of bullying experienced by emerging adults are covert work-related bullying. Results from the t-test conducted of NAQ-R among gender shows no significant difference in exposure of workplace bullying among gender but showed significant negative correlation between NAQ-R and RSES. Higher exposure of workplace bullying is associated with lower self-esteem. Findings of this study promotes better understanding of trends of workplace bullying in Malaysia as well as the development of legislation to reduce workplace bullying. Implications of this study includes counsellors being able to better understand bullying issues and its effects on self-esteem allowing for better treatment and intervention for those facing bullying.