Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2020, 8, 23-34 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 The Impact of Workplace Bullying on Employees’ Turnover Intention: The Role of Self-Esteem Xiaohui Li, Xiaoqin Liu, Weizhen Chen School of Business, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China How to cite this paper: Li, X. H., Liu, X. Abstract Q., & Chen, W. Z. (2020). The Impact of Workplace Bullying on Employees’ Turno- The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of self-esteem in the rela- ver Intention: The Role of Self-Esteem. tionship between workplace bullying and turnover intention in China. Basing Open Journal of Social Sciences, 8, 23-34. on 215 samples, this study examined the relationship among workplace bul- https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2020.810003 lying, self-esteem and employees’ turnover intention. The results show that: Received: September 3, 2020 self-esteem is negatively related to the probability of reporting oneself as a Accepted: September 27, 2020 target of workplace bullying; workplace bullying is an excellent predictor of Published: September 30, 2020 employees’ turnover; self-esteem plays a moderating role in the relationship Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and between workplace bullying and turnover intention. An improved under- Scientific Research Publishing Inc. standing of how individual differences impact on the exposure to workplace This work is licensed under the Creative bullying and on the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover in- Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). tention may have important implications from both the theoretical and the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ practical standpoints. Open Access Keywords Workplace Bullying, Self-Esteem, Turnover Intention, Moderating Role, Antecedents of Workplace Bullying 1. Introduction Workplace bullying is broadly recognized to be a widespread and serious prob- lem nowadays. It has been estimated that about 15% of workers on a global basis are targets of systematic bullying behaviors, and 11% perceive themselves as vic- tims of bullying (Nielsen, Matthiesen, & Einarsen, 2010). Many countries, in- cluding China, have increasingly been focusing on raising awareness and pre- venting this particular problem in order to prevent its negative effects on the victim’s health and work performance as well as on the organization itself. DOI: 10.4236/jss.2020.810003 Sep. 30, 2020 23 Open Journal of Social Sciences X. H. Li et al. Studies have been conducted to explore factors that contribute to bullying. Throughout the literature, there are two main research approaches to the under- standing of the antecedents of workplace bullying. The first approach is the work environment hypothesis (Leymann, 1996). According to the work environment hypothesis, workplace bullying is the result of poor psychosocial working condi- tions such as occupational stressors (Bowling & Beehr, 2006), adverse work cha- racteristics (Broeck, Baillien, & Witte, 2011) and excessive workload and time pressure (Ekici & Beder, 2014). The second approach, known as the individual dispositions hypothesis, regards employees’ individual characteristics, such as personality traits, as potential precursors of bullying (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2010). Research findings suggest that in comparison with the oppressors and non-victims, the target group scores higher on neuroticism, depression (Di- eter, 1999) and negative affectivity (Bowling, Beehr, Bennett, & Watson, 2010), lower on emotional stability, aggressiveness, as well as on extraversion and as- sertiveness (Glasø, Matthiesen, Nielsen, & Einarsen, 2010). Although there is some research on individual dispositions and bullying, the work environment hypothesis has been the dominating framework and has re- ceived substantial empirical support in the last decade. By comparison, there is a lack of empirical findings on how individual dispositions actually are related to bullying (Nielsen & Knardahl, 2015). Moreover, the finite existing research re- sults are inconsistent. Some argue that the personality of targets can explain their exposure to bullying (Coyne, Seigne, & Randall, 2000), some believe that individual dispositions are outcomes rather than causes of bullying (GlasØ, Matthiesen, Nielsen, & Einarsen, 2007), and others disregard the role played by targets’ personal factors (Leymann, 1996). This reflects the still blurred state of findings about individual antecedents of workplace bullying. It is therefore cru- cial to conduct more research on the relationship between individual characte- ristics and bullying. The victim of such negative acts may choose to quit because of the adverse nature of the working conditions in which bullying occurs. Previous research has provided evidence suggesting that exposure to workplace bullying is linked to employees intention or decision to leave (Coetzee & Van Dyk, 2017). However, it has also been shown that some victims of bullying are more vulnerable than others (Berge & Ståle, 2004). This indicates that responses to workplace bullying may be moderated by employees’ personal characteristics. It is clear that person- al characteristics may influence the way employees perceive and deal with workplace bullying, as well as the outcomes that result from this experience (Francioli et al., 2016), but empirical studies are rare. In this study we focus on a specific individual characteristic, that is self-esteem, one of the main variables of personality traits and aim to investigate whether self-esteem can predict exposure to workplace bullying. Moreover, we argue that self-esteem may operate as a significant moderator in the relationship between the exposure to workplace bullying and turnover intention. As little research ex- plores workplace bullying in China in general, or its relationships with individu- DOI: 10.4236/jss.2020.810003 24 Open Journal of Social Sciences X. H. Li et al. al characteristics and turnover intention, it is essential to establish that these re- lationships do indeed exist in the China context. An improved understanding of workplace bullying and how individual differences impact on workplace bullying may improve the theoretical knowledge. In addition, it may provide useful ele- ments to enhance the design of interventions aimed at combating the pheno- menon. So, this thesis has its necessity and practical significance. 2. Theory and Hypothesis 2.1. Workplace Bullying and Turnover Intention Workplace bullying is a problem prevalent in contemporary working life. Ac- cording to Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, and L (2003), workplace bullying is defined as “harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting some- one’s work”. To label something bullying it has to occur repeatedly, continuous- ly and come from one or more persons, and the bullied have difficulties getting rid of this negative situation or defending himself/herself (Einarsen & Skogstad, 1996). Employees’ turnover intention is defined as a conscious and deliberate wil- lingness to leave the organization (Tett & Meyer, 1993) and is potentially a sound predictor of actual turnover behaviors. Employees leave their jobs for a variety of reasons. One of the important reasons is work related stress (Elçi, Şener, Kürü, & Alpkan, 2012). Workplace bullying is a painful and aversive experience which has a negative impact on the bullied and even on the bystanders. Studies have shown bullying as a major stressor with detrimental consequences for psychology, emotion, health and well-being (Sultana, Sarker, & Prodhan, 2017). People exposed to long term and persistent workplace bullying have been reported to demonstrate anxiety, suspicious, depression, and suffer from headache, fatigue and sleep dis- turbance. What’s more, individuals experiencing workplace bullying are more likely to impair their confidence (Leisy & Ahmad, 2016), inhibit collegiality and cooperation (Ekici & Beder, 2014), decrease their job satisfaction (Jiang, Jiao, & Rong, 2012), increase employees’ depression, make one or more serious work errors (Paice & Smith, 2009), as well as experiencing social isolation and stigma- tization (Johnson, 2010). Steele, Rodgers, and Fogarty (2020) pointed that the correlations between bullying and psychological distress, job satisfaction, and affective commitment are all significant and for some outcomes greater than those involving the traditional job stressors. When strain causes negative emotions and cognitions, one way to cope with this undesirable experience is emotional and physical withdrawal from the negative situation (Nathan, Jeffery, & Marcie, 2007). For the individual, with- drawing from the situation can represent an adaptive response to avoid the pain associated with bullying and a form of self-defense. For members of or- ganizations, withdrawal can be manifested in thoughts and behaviors asso- ciated with planning to leave the organization. Thinking about leaving is re- DOI: 10.4236/jss.2020.810003 25 Open Journal of Social Sciences X. H. Li et al. flected in turnover intentions (Ferris et al., 2008). We, therefore, propose the following hypothesis: H1: Workplace bullying has a significant positive impact on employees’ turn- over intention. 2.2. Self-Esteem and Workplace Bullying Rosenberg (1965) stated that self-esteem is an overall judgment that leads to an individual's self-worth, self-respect, and self-acceptance. Self-esteem is one of psychology’s most polarizing constructs. Individuals with higher self-esteem