Workplace harassment: deterring role of transformational leadership and core job characteristics

Abstract

Theoretical arguments suggest that transformational leaders deter work harassment by facilitating a moral and ethical environment, by effectively managing stress and employee conflicts, by addressing self-worth of the followers, and by facilitating the core job characteristics of autonomy, feedback, and task identity. In the present study we investigated the potential effect of transformational leadership and the core job characteristics as deterrents of workplace harassment. The findings in a sample of 320 employees demonstrated that the probability to report elevated levels of work harassment was negatively related to transformational leadership. In addition, the relationship between transformational leadership and workplace harassment decreased when three job characteristics were included in the analysis. The mediation analysis in process (Hayes, 2012) indicated that only autonomy partially explained the indirect relationship between transformational leadership and harassment. The present study demonstrated that a transformational leader facilitates autonomy and provides employees with the resources of independence and power. This deters work harassment, because the target does not appear in an inferior position in comparison with the instigator.