IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i23p8745-d450617.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Roles of Work-Life Conflict and Gender in the Relationship between Workplace Bullying and Personal Burnout. A Study on Italian School Principals

Author

Listed:
  • Ilaria Buonomo

    (Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, 00193 Rome, Italy)

  • Caterina Fiorilli

    (Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, 00193 Rome, Italy)

  • Luciano Romano

    (Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, 00193 Rome, Italy)

  • Paula Benevene

    (Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, 00193 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the associations between workplace bullying and personal burnout both directly and indirectly via work-life conflict. Furthermore, the moderating role of gender in these relations was examined. Traditional research on stress at work focuses on the role of dimensions related to job tasks, demands, and organizational support in influencing the risks for stress-related problems in employees. At the same time, other experiences at work may reduce employees’ well-being, such as workplace bullying and family life. Specifically, considering the detrimental role of work-life conflict, it is possible to hypothesize that it would exacerbate workplace bullying’s harmful effects on employees’ health. Moreover, since previous studies have reported mixed or inconsistent results when considering gender differences with the above-mentioned dimensions, it seems worth investigating the role of employee gender in representing (and response to) the bullying experiences. Building on these considerations, this work verifies whether: (1) work-life conflict mediates the relationship between workplace bullying and burnout; (2) gender moderates all the possible relationships among the constructs. Such hypotheses are verified on a sample of school principals, in light of their peculiar job role. Overall, our findings showed that: (1) Workplace bullying and burnout are associated, both with and without the perception of a concurring work-life conflict; (2) Gender does not moderate all the possible relationships among workplace bullying, work-life conflict and burnout. Overall, being female heightens the risk to perceive work-life conflict in general, as well as to be burnt out, when bullied, with and without the presence of work-life conflict; being male heightens the risk to perceive work-life conflict when bullied. Furthermore, the current findings suggest that family demands may influence school principals’ feelings of exhaustion regardless of gender. These findings confirm and expand previous literature, especially concerning a less studied occupation, namely school principals, shedding a new light on their work experiences. Furthermore, the present study offers interesting implications for trainings on principal’s skills and professional identity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilaria Buonomo & Caterina Fiorilli & Luciano Romano & Paula Benevene, 2020. "The Roles of Work-Life Conflict and Gender in the Relationship between Workplace Bullying and Personal Burnout. A Study on Italian School Principals," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8745-:d:450617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8745/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8745/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Artazcoz, L. & Benach, J. & Borrell, C. & Cortès, I., 2004. "Unemployment and Mental Health: Understanding the Interactions among Gender, Family Roles, and Social Class," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(1), pages 82-88.
    2. Gyesook Yoo & Soomi Lee, 2018. "It Doesn’t End There: Workplace Bullying, Work-to-Family Conflict, and Employee Well-Being in Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Bracci, Enrico, 2009. "Autonomy, responsibility and accountability in the Italian school system," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 293-312.
    4. Evans, Olga & Steptoe, Andrew, 2002. "The contribution of gender-role orientation, work factors and home stressors to psychological well-being and sickness absence in male- and female-dominated occupational groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 481-492, February.
    5. Elizabeth Dhuey & Justin Smith, 2014. "How important are school principals in the production of student achievement?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(2), pages 634-663, May.
    6. Fernando R. Feijó & Débora D. Gräf & Neil Pearce & Anaclaudia G. Fassa, 2019. "Risk Factors for Workplace Bullying: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-25, May.
    7. J. Antonio Ariza-Montes & Noel M. Muniz R. & Antonio L. Leal-Rodríguez & Antonio G. Leal-Millán, 2014. "Workplace Bullying among Managers: A Multifactorial Perspective and Understanding," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, March.
    8. John Ainley & Ralph Carstens, 2018. "Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2018 Conceptual Framework," OECD Education Working Papers 187, OECD Publishing.
    9. Bart Verkuil & Serpil Atasayi & Marc L Molendijk, 2015. "Workplace Bullying and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilaria Buonomo & Paolo Emilio Santoro & Paula Benevene & Ivan Borrelli & Giacomo Angelini & Caterina Fiorilli & Maria Rosaria Gualano & Umberto Moscato, 2022. "Buffering the Effects of Burnout on Healthcare Professionals’ Health—The Mediating Role of Compassionate Relationships at Work in the COVID Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Hee-Sun Kim & In-Ok Sim, 2021. "The Experience of Clinical Nurses after Korea’s Enactment of Workplace Anti-Bullying Legislation: A Phenomenological Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Caterina Fiorilli & Daniela Barni & Claudia Russo & Vanessa Marchetti & Giacomo Angelini & Luciano Romano, 2022. "Students’ Burnout at University: The Role of Gender and Worker Status," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-15, September.
    4. Ilaria Buonomo & Martina Pansini & Sara Cervai & Paula Benevene, 2022. "Compassionate Work Environments and Their Role in Teachers’ Life Satisfaction: The Contribution of Perceived Collective School Performance and Burnout," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Sam S. S. Lau & Eric N. Y. Shum & Jackie O. T. Man & Ethan T. H. Cheung & Padmore Adusei Amoah & Angela Y. M. Leung & Orkan Okan & Kevin Dadaczynski, 2022. "A Cross-Sectional Study of the Perceived Stress, Well-Being and Their Relations with Work-Related Behaviours among Hong Kong School Leaders during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Amina Amari & Mohamed Mousa & Walid Chaouali & Zohra Ghali-Zinoubi & Narjess Aloui, 2023. "Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? Unpacking the Effects of Flexitime and Flexiplace: a Study on MENA Region," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1333-1352, December.
    7. Marcela-Sefora Nemțeanu & Dan-Cristian Dabija, 2023. "Negative Impact of Telework, Job Insecurity, and Work–Life Conflict on Employee Behaviour," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catalina Sau Man Ng & Victor C. W. Chan, 2021. "Prevalence of Workplace Bullying and Risk Groups in Chinese Employees in Hong Kong," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-11, January.
    2. Fernando R. Feijó & Débora D. Gräf & Neil Pearce & Anaclaudia G. Fassa, 2019. "Risk Factors for Workplace Bullying: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-25, May.
    3. Yiqiong Li & Michelle R. Tuckey & Annabelle M. Neall & Alice Rose & Lauren Wilson, 2023. "Changing the Underlying Conditions Relevant to Workplace Bullying through Organisational Redesign," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-27, February.
    4. Gülüm Özer & İdil Işık & Jordi Escartín, 2024. "Is There Somebody Looking out for Me? A Qualitative Analysis of Bullying Experiences of Individuals Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Thomas Barnay & Éric Defebvre, 2019. "Gender Differences in the Influence of Mental Health on Job Retention," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 33(4), pages 507-532, December.
    6. Thomas Barnay, 2016. "Health, work and working conditions: a review of the European economic literature," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(6), pages 693-709, July.
    7. Thijs Fassaert & Matty A.S. De Wit & Wilco C. Tuinebreijer & Jeroen W. Knipscheer & Arnoud P. Verhoeff & Aartjan T.F. Beekman & Jack Dekker, 2011. "Acculturation and Psychological Distress Among Non-Western Muslim Migrants - a Population-Based Survey," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 57(2), pages 132-143, March.
    8. Mehwish Iftikhar & Muhammad Imran Qureshi & Shazia Qayyum & Iram Fatima & Sriyanto Sriyanto & Yasinta Indrianti & Aqeel Khan & Leo-Paul Dana, 2021. "Impact of Multifaceted Workplace Bullying on the Relationships between Technology Usage, Organisational Climate and Employee Physical and Emotional Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Catherine Haeck & Pierre Lefebvre, 2020. "The Evolution of Cognitive Skills Inequalities by Socioeconomic Status across Canada," Working Papers 20-04, Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    10. Kirsi Talala & Taina Huurre & Hillevi Aro & Tuija Martelin & Ritva Prättälä, 2008. "Socio-demographic Differences in Self-reported Psychological Distress Among 25- to 64-Year-Old Finns," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 323-335, April.
    11. Georges Steffgen & Philipp E. Sischka & Martha Fernandez de Henestrosa, 2020. "The Quality of Work Index and the Quality of Employment Index: A Multidimensional Approach of Job Quality and Its Links to Well-Being at Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-31, October.
    12. Jenifer Ruiz-Valenzuela & Camille Terrier & Clémentine Van Effenterre, 2017. "Effectiveness of CEOs in the public sector: evidence from further education institutions," CVER Briefing Notes 005, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    13. Mooli Lahad & Ran Cohen & Stratos Fanaras & Dmitry Leykin & Penny Apostolopoulou, 2018. "Resiliency and Adjustment in Times of Crisis, the Case of the Greek Economic Crisis from a Psycho-social and Community Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 333-356, January.
    14. Ji Liu & Faying Qiang & Haihua Kang, 2023. "Distributed leadership, self-efficacy and wellbeing in schools: A study of relations among teachers in Shanghai," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Yukari Yokoyama & Kotaro Otsuka & Norito Kawakami & Seiichiro Kobayashi & Akira Ogawa & Kozo Tannno & Toshiyuki Onoda & Yumi Yaegashi & Kiyomi Sakata, 2014. "Mental Health and Related Factors after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-10, July.
    16. Milner, Allison & King, Tania & LaMontagne, Anthony D. & Bentley, Rebecca & Kavanagh, Anne, 2018. "Men’s work, Women’s work, and mental health: A longitudinal investigation of the relationship between the gender composition of occupations and mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 16-22.
    17. Janneke Pieters & Samantha Rawlings, 2020. "Parental unemployment and child health in China," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 207-237, March.
    18. Salm, Martin, 2009. "Does Job Loss Cause Ill Health?," IZA Discussion Papers 4147, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Salm, M, 2008. "Job loss does not cause ill health," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 08/16, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    20. Hee-Sun Kim & In-Ok Sim, 2021. "The Experience of Clinical Nurses after Korea’s Enactment of Workplace Anti-Bullying Legislation: A Phenomenological Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8745-:d:450617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.