IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i9p2589-d228438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Positioning Depression as a Critical Factor in Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment for Diminishing Worker Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Samma Faiz Rasool

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Rashid Maqbool

    (Department of Construction Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Madeeha Samma

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Yan Zhao

    (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)

  • Amna Anjum

    (Glorious Sun School of Business and Management, Donghua University Shanghai, Shanghai 200051, China)

Abstract

This study determined how a toxic workplace environment can influence worker productivity, directly and indirectly, using work depression as a mediating variable. A toxic workplace environment with multiple dimensions (harassment, bullying, ostracism, and incivility) was used in this study. We used a questionnaire survey approach to evaluate the data. A total of 53 items were used in the questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. The data were collected from 23 branches of five Chinese banks in the vicinity of Shanghai. The authors distributed 250 questionnaires among targeted employees (senior managers, middle managers, and administrative staff) and received 186 filled questionnaires, among which six were incomplete. Thus, the completed sample size of the research was 180, and the overall response rate was 72%. To estimate the proposed relationships in the research model, we used partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM 3.2). The outcomes of this study indicate that for direct and indirect relationships, a toxic workplace environment negatively influences worker productivity. Moreover, the outcomes of this study also show that work depression negatively impacts worker productivity. The study concludes with a discussion, limitations, and future research directions.

Suggested Citation

  • Samma Faiz Rasool & Rashid Maqbool & Madeeha Samma & Yan Zhao & Amna Anjum, 2019. "Positioning Depression as a Critical Factor in Creating a Toxic Workplace Environment for Diminishing Worker Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2589-:d:228438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2589/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/9/2589/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tom Y. Chang & Joshua Graff Zivin & Tal Gross & Matthew Neidell, 2019. "The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity: Evidence from Call Center Workers in China," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 151-172, January.
    2. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    3. Sergio Useche & Luis Montoro & Francisco Alonso & Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, 2018. "Infrastructural and Human Factors Affecting Safety Outcomes of Cyclists," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-11, January.
    4. Jun Yang & Darren C. Treadway, 2018. "A Social Influence Interpretation of Workplace Ostracism and Counterproductive Work Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(4), pages 879-891, April.
    5. Rashid Maqbool & Yahya Rashid, 2017. "Detrimental changes and construction projects: need for comprehensive controls," International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 154-170.
    6. Fiset, John & Robinson, Melanie A., 2018. "Considerations Related to Intentionality and Omissive Acts in the Study of Workplace Aggression and Mistreatment," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 112-116, March.
    7. Tessa Wright, 2013. "Uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women's experience in UK construction," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(8), pages 832-844, August.
    8. Maqbool, Rashid, 2018. "Efficiency and effectiveness of factors affecting renewable energy projects; an empirical perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 944-956.
    9. Konstantinos Pouliakas & Ioannis Theodossiou, 2013. "The Economics Of Health And Safety At Work: An Interdiciplinary Review Of The Theory And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 167-208, February.
    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. Zaman, Shah & Wang, Zilong & Rasool, Samma Faiz & Zaman, Qamar uz & Raza, Hamid, 2022. "Impact of critical success factors and supportive leadership on sustainable success of renewable energy projects: Empirical evidence from Pakistan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Isabel Carmona-Cobo & Eva Garrosa & Esther Lopez-Zafra, 2021. "Workers’ Observation of Uncivil Leadership: Is Tolerance for Workplace Incivility a Gendered Issue?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, May.
    3. Rasool, Samma Faiz & Chin, Tachia & Wang, Mansi & Asghar, Ali & Khan, Anwar & Zhou, Li, 2022. "Exploring the role of organizational support, and critical success factors on renewable energy projects of Pakistan," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    4. Shuai Han & Hong Chen & Ruyin Long, 2020. "Who Reports Low Interactive Psychology Status? An Investigation Based on Chinese Coal Miners," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Ömer Akgün Tekin & Engin Üngüren & Ayşegül Doğrucan & Sevcan Yıldız, 2023. "How Does Organizational Toxicity Affect Depression? A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Samma Faiz Rasool & Mansi Wang & Minze Tang & Amir Saeed & Javed Iqbal, 2021. "How Toxic Workplace Environment Effects the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support and Employee Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Xiang Zhou & Samma Faiz Rasool & Jing Yang & Muhammad Zaheer Asghar, 2021. "Exploring the Relationship between Despotic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: The Role of Self Efficacy and Leader–Member Exchange," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-20, May.
    8. David. A. L. Coldwell, 2019. "Negative Influences of the 4th Industrial Revolution on the Workplace: Towards a Theoretical Model of Entropic Citizen Behavior in Toxic Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-13, July.
    9. Yoshihiko Kadoya & Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Somtip Watanapongvanich & Punjapol Binnagan, 2020. "Emotional Status and Productivity: Evidence from the Special Economic Zone in Laos," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-15, February.
    10. Samma Faiz Rasool & Mansi Wang & Yanping Zhang & Madeeha Samma, 2020. "Sustainable Work Performance: The Roles of Workplace Violence and Occupational Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-12, February.
    11. Bruna Maria Rondinone & Antonio Valenti & Valeria Boccuni & Erika Cannone & Pierluca Dionisi & Diana Gagliardi & Fabio Boccuni & Sergio Iavicoli, 2021. "Contribution of ICOH to Address the Different OSH Needs among Countries: Results of a Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-13, April.
    12. Mansi Wang & Noman Arshed & Mubbasher Munir & Samma Faiz Rasool & Weiwen Lin, 2021. "Investigation of the STIRPAT model of environmental quality: a case of nonlinear quantile panel data analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12217-12232, August.
    13. José Ángel Martínez-López & Cristina Lázaro-Pérez & José Gómez-Galán, 2021. "Burnout among Direct-Care Workers in Nursing Homes during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain: A Preventive and Educational Focus for Sustainable Workplaces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.

    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. Amna Anjum & Xu Ming & Ahmed Faisal Siddiqi & Samma Faiz Rasool, 2018. "An Empirical Study Analyzing Job Productivity in Toxic Workplace Environments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Good, Megan C. & Schwepker, Charles H., 2022. "Business-to-business salespeople and political skill: Relationship building, deviance, and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 32-43.
    3. Assel K. Kozhakhmetova & Kenzhebek T. Gabdullin & Duissekul A. Kunanbayeva & Samal K. Tazhiyeva & Renata E. Kydaybergenova, 2019. "Green Energy Project`s Efficiency: A Cross-industry Evaluation," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 207-215.
    4. Massimo Filippini & Suchita Srinivasan, 2019. "Investments in Worker Health and Labor Productivity: Evidence from Vietnam," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 19/326, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    5. Massimo Filippini & Suchita Srinivasan, 2022. "Investments in worker health and production: Evidence from Vietnam," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 211-235, April.
    6. Samma Faiz Rasool & Mansi Wang & Yanping Zhang & Madeeha Samma, 2020. "Sustainable Work Performance: The Roles of Workplace Violence and Occupational Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-12, February.
    7. Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas & Nidhi Singh & Zoran Kalinic & Elena Carvajal-Trujillo, 2021. "Examining the determinants of continuance intention to use and the moderating effect of the gender and age of users of NFC mobile payments: a multi-analytical approach," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 133-161, June.
    8. Yoon, Junghyun & Lee, Hee Yong & Dinwoodie, John, 2015. "Competitiveness of container terminal operating companies in South Korea and the industry–university–government network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-14.
    9. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Usunier, Jean-Claude, 1998. "Oral pleasure and expatriate satisfaction: an empirical approach," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 89-110, February.
    11. Abdul Kadar Muhammad Masum & Md Abul Kalam Azad & Loo-See Beh, 2015. "Determinants of Academics' Job Satisfaction: Empirical Evidence from Private Universities in Bangladesh," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-15, February.
    12. Sharma, Vivek & Bhat, Dada Ab Rouf, 2020. "An empirical study exploring the relationship among human capital innovation, service innovation, competitive advantage and employee productivity in hospitality services," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 1-14..
    13. Deepak, 2016. "Antecedent Value of Professional Commitment and Job Involvement in Determining Job Satisfaction," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 41(2), pages 154-164, May.
    14. Abernethy, Margaret A. & Vagnoni, Emidia, 2004. "Power, organization design and managerial behaviour," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 207-225.
    15. Marianela Denegri & María Baeza & Natalia Salinas-Oñate & Verónica Peñaloza & Horacio Miranda & Ligia Orellana, 2014. "Materialism in Pedagogy Students in Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 505-521, June.
    16. Terason Sid, 2021. "Predicting Sports Facility Revisit Intentions Based on Experience and Mediating Effects of Perceived Value," Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 28(3), pages 35-41, September.
    17. Amy Roberts & Gregory S. Ching, 2021. "The Ebb and Flow of Study Abroad: A Comparative Analysis of PRC and International Students in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Tomislav Letnik & Katja Hanžič & Giuseppe Luppino & Matej Mencinger, 2022. "Impact of Logistics Trends on Freight Transport Development in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Zhihui Wang & Liangzhen Nie & Eila Jeronen & Lihua Xu & Meiai Chen, 2023. "Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    20. William Kelly & Phillips Cutright & David Hittle, 1976. "Comment on charles F. Hohm’s “social security and fertility: An international perspective”," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 13(4), pages 581-586, November.

    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:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:9:p:2589-:d:228438. 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.