The Moderating Effect of Organizational Culture on the Relationship between Bullying and Machiavellianism

Abstract

Workplace bullying is unwanted and unwarranted and has negative consequences for the victim, his colleagues and the whole organization. With the present study, we aim to clarify the interactive effects of workplace bullying from the victims’ perception and organizational culture on the teachers ‘Machiavellianism which is a personality syndrome aiming the realization of one’s own profits with every possible means. The sample consisted of 103 teachers working in different schools in Gaziantep, Turkey. Data was analyzed by the hierarchical multiple linear regression method at SPSS 22 and ModGraph-I was used at moderating tests. The results showed that being bullied was not a significant predictor of Machiavellianism. However, organizational culture significantly and positively predicted Machiavellianism, and the main effect of being bullied on Machiavellianism was qualified by the interaction: “higher Machiavellianism was associated with higher workplace bullying under conditions of higher organizational culture.” Organizational culture operated as an exacerbation under conditions of workplace bullying.