Effects of Organizational Silence and Organizational Justice on Bullying among Hospital Nurses at Work

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effects of organizational silence and organizational justice on bullying among hospital nurses in their workplace. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey conducted on 235 full-time nurses in Korea. Data were collected online using Google Docs from 14 June to 9 July 2021. Results: Nurses who were male, below 30 years of age, unmarried, had less than five years of clinical experience, had worked in special departments, and had no prior experience with workplace bullying were more vulnerable to workplace bullying than nurses with other characteristics. Workplace bullying of hospital nurses was positively correlated with their acquiescent silence and defensive silence, and negatively correlated with their procedural justice and interactional justice. Factors influencing workplace bullying of hospital nurses were defensive silence, bullying experience (have), distributive justice, acquiescent silence, gender (male), and marital status (single). These six variables explained 55% of workplace bullying in hospital nurses. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it could be concluded that nursing managers should keep organizational silence low, organizational justice high, and pay more attention to nurses who are vulnerable to bullying in their workplace.