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Health Consequences of Workplace Bullying: Physiological Responses and Sleep as Pathways to Disease

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Pathways of Job-related Negative Behaviour

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment ((HWBEAH,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the current knowledge on physiological stress reactions as possible pathways between workplace bullying and disease. Being exposed to workplace bullying may create a highly stressful situation for the target that may be characterized by lack of control. Feelings of control and predictability are important characteristics of the individual’s appraisal processes and may be an important factor to understand how workplace bullying “gets under the skin”.

Theoretically, there are several potential mechanisms through which physiological stress reactions may affect health, for example, by a direct biological, prolonged physiological activation and lack of restitution or through changes in life style and health behaviours. We briefly present the following models: cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS) model; effort-recovery model; stressor-detachment model; and allostatic load model, including the acute and chronic stress response.

The current knowledge on workplace bullying and salivary cortisol is presented and shown in five out of six studies that salivary cortisol was lower among individuals that reported workplace bullying.

The state of the art on the prospective association between workplace bullying and sleep problems was also included and showed that employees exposed to workplace bullying have increased risk of having sleep problems 1–5 years later.

Using long-term sickness absence (LTSA) as a global measure of health, we provided knowledge on possible mechanisms on workplace bullying leading to LTSA. Only a few studies have investigated possible mechanisms of how workplace bullying may lead to LTSA. One study found that perceived stress accounted for up to 13% of the association between workplace bullying and LTSA 2 years after the reports of workplace bullying. Another study found that sleep mediated 4–12% of the association. Finally, one study did not find salivary cortisol to be a part of the pathway.

Kate van Heugten was part of the section editor team for this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Åse Marie Hansen, Anne Helene Garde, Kirsten Nabe-Nielsen & Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup

  2. National Research Centre for the working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Åse Marie Hansen & Anne Helene Garde

  3. Department of Neurology, Nordsjællands Hospital – Hillerød, Hillerød, Denmark

    Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Annie Høgh

Authors
  1. Åse Marie Hansen
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  2. Anne Helene Garde
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  3. Kirsten Nabe-Nielsen
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  4. Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup
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  5. Annie Høgh
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Åse Marie Hansen or Annie Høgh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Organizational Behaviour (OB), Indian Institute of Management Organizational Behaviour (OB), Ahmedabad, India

    Premilla D'Cruz

  2. Organizational Behaviour, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Organizational Behaviour, Ahmedabad, India

    Ernesto Noronha

  3. Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven Faculty of Economics and Business, Brussels, Brussels Hoofdst.ge., Belgium

    Elfi Baillien

  4. School of Management, North Shore MSC, Massey University School of Management, North Shore MSC, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bevan Catley

  5. The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Karen Harlos

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen Department of Psychology, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Annie Hogh

  7. Gemzoe Consult, Aarhus, Denmark

    Eva Gemzoe Mikkelsen

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Hansen, Å.M., Garde, A.H., Nabe-Nielsen, K., Grynderup, M.B., Høgh, A. (2018). Health Consequences of Workplace Bullying: Physiological Responses and Sleep as Pathways to Disease. In: D'Cruz, P., et al. Pathways of Job-related Negative Behaviour. Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6173-8_6-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6173-8_6-1

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