Workplace Bullying by Graduate Faculty: The Effects on Graduate Students’ Burnout and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

• In Event: On the Improvement of Mentoring and Parenting: From Children to Graduate Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how faculty workplace bullying affects graduate students’ burnout and organizational citizenship behaviors in their program. Graduate student participants (N = 272) across many disciplines completed a self-report questionnaire measuring the degree to which faculty bully them at work (i.e., through belittlement, punishment, managerial misconduct, exclusion), along with reports of their student burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy) and use of organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., helping, civic virtue, sportsmanship). Results of canonical correlations revealed that faculty bullying was related positively to student burnout and related inversely to organizational citizenship behaviors. Overall, graduate students’ organizational outcomes are affected adversely by their bullying experiences in academia.

Authors

• Alan K. Goodboy, West Virginia University

• Matthew M. Martin, West Virginia U

• Zac D. Johnson, West Virginia U