Exploring the Link Between Structural Empowerment, Workplace Bullying, and Continuance Commitment: The Role of Person-Related and Work-Related Bullying as Mediators and Serial Mediators

Employee empowerment as a management intervention promotes employee engagement: Psychological empowerment is found to influence employee engagement and organizational commitment, but the effect of structural empowerment (SE) is not explored much. SE increases employees' self-esteem, which can encourage a dissatisfied employee to look for other better work options, thus influencing their continuance commitment (CC). Workplace bullying is associated with higher turnover intentions and reduced commitment. This study investigates the mediating effects of person-related bullying (PB) and work-related bullying (WB) on the relationship between SE and CC. The study findings highlight the partial mediation effect of PB and serial mediation of WB and PB on the relationship between SE and CC. This study establishes that in comparison to WB, PB causes more damage to employee relationships with the organization. Moreover, the serial mediation effect of WB and PB is also noticed on the relationship between SE and CC. Organizations should regularly measure their employees' CC, as SE negatively affects CC. Organizations should take adequate measures to curb PB to preserve employee morale and confidence. This study uniquely reports a negative relationship between SE and CC.