Supportive organizational climate: a moderated mediation model of workplace bullying and employee well-being

Purpose: Drawing from conservation of resources theory, this study explores how perceived organizational support mitigates the adverse consequences of workplace bullying on employee well-being mediated through burnout. Design/methodology/approach: The data (N = 360) were collected from the hotel sector in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data. Findings: The findings demonstrated that workplace bullying not only has a direct negative impact on employee well-being but it also indirectly leads to diminished employee well-being by increasing employee burnout. In addition, the findings confirmed the moderating role of perceived organizational support, revealing that perceived organizational support plays a mitigating role in linking workplace bullying to employee well-being and burnout. Employees who experience workplace bullying may compensate for the depletion of their cognitive resources if they feel supported by their organization. Practical implications: This study highlights the utility of managing workplace bullying to improve employee well-being and encourages human resource practitioners to develop policies that prevent workplace bullying. Originality/value: The current research contributes to the validation of theory by examining the impact of workplace bullying on employee well-being in a cultural context with high power distance and subsequently, higher tolerance for workplace bullying. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is the first to investigate the moderating role of perceived organizational support on the meditated relationship between workplace bullying and employee well-being in Pakistan. Furthermore, the current study employs the conservation of resources theory to explore how employees obtain external resources such as organizational support to enhance their resource repository in handling workplace bullying.