Workplace Bullying and Job Performance: The Mediating Roles of Well-Being, Engagement, and Anxiety

This study examined how workplace bullying influences employee performance through the psychological mechanisms of well-being, work engagement, and anxiety. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) and Conservation of Resources (COR) frameworks, bullying was conceptualized as a social job demand that depletes employees’ personal resources and triggers strain. A sample of 250 employees from the Greek private sector completed validated measures of workplace bullying, psychological well-being, work engagement, anxiety, and three dimensions of job performance—task, contextual, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Correlational and regression analyses revealed that bullying was negatively associated with well-being and engagement and positively with anxiety. Mediation analyses using PROCESS Model 4 confirmed that well-being and engagement partially mediated the negative effects of bullying on task and contextual performance and the positive effects on CWB, while anxiety transmitted additional variance, particularly to counterproductive behaviors. Overall, workplace bullying emerged as both a psychosocial hazard and a core performance risk. The findings extend JD–R and COR by integrating resource-based and strain-based pathways and emphasize the need for organizational strategies that prevent bullying, safeguard psychological resources, and foster engagement to sustain performance and well-being.