Workplace mobbing in Luxembourg: Predictors, prevalence and changes

(1) Research has shown that a poor psychosocial working environment can trigger workplace mobbing, which is a serious phenomenon that is costly to organizations and has various negative consequences of those targeted. (2) The present study describes psychosocial workplace predictors, prevalence and changes of workplace mobbing in Luxembourg for the last three years. (3) For measuring mobbing behavior, we use the Luxembourg Workplace Mobbing Scale (LWMS), a new short scale of workplace mobbing experience that was tested and validated in three different language versions (German, French and Luxembourgish). We use the first, second and third wave (planed for August 2015) of the Quality-of-Work-Index Luxembourg (Steffgen & Kohl 2013; Sischka & Steffgen 2015). Each wave is a representative sample of about 1530 employees working in Luxembourg (Data collection by Computer-assisted Telephone Interviewing). (4) Results of correlation and regression analysis with data of the first and second wave support the ‘psychosocial working environment’-hypothesis: Mobbing victims evaluate their psychosocial working environment worse (in terms of satisfaction, meaningfulness of work, respect of the superior and the whole organization, communication and feedback, cooperation among colleagues, mental strain) than persons that are not affected by mobbing. In addition, mobbing victims are more likely to report a higher stress level, symptoms of a burnout and addictive behavior, compared to non-victims. Finally, changes of mobbing exposure over the three measurement points will be discussed. (5) Focus of interventions for mobbing should be on improving the general quality of work and the collective working environment.