Toxicity in Organizations: The Prediction and Impact of Bullying, Stigma, Ostracism, and Abuse in the Workplace

Toxic environments are characterized by negative motivations and emotions that manifest themselves in malicious, self-serving, and abusive behavior. Whether stemming from bullying, ostracism, stigmatization, mobbing, or abusive supervisors, recent surveys suggest that a majority of employees are affected by toxic influences at sometime in their career. These toxic behaviors adversely impact the functioning of organizations through a plethora of behaviors, among them: increased counterproductive work behavior, turnover, and stress, and decreased commitment, satisfaction, and performance. Scholarship, and consequently practice, has been hampered by the creation of knowledge within paradigmatic and disciplinary silos.

This Research Topic aims to advance science and practice through the theoretical and empirical integration of multi-level and/or cross-disciplinary models which reach across not only the outcomes of toxicity, but also integrate the various types of toxic behavior in organizations. We welcome contributions from the vast array of disciplines within which the phenomenon has been addressed including, but not limited to: organizational behavior, human resources, industrial and organizational psychology, psychology, social psychology, educational psychology, sociology, and developmental psychology.