The Impact of Workplace Bullying on Employee Safety Behavior in the Petroleum Industry: A Moderated Mediating Model

Introduction: Higher quality relationships are vital to promoting safe behavior in the workplace. However, research on how workplace bullying affects safe behavior remains scarce. To explore this relationship, the concepts of team psychological safety and benevolent leadership were introduced. Method: Drawing on the self-regulatory resource theory, this study explores the relationships among workplace bullying, safety compliance, and safety participation, and further examines the mediating role of team psychological safety and the moderating influence of benevolent leadership. This research involved 800 employees from petroleum enterprises, with data collected via a two-stage random sampling method. Results: The results showed that: (a) Workplace bullying had significantly negative correlations with employees’ safety behavior. (b) Team psychological safety played a mediating role between workplace bullying and employees’ safety behavior. (c) Benevolent leadership could play a moderating role in the second half of the mediating effect between workplace bullying and safety behavior. Conclusions: Workplace bullying is a negative form of interpersonal interaction that reduces employees’ safety behavior by diminishing team psychological safety. Benevolent leadership has a significant impact on safe behavior, and should be a key factor in promoting safe behavior. Practical Applications: This study is an extension of research on employee safety behavior from a self-regulatory resource theory perspective. Moreover, it offers practical guidance on how to promote employees’ safety behavior, namely resisting workplace bullying, selecting and nurturing benevolent leaders, and actively fostering team psychological safety.