Does Workplace Bullying Influence Employee Performance Through Psychological Well-Being in Sarawak's Banking Sector?

Abstract

Employee performance is a core driver for organizational success, especially in service focused sectors like banking. This study draws on Affective Events Theory (AET) to examine how workplace bullying influences employee performance in the Malaysian banking sector (based in Sarawak) with psychological well-being as the mediating variable. A quantitative approach was used by means of a structured questionnaire, which was filled in by 266 employees in the top five commercial banks (selected by means of stratified random sampling). Data analysis SPSS and SmartPLS-SEM were used for descriptive, correlation and mediation analyses. The results indicate that with the mediation of psychological well-being, workplace bullying is negatively related to employee performance. In this light, it is noted that the extent of bullying found in Sarawak banks is limited yet detrimental in terms of psychological well-being with associated employee performance. The study results underscored the pragmatic immediacy with which mental health should be addressed in an industry such as finance where performance is crucial for economic stability. This study highlights the need to tackle workplace bullying in the Malaysian banking sector as a part of the overall sustainable and decent work agenda of SDG 8. Subsequent studies should extend the model to longitudinal, cross-industry, and cyber-bullying contexts to capture changing work dynamics.