Effect of cyberbullying on employee creativity: examining the roles of family social support and job burnout

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cyberbullying at work on employee creativity with moderating role of family social support (FSS) and mediating role of job burnout. Design/methodology/approach Using convenience sampling technique, data were collected from 212 employees working in manufacturing sector. The partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings Results reveal that cyberbullying has found to be negatively associated with employee creativity and positively linked with job burnout. Furthermore, job burnout has negative connection with employee creativity; however, job burnout does not mediate the link between cyberbullying and creativity. Research limitations/implications This study provides comprehensive insights in the literature about the negative workplace context (cyberbullying) as antecedent, job-linked psychological exhaustion (job burnout) as mediation and generation of original thoughts by employees (employee creativity) as consequence. Originality/value Examination of FSS as coping strategy and job burnout as underlying mechanism between the cyberbullying and employee creativity is the novelty of the present research.