The role of bystander behavior and employee resilience in mitigating workplace cyberbullying impacts on employee innovative performance

Background Workplace cyberbullying significantly impacts employee well-being and innovation. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying’s digital nature makes it pervasive and challenging to address. Objective This study investigates how workplace cyberbullying affects employee innovation performance, focusing on the mediating role of work disengagement and the moderating roles of bystander behavior and employee resilience. Methods Snowball sampling was used to identify 263 victims of workplace cyberbullying in the IT sector of Pakistan. The data collected through an online survey was analyzed using structural equation modeling to examine the relationships between workplace cyberbullying, work disengagement, innovation performance, and the moderating effects of bystander behavior and resilience. Results Workplace cyberbullying negatively impacts innovation performance directly and through increased work disengagement. Active bystander behavior mitigates, while passive bystander behavior exacerbates the adverse effects of workplace cyberbullying on work disengagement. Contrary to expectations, employee resilience did not significantly moderate the relationship between workplace cyberbullying and disengagement. Conclusions Workplace cyberbullying undermines employee innovation performance by increasing work disengagement. Active bystander intervention can reduce these negative impacts, highlighting the need for organizational policies to encourage supportive behavior. The lack of a moderating effect of resilience suggests that tailored resilience training is necessary for high-pressure environments like the IT sector in Pakistan.