The Relationship between Workplace Bullying and Deviant Workplace Behaviors with the Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between workplace bullying and employees’ deviant workplace behaviors in governmental organizations of Lorestan province, when the emotional exhaustion has been considered as a mediating role. The statistical population of the study was 1317 employees of general staff of Lorestan province based in Khorramabad city. According to the Morgan table, a sample size of 297 was selected by stratified random sampling. In order to measure the variables of the research, the (Einarsen, Hoel & Notelaers’ ,2009) Workplace Bullying Questionnaire, (Maslach and Jackson’s, 2000), Emotional Exhaustion Questionnaire and the (Bennett and Robinson’s, 2000) Deviant Workplace Behaviors Questionnaire were used. For data analysis, structural equations modeling and Amos software have been used. The results of the research show that workplace bullying has a positive and significant relationship with deviant behaviors and emotional exhaustion directly, also The results showed that emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between workplace bullying and employee deviant behaviors.