Citation

Sigursteinsdottir H, Karlsdottir FB. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022; 19(8): e4724.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph19084724

PMID

35457589

Abstract

This study aims to examine social support at work amongst the employees of Icelandic municipalities and its relationship to job satisfaction, bullying and harassment. The study is based on an online survey conducted in 2021. A total of 4973 employees answered the questionnaire in part or in full after three reminders (57% response rate). The majority of the participants in the study were women (82%), but this gender ratio was representative of the population. The results show that social support gave an average score of 4.2 on a scale of 1-5; 87% of the participants were rather often or always satisfied with their job, 8% had experienced bullying at work, 2% had experienced sexual harassment and 3% had experienced gender-based harassment. Social support has a positive, moderately strong correlation with employee job satisfaction and a weak negative correlation with bullying at work. Based on the results, social support is an important factor related to the job satisfaction of employees and is a protective factor against bullying and sexual harassment at work. This finding demonstrates that managers and those responsible for employee well-being in the workplace should focus on social support at work, especially now that the psychosocial work environment is fragile because of COVID-19.

Language: en

Keywords

bullying; social support; harassment; job satisfaction; well-being at work