Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Workplace aggression is a well-researched and known issue within the subdomain of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Common examples of workplace aggression include, but are not limited to, physical violence, bullying, and verbal degradation. It is typically defined as intentional behavior, but some literature also considers unintentional behaviors that still have undesirable consequences. Further research has examined the construct of retaliatory aggression. It has been found that victims of workplace aggression are likely to “retaliate,” or take out the anger associated with their victimization on other individuals. Despite the numerous amounts of research that has examined workplace aggression and retaliation, not as much research has been conducted that has considered novel workplace interventions for experienced aggression and retaliation within the workplace. The proposed study seeks to define and create a novel intervention for aggression experienced within the workplace and in turn, diminish the likelihood of retaliatory aggression occurring. This study is based on the idea of “prosocial rippling;” that is, the idea that spreading positive interpersonal messages to other individuals can create a rippling effect wherein everyone who has received a positive message continues the chain of positivity by spreading a positive message to another individual. For the current study, it is hypothesized and expected that if an individual were to receive positive interpersonal feedback after experiencing workplace aggression, then their possible retaliatory response would be dampened. Current design prospects include a lab-based study that would utilize two between-subjects conditions and a field study within university departments. For the lab-based study, the control group would be presented with a video vignette that displays an aggressive interaction between two coworkers within a retail store with a neutral coworker watching, while the experimental group would be presented with a video vignette that displays an aggressive interaction between two coworkers with another coworker intervening with an affirmation for the victimized coworker. For the field study, departments from several universities would be surveyed on experienced workplace aggression. Afterwards, the department chair would be prompted by the research team to send out affirming messages as a part of their normal communications. The employees within the department would then be re-tested on their experienced workplace aggression. Implications from this proposed study may allow researchers within the realm of workplace aggression to examine ways to implement novel interventions for possible retaliatory responses to aggression.
Date
November 2026
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Interrupting aggression: The role of supportive messaging in workplace behavior
Workplace aggression is a well-researched and known issue within the subdomain of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Common examples of workplace aggression include, but are not limited to, physical violence, bullying, and verbal degradation. It is typically defined as intentional behavior, but some literature also considers unintentional behaviors that still have undesirable consequences. Further research has examined the construct of retaliatory aggression. It has been found that victims of workplace aggression are likely to “retaliate,” or take out the anger associated with their victimization on other individuals. Despite the numerous amounts of research that has examined workplace aggression and retaliation, not as much research has been conducted that has considered novel workplace interventions for experienced aggression and retaliation within the workplace. The proposed study seeks to define and create a novel intervention for aggression experienced within the workplace and in turn, diminish the likelihood of retaliatory aggression occurring. This study is based on the idea of “prosocial rippling;” that is, the idea that spreading positive interpersonal messages to other individuals can create a rippling effect wherein everyone who has received a positive message continues the chain of positivity by spreading a positive message to another individual. For the current study, it is hypothesized and expected that if an individual were to receive positive interpersonal feedback after experiencing workplace aggression, then their possible retaliatory response would be dampened. Current design prospects include a lab-based study that would utilize two between-subjects conditions and a field study within university departments. For the lab-based study, the control group would be presented with a video vignette that displays an aggressive interaction between two coworkers within a retail store with a neutral coworker watching, while the experimental group would be presented with a video vignette that displays an aggressive interaction between two coworkers with another coworker intervening with an affirmation for the victimized coworker. For the field study, departments from several universities would be surveyed on experienced workplace aggression. Afterwards, the department chair would be prompted by the research team to send out affirming messages as a part of their normal communications. The employees within the department would then be re-tested on their experienced workplace aggression. Implications from this proposed study may allow researchers within the realm of workplace aggression to examine ways to implement novel interventions for possible retaliatory responses to aggression.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology