Psychological Capital, Workplace Stress, and Mobbing in the Context of Workers’ Mental Health

Judit Glavanits (), Kitti Hengl and Anikó Benyák
Additional contact information
Judit Glavanits: Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary
Kitti Hengl: Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary
Anikó Benyák: Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Széchenyi István University, 9026 Győr, Hungary

Societies, 2025, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: This study examines how employees’ psychological capital relates to workplace stress and mobbing (also known as workplace bullying) across three European countries. Stress has become an increasingly dominant issue globally since the second half of the 20th century, moving from clinical contexts into public awareness. It is now recognized as a significant health risk factor, particularly in work environments. While positive forms of stress (eustress) can enhance performance, chronic workplace stress is linked to serious mental and physical health problems. This study investigates the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap), workplace stress, and mobbing among employees in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Based on a cross-sectional survey (N = 89), the research applied validated instruments (PCQ, PSS-10, COPSOQ II) to measure PsyCap, perceived workplace stress, and experiences of mobbing. Results show a high average PsyCap level (M = 4.64, SD = 0.70) and a moderate perceived workplace stress level (M = 2.73, SD = 0.62) across the sample. A strong negative correlation was identified between PsyCap and workplace stress (r = −0.573, p < 0.001), while a moderate positive correlation was found between workplace stress and mobbing experiences (r = 0.323, p = 0.002). Although PsyCap moderated stress levels, it did not significantly moderate the relationship between mobbing and perceived stress. These findings emphasize the role of PsyCap in reducing workplace stress and underline the necessity of organizational interventions in promoting psychological resilience and mobbing prevention. The results also indicate a need to further examine the causal relationship between mobbing, stress, and PsyCap.

Keywords: mobbing; psychological capital; stress; workplace stress; well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/9/244/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/15/9/244/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:15:y:2025:i:9:p:244-:d:1740659

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().