Researchers have emphasized the work environment as an important risk factor for bullying (e.g., Vartia, 1996; Agervold & Mikkelsen, 2004; Tuckey, Dollard, Hosking, Winefield, 2009). The aim of the present study is to examine the relationship between psychological work environment factors and the risk of mobbing. The authors focused on three specific dimensions: psychological job demand, role ambiguity and leader’s support. According to the Job Demand-Resource theory (e.g., Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) the authors hypothesized that: the three factors have direct influence on the perception of risk of mobbing; leader’s support moderates the relationship between the job/role factors and mobbing. Participant in the study were 134 Italian workers who voluntarily filled a self-reported questionnaire. Results show that psychological job demand and leader’s support are the best antecedents for risk of mobbing, whereas the relationship between role ambiguity and mobbing is moderated by the leader’s support. In particular, when the perception of leader’s support is low, a high role ambiguity increases the frequency of the risk of mobbing. On the other hand, when the perception of leader’s support is high the risk of mobbing decreases both for high and low levels of role ambiguity. Overall, these results support the important role that management practices aiming to improve psychological work environment and, in particular, leader-employee relationship might play in preventing the mobbing phenomena. Implication for further research is also discussed.

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Mobbing, Job Control-Support Theory, Job Demand-Resource Theory, leader´s support