power trip; emotional harassment; conglomerate; market reaction; Korean-listed firms; event study; event system theory; emotional contagion
Issue Date
2018-12
Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
Citation
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, v. 9, Article no. 2333
Abstract
The activities and consequences of workplace bullying and harassment have been widely explored in the literature but mainly studied within the scope of individuals or at the team level. Taking a holistic approach, we associate the concept of bullying with firm-level performance as well as stakeholders' responses in the market. In this paper, we examine whether and how market investors react to the news of corporate harassment by top officials of publicly listed firms in Korea. Using a standard event study methodology and multiple regression analysis with matched sample, we find significantly negative stock price reactions to news of corporate bullying. We also find that the impact is more salient if emotional bullying is involved and discuss both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.