Organizational Frustration and Aggressive Behaviors

Abstract This study, conducted in a large public agency and a large private transportation company in the U.S., found strong relationships between organizational characteristics and frustration. Role ambiguity, role conflict, work constraints, and warmth and support predicted the level of frustration experienced by employees. In turn, frustration predicted supervisor- and self-reported aggression. Frustration also predicted self-reported criterion behaviors such as withdrawal, aggression turned inward, and abandonment of goal. Frustration mediated the relationships between organizational characteristics and the criteria. In the study we developed two scales: (1) a self-report scale of behavioral reactions to frustration, and (2) the Workplace Aggressive Behaviors Scale, a guideline to increase supervisors' ability to judge the seriousness of aggressive behaviors in the work environment.