Positive affect predicting worker psychological response to cyber-bullying in the high-tech industry in Northern Taiwan

•Positive affect was found to positively influence organizational climate.•Organizational climate was found to negatively influence cyber-bullying.•Positive affect therefore influenced individuals’ perceptions on cyber-bullying.•Correlations were observed between positive affect and organizational innovation.

Online cyber-bullying has become a frequent occurrence in organizations. To understand individual dispositions and the organizational factors that effect online cyber-bullying, the present study investigates the relationship among positive affect, the perceived organizational innovation climate, and psychological responses to cyber-bullying. The research samples for this study are staff members from the high-tech manufacturing industry in Northern Taiwan. A total of 396 responses were validated for confirmatory factor analyses, correlation coefficient, and structural equation modeling (SEM). The research results revealed that a positive affect (PA) has a positive influence on perceived organizational innovation climate. Moreover, the perceived organizational innovation climate has a negative influence on psychological responses to cyber-bullying. Finally, the experience of cyber-bullying was positively correlated to the psychological response of being cyber-bullied, i.e., the more an individual had experienced cyber-bullying, the higher psychological response. The results further indicated an interesting finding for the mediating role of perceived organizational innovation climate between positive affect and psychological responses to cyber-bullying. Therefore, organizations can enhance the positive affect for employees and foster an effective organization innovation climate, so those workers are better adaptable to cope with cyber-bullying.