Personality traits as predictors or outcomes of being exposed to bullying in the workplace

•A full two-wave panel design study was carried out.•We examined causation, reversed causation, and reciprocal causation models.•Personality traits do not predict exposure to workplace bullying.•Exposure to bullying at T1 predicts low agreeableness at T2.

Workplace bullying is a well-known and clearly defined phenomenon. The research on the profile of bullying targets indicates that employees exposed to bullying experience high levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness and low levels of agreeableness and social skills. However, although it is agreed that individual antecedents such as the personalities of targets may contribute to the escalation of bullying, there has been no longitudinal research aimed at determining the individual antecedents or the effects of workplace bullying. In the present full two-wave panel design study (N = 190), workers filled out the Negative Activities Questionnaire (NAQ-R) and the NeoFive Factor Inventory (NEOFFI) twice, with a six-month interval between them. The results indicate that exposure to bullying in the first wave leads to a decrease in agreeableness in the second wave.