SOCIAL ISOLATION IN THE FACTORY: INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF BULLYING AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN EMPLOYEE DISENGAGEMENT

Abstract

This paper aims to focus on the effect of workplace bullying on the mental health and employability of graduate students, the mediators of this relationship are work-life imbalance, toxic workplace environment, counterproductive work behavior. The dependent variables, which are burnout and loneliness, are discussed to determine how they influence job readiness and career availability. Convenience sampling was conducted on a sample size of 400 graduate students and this stand gives a good image of data to be analyzed. The working hypothesis of the research is that workplace bullying contributes to enhanced work-life imbalance, poisoned working environments, and counterproductive working practices that subsequently contribute to the rise in the level of burnout and loneliness among graduate students. It is expected that the research conducted can have negative implications by making students not quite ready and presentable to the job market and careers. Moreover, this study assumes that through entrepreneurship learning, students acquire critical skills including innovation, problem-solving, and flexibility skills, which lead to increasing the employability skills. It is envisaged that family support leads to feeling resilient and confident, whereas good systems of social networks will present good networking opportunities and career advice. Moreover, entrepreneurial mindset can serve as such force of multiplication where the benefits attributed to education, support, and relationships regarding employability are thus improved. The results will be beneficial in better understanding the extent to which bullying in the work place affects the mental health of the graduate students as well as the likelihood of professional success in their careers, and how the process of entrepreneurship training and support networks can help to eliminate such consequences. This will be achieved by bringing out the importance of each variable in respect to employability in an attempt to inform decisions made in educational policies and practices towards strengthening graduate students in their bid to face challenges faced in the modern workforce.

Keywords: Workplace Bullying; Work-life Imbalance; Toxic Workplace; Counterproductive Work Behavior; Social Isolation; Burnout