Bullying in Korean Hotel Restaurant Kitchens: Why is Everybody Always Picking on Me?

Purpose- The primary purpose of this article is to develop and test a model of the antecedents and consequences (Cho, Bonn, Han, & Lee, 2016) of bullying in Korean hotel kitchens.<br><br>Design Methodology/approach- Cross-sectional survey data was collected from 288 kitchen workers at 12 upscale Korean hotels. Proposed path models were tested using Hayes’ (2013)PROCESS syntax in SPSS for mediation and moderated mediation analyses.<br><br>Findings- The empirical results indicated that an employee’s acquiescent silence behavior increases the likelihood of being bullied. As a result, bullied employees are more likely to respond by engaging in CWB-P or in defensive silence out of fear with temporary employees reacting less aggressively compared to regular employees.<br><br>Research limitations/implications-. Theoretical and practical implications for kitchen productivity are presented. The study should offer valuable insights for prospective employers to develop on-going training and create a positive working environment within the organization.<br><br>Originality/value- While bullying is a widespread and even an epidemic problem for the commercial kitchen environment, research into abusive behavior among chefs has been limited.By utilizing a specific segment of the hospitality industry, this research identified different behavioral aspects of bulling between temporary and regular employees in the commercial kitchen environment.