The Consequences of Verbal Aggression in the Workplace: An Application of the Investment Model

The purpose of the current study was to improve our theoretical and practical understanding by examining the influence of a supervisor's verbal aggression on his or her employees' job satisfaction and commitment, accounting for investment size and the quality of alternatives. And to account for reasons why organizations fail to fully realize the benefits associated with employee retention. A structural equation model was developed to emulate the investment model to determine the veracity of the model in the work setting and to answer the question as to why employees remained in communicatively hostile work environments. The findings shed light on the dynamics that take place within a work environment in which employees are targets of verbal aggression by their supervisors. The findings also indicated that the data fit the structural equation model and confirmed the applicability of the investment model in the workplace.