Impact of Workplace Mistreatment on Employees’ Health and Well-Being in Chinese Firms: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Mistreatment in the workplace is a recurring and persistent threat to employee health and organizational productivity. Research has shown that there are five times as many cases of workplace mistreatment reported in China as in the United States. Therefore, we established the mistreatment-employee health relationship in Chinese companies. The search was conducted in the Web of Science, EBSCOhost, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar databases. The search terms used were “China,” “mistreatment,” “abuse,” “neglect,” “exploitation,” and “violence.” The search was not limited by the year of publication. The search found 1,527 articles, 65 of which met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were used for data analysis and quality assessment. Our results show that the overall prevalence of abuse varies significantly but ranges from 18.5% to 94.6%. Psychological aggression by supervisors and customers was common in the healthcare industry. The experience of abuse was positively correlated with adverse consequences such as emotional fatigue, addiction, and suicidal ideation. By providing evidence of the effects of mistreatment, this study aims to help researchers and practitioners align their policies with global labor standards.