A person can experience cyberbullying at work when exposed to repetitive and intrusive negative acts facilitated by new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The incidence of workplace cyberbullying has rapidly increased following the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue does not arise in isolation; leadership plays a critical role. Leaders who fail to set clear rules and provide minimal supervision may exacerbate interpersonal conflicts among subordinates. This study explores the role of laissez-faire leadership and interpersonal conflicts on workplace cyberbullying from a gender perspective. A two-wave panel study was conducted (N = 1995; 53.6% women; M age = 42.02 years old; SD = 9.23; age range: 18–74 years old). Our findings indicate no direct relationship between laissez-faire leadership and workplace cyberbullying; however, there is a significant indirect relationship. Laissez-faire leadership is associated with a higher frequency of interpersonal conflicts, which in turn are related to cyberbullying, making interpersonal conflicts a mediator. Additionally, gender moderates the relationship between interpersonal conflicts and workplace cyberbullying. Our results suggest that interpersonal conflicts may increase exposure to cyberbullying, particularly for men under laissez-faire leadership. These findings have managerial implications for introducing tailored interventions to prevent workplace cyberbullying.

Workplace cyberbullying is an emergent psychosocial risk at work that compromises employees’ health and well-being. However, there is lack of validated measures in Spanish to assess this issue. Thus, this study aims to validate the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work (ICA-W) in a sample of Spanish employees ( N ₁ = 498) and to develop an ultra-short version, which was subsequently tested in a second representative sample ( N ₂ = 1,995). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original three-factor structure (comprising work-related, person-related, and intrusive cyberbullying behaviors) and indicated the presence of a strong underlying general cyberbullying factor, indicating a solid model fit. Also, this Spanish version of the ICA-W demonstrated good psychometric properties and reliability (α = .973; ω = .973). Regarding validity, ICA-W scores were significantly associated with anxiety and work engagement in the expected direction, providing initial evidence of criterion-related validity. In addition, an ultra-short version of the ICA-W (3 items) was developed based on expert judgment to facilitate quick assessments in research and applied settings. Results from analyses conducted in Sample 2 suggest that this ultra-short measure was also reliable and valid. These findings support the use of both the full and ultra-short versions of the ICA-W for measuring workplace cyberbullying in Spain, thereby facilitating the estimation of its prevalence and enabling cross-cultural comparisons.