Multicultural Education Volume 8, Issue 3, 2022 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 227 Employee Motivations In Protecting Workplace Harassment: Longitudinal Analysis Of Protection Motivation Theory From Fear Appeal Perspective Ana Atta, Hadi Hassan Khan, Nadeem Uz Zaman, Samia Kousar, Sm Nabeel Ulhaq, Wahab Ahmed Article Info Abstract Article History Received: August 17, 2021 The use of fear appeals in persuasive messages has long been used to motivate people to act in adaptive ways.Nevertheless, workplace harassment leads to many unintended consequences. The question of identifying and systematically evaluating relevant research findings has never been explored in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary way despite the demonstrated interest from researchers across a range of disciplines.The study examines the effects of a fear appeal message regardingworkplace harassment. While scholars and practitioners recognize that workplace harassment occurs in various forms in organizations, there is little knowledge regarding how these different forms of harassment influence employees' outcomes.In this study, the goal was to determine whether protection motivation theory (PMT) can be used to explain the intentions of employees to quit their jobs.A random sample of 290 participants was selected from different service sector organizations in Pakistan and studied over two different periods.A sample of respondents without fear appeal was obtained at time1, and a sample of respondents with fear massage was collected at time2.By using composite confirmatory analysis (CCA) and partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we were able to determine the validity and reliability of each PMT construct.Higher perceived vulnerabilities, self- efficacy, and response efficacy were significantly correlated with higher quitting intentions, but intrinsic rewards were inversely related.A higher threat and coping appraisal were significantly associated with a higher quitting intention but was negatively associated with response cost.PMT has been found effective at predicting the quitting intentions of employees in Pakistani organizations.According to the study, it appears that the fear- inducing message can interact with the message to influence access tomaladaptive behavior. The results are discussed concerning models of fear appeals. Accepted: March 18, 2022 Keywords : Protection Motivation Theory, Fear Appeal, Workplace Harassment, LongitudinalStudy DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6370350 Introduction The problem of workplace bullying, which is often referred to as "mobbing," is complicated. A variety of forms and hues are possible, as are a wide range of underlying causes on numerous levels, as well as differing perspectives on its very nature(Einarsen, 2000).Employees began to pay attention to workplace bullying in Scandinavia during the 1980s as a result of research being done on bullying in schools(Olweus, 1987). Many research projects were launched in Norway (Einarsen & Raknes, 1997; Einarsen et al., 1994; Kile, 1990; Matthiesen et al., 1989), Sweden (Leymann, 1990, 1996), and Finland (Björkqvist et al., 1994; Vartia, 1991, 1996), showing that this phenomenon exists and that such treatment and these experiences have had serious negative effects on both targets and observers (Einarsen et al., 2020). Bullying, like any other workplace hazard, poses a serious risk to the health, safety, and well-being of employees(Marijnissen et al., 2020). Aside from the negative impact on employees, bullying also has financial and legal ramifications for employees. These include decreased productivity, low morale, an increase in absenteeism, and a decrease in profits due to staff turnover(Menard et al., 2017). In addition to the high legal fees, defending against bullying and harassment cases can be extremely expensive, and the publicity that often goes along with high-profile cases exposes organizations and individuals to unnecessary harm(Jenkins, 2013).Employees who work in an unorganized environment are more likely to be stressed and frustrated, which can lead to interpersonal conflicts, some of which spiral out of control and become bullying situations(D'Cruz et al., 2019). This study examines how PMT, its dimensions, and the threat of retaliation affect the behavior of employees. The PMT model was developed to predict behavior change through persuasive communication that uses fear appeals(Maddux & Rogers, 1983).A sophisticated fear appeals scheme was developed, which identified key trigger variables to modulate behavior.The PMT links coping assessment and threat assessment to explain the