Socially Dominated: The Racialized and Gendered Positionality of Those Precluded from Bullying

Abstract

Workplace bullying has received increasing attention from researchers since the early 2000s. While the cost of disengagement and the impact on people of color have been considered (Hollis, 2012), this conceptual essay is a secondary analysis of data collected in Chapter 1 to reflect on the position of the target. Reflecting on the primary sample of 200 community college respondents, this analysis uses descriptive statistics to answer the question, “what is the extent of community college women affected by workplace bullying?” After it was determined that 32.5% of the general sample, primarily women, avoided bullying, the researcher developed a second question “who is not bullied in community colleges?” This secondary analysis shows that race, gender, and position are factors that seemingly contribute to who avoids bullying. Considering theories regarding social dominance (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994; Sidanius, 1993) and constrained choice (Broadbridge, 2010; Hakim, 2002), the data revealed that those who are not bullied tend to be white, women, in middle management, without tenure. Further, only 6% of the people of color reported they were unaffected by workplace bullying. These respondents of color all held positions without power in the community college structure.

Citation

Hollis, L.P. (2016), "Socially Dominated: The Racialized and Gendered Positionality of Those Precluded from Bullying", The Coercive Community College: Bullying and its Costly Impact on the Mission to Serve Underrepresented Populations (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420160000018012