Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the linkages between such negative workplace behaviors as abusive supervision and coworker bullying (CB)/mobbing; also, the study explores the linkages between such negative behaviors and work-life outcomes.

The authors use “negative acts,” abusive supervision, and workplace bullying/mobbing and develop work-life outcomes scales to test a data set collected from randomly selected respondents in the Midwest of the USA. The two-stage data collection offsets common method variance.

The authors find evidence that American supervisors and employees commit negative behavioral acts rarely. However, the data analyses indicate that many significant relationships exist among negative acts, abusive supervision, CB/mobbing, and employee well-being.

Companies are reluctant to allow surveying their employees on the subject of negative acts. Therefore, respondents in this study are a random sample. Many statistically significant interrelationships were detected.

This study will reinvigorate discussion on workplace negative behaviors, bullying, and their effects on employee well-being.

Addressing and reducing negative workplace behaviors will reduce employee stress and anxiety and improve the quality of employees’ work and life.

The scales were selected and developed, and the data set was constructed specifically for this study; the interactions of negative acts, abusive supervision, CB and mobbing, and work-life outcomes are tested together in a workplace scenario for the first time.

This chapter is based on a study investigating the effect of downward mobbing on employees' stress-related growth (SRG) with the mediator role of burnout and the moderator role of personality hardiness and coworker support. Data were collected from 367 employees (177 females, 186 males) through MTurk. Self-report measures were administered to participants who have been exposed to mobbing by their supervisor/manager in at least one of their previous work experiences. Moderated mediation analysis suggested that burnout mediates the relationship between mobbing and SRG where burnout and growth were negatively associated. Coworker support appeared as a significant but inadequate moderator to promote growth. Post hoc analysis suggested that there is a curvilinear relationship between burnout and growth, and hardiness is a significant – but insufficient – moderator in the direct relationship. Implications for science and practice will be discussed.

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the effect of mobbing in workers’ health.

Using a dataset of Spanish workers from the VI Spanish Survey on Working Conditions, the authors identify mobbed and not mobbed workers and use two different health indicators: the worker's perception that work affects health, and the presence of bad health symptoms. The authors analyze the incidence of both indicators in mobbed and not mobbed workers then estimate an econometric model to explain the probability of suffering bad health in terms of mobbing and a set of job and workers’ characteristics. The authors deal with the potential endogeneity of mobbing.

It is found that, regardless of the health indicator used, the probability of suffering bad health is significantly higher among mobbed workers than among those not being mobbed. Moreover, when the health indicator is based on the worker's perception, not taking into account the endogeneity of mobbing leads to underestimation of its effect on health.

The results can be of interest for workers, firms and policy makers in charge of designing policies related to working conditions. Given the well‐known link between worker's health and productivity, the paper's results can have implications from the economic point of view.

To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to empirically analyze the relationship between mobbing and health at Spanish workplaces.

The chapter elaborates how organizational governance can optimally address workplace bullying, a synergy possible because organizational governance seeks to promote ethical functioning while workplace bullying is considered an unethical behavior. Through its suggestions, the chapter aims at furthering employee dignity and well-being, cohering with international calls for human rights at work.

A review of two literatures was conducted: (a) workplace bullying differentiated on the basis of its situatedness and level into internal bullying – of an interpersonal and depersonalized nature – and external bullying; and (b) organizational governance including its theoretical perspectives, especially the societal lens, and international, national, and firm codes.

Several organizational governance measures at institutional level – both international and national in scope – and at firm level are proposed to deal with varieties of workplace bullying encompassing primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Accordingly, a shift in organizational effectiveness from goal-based models to process-oriented frameworks so that economic and non-economic objectives are balanced, following the stakeholder approach, is advocated. The political dynamics involved in such an initiative are alluded to.

Application, drawing on secondary rather than primary data, is the essential thrust of the chapter, with recommendations anchored in organizational governance, particularly its societal perspective, conceptualized to address workplace bullying in a holistic manner.

First, despite the clear relevance of organizational governance to workplace bullying, the prospect of interventions from this standpoint has never been previously explored. Second, the term “varieties of workplace bullying” is propounded to capture the different types of emotional abuse at work known so far.

The purpose of this paper is to explore targets’ coping strategies in dealing with workplace bullying and to determine the possible contributing effects of these strategies to the escalation or de-escalation of bullying process.

Based on a qualitative design, 20 self-reported targets were interviewed in-depth and data were analysed using the content analysis method.

Five main themes were identified in the targets’ coping with workplace bullying: first, underestimation of the problem – avoidance; second, losing patience – confrontation; third, perceiving threats to personal health – seeking support; fourth, despair – destructive coping; and fifth, giving up – exit. The use of coping strategies both influenced the course of workplace bullying and were affected by the escalating nature of the bullying process itself. The most effective strategies included problem-solving strategies like coping collectively with colleagues, seeking support of managerial staff and filing complaints to management.

The present study contributed to the workplace bullying research by describing workplace bullying as a process in which targets’ coping strategies and their consequences were evaluated and by providing data in a new national context (Turkey).

During the past decade, there has been increased attention into bullying behaviours in workplaces. Research to date has varied in design, the definition of what constitutes bullying behaviour, as well as the methods used to collect data and measure bullying incidence and prevalence. Nonetheless, studies demonstrate that bullying is a significant issue, which warrants an increased research focus to develop greater understanding of the concept, its effects and implications in, and for, the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to focus on capturing a range of international and Australian literature regarding workplace bullying behaviours in a health context from a management perspective. As a result, this paper identified the gaps in the literature when expanded specifically to an Australian health context.

The purpose of this review is to summarise the existing literature, both internationally and in Australia which examines workplace bullying behaviours in a health context from a management perspective. This describes the review of the literature on workplace bullying in a health context undertaken from January to April 2014. The “Preferred Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses” method was used to structure the review, which covered a wide range of literature from databases including MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL and InformIT, as well as reports, and grey literature.

The review included 62 studies that met the inclusion criteria and reported either: factors contributing to workplace bullying, at least one significant example of workplace bullying behaviour or the impact of workplace bullying behaviours in a health context.

There is limited data on workplace bullying behaviours in an Australian health context. The literature supports there is value in future research to develop consistent definitions, policies, procedures and frameworks, which could help to prevent or address workplace bullying behaviours based on work being undertaken internationally.

The term “workplace bullying” migrated to the UK from Scandinavian countries in the early 1990s as an interpretation of persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions which makes the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated or vulnerable, undermines their self‐confidence and which may cause them to suffer stress. This article traces the emergence of workplace bullying in UK media presentations, trade union publications, self‐help literature and academic discussions. An analysis is offered of whether workplace bullying should be considered a new problem, or instead whether it might be viewed as a new interpretation for an existing problem. I draw from qualitative interviews with bullied men and women to discuss how workers are deploying the concept of workplace bullying. My analysis demonstrates that “workplace bullying” supplies a helpful interpretation for a range of unfair practices, but that the current emphasis on persistent and/or harmful experiences should be problematised.

In the early 2010s, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) became increasingly concerned about incidents of academic workplace “bullying” on the campus, and in 2014–2016 created policies designed to address such behavior at the University. The new policies and accompanying initiatives were implemented in 2017, defining a new term to describe these behaviors as “hostile and intimidating behavior” (HIB). We use data from three sources to explore the outcomes of the new HIB policies and initiatives to date. Evaluation data from training sessions show the importance of educating the campus community about HIB, providing evidence that the training sessions increase HIB knowledge. Data from two campus-wide surveys measure incidence of HIB for different groups on campus (e.g., analysis by gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, rank, job duty, and/or the intersection of these characteristics), as well as changes in the knowledge about HIB as reported by faculty and staff. These data show that UW-Madison faculty and staff are increasing their knowledge of HIB as a problem and also increasing their knowledge about what to do about it. Underrepresented groups who more commonly experience HIB agree that this culture is improving. At the same time, we are seeing slow and uneven progress in reduction of actual incidence of HIB at UW-Madison. We close with some “lessons learned” about instituting such a sweeping, campus-wide effort to reduce HIB, in the hopes that other campuses can learn from our experience.

This study seeks to identify 172 American elementary, middle, and high school teachers' perceptions of the major sources and intensity of the experience of mistreatment by a principal, the effects of such mistreatment, how these perceptions varied by demographic variables, teachers' coping skills, and teachers' perceptions of contributing factors.

Participants completed a piloted, validated online questionnaire.

The participants reported experiencing a wide range of abusive principal behaviors that resulted in serious or extensive harmful psychological/emotional, physical/physiological, and work‐related effects to themselves, their work, and their families. An overwhelming majority (77 percent) indicated they would leave their job for another because of the harm caused by the principal's mistreatment. Mistreated teachers typically did not enact problem‐focused coping strategies. Differences were found among teachers of various demographic categories for several variables.

The findings of this current, quantitative study expand the authors' earlier qualitative research on the topic of teacher mistreatment; these are the only studies on this topic completed in the USA. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are included.

The paper seeks to validate a structural model wherein workplace bullying is depicted as related to health by way of mediating the relationship between organizational climate with health.

Over 700 Japanese employees completed a shorter version of the Majer D'Amato organizational questionnaire 10, the Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised and the Center for Epidemiologic Study for Depression. Lifestyle variables (alcohol consumption and sleeping hours) were also collected from participants. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesis.

A model of bullying at work was developed which incorporated relationships among organizational and health factors. Workplace bullying partially mediated the climate‐health relationship.

The model developed within this paper integrates prior theoretical work on workplace bullying and helps researchers and organizations understand the process through organizational risk factors that might have a negative association with employees' health. Further, this paper contributes an understanding of workplace bullying in a non‐Western context.