The effects of workplace bullying on witnesses: violation of the psychological contract as an explanatory mechanism?

This study analyses the effects of witnessing workplace bullying on employee attitudes and well-being. Furthermore, the study seeks to extend our understanding of why bullying may result in negative outcomes for witnesses, by studying violation of the psychological contract as an explanatory mechanism. The paper draws on two survey studies conducted in Belgium (n = 1473) and Finland (n = 1148). The results show that witnessing bullying affects work-related attitudes, but not necessarily stress outcomes, when controlling for witnesses’ own experiences of bullying. Experiences of bullying on the part of the witnesses themselves are seldom controlled for in witness studies, thus possibly leading to false positive results. Furthermore, the study finds support for the role of psychological contract violation in explaining the relationship between witnessing bullying and poorer employee attitudes, thus contributing to our understanding of the mechanisms behind witnesses reactions. That witnesses perceive a psychological contract violation suggests bullying affects the employee-organization relationship not merely for targets. Overall, the results demonstrate bullying has effects beyond the target-perpetrator relationship and thereby further highlight the need for organisational action to reduce the risk of bullying.acceptedVersio

Exposure to workplace bullying and group dynamics: A social network analysis

Purpose The aim of this study was to analyze how employees’ position in the social network affects their exposure to bullying behaviours at work and how this exposure in turn affects group dynamics. Design/Methodology Longitudinal data on exposure to bullying behaviours (NAQ – short version) and network data on relationship quality (friendship relations; difficult relations) were collected in eight Finnish organizations. Hypotheses were tested based on two waves of data (n = 249) using stochastic actor-oriented modeling for the coevolution of networks and attributes, as implemented in RSiena. Results Contrary to expectations, the number of friends and the number of difficult relations (T1) had no effect on exposure to bullying behaviour (T2). However, respondents with higher exposure to bullying behaviours at T1 reported both more friendships and more difficult relations at T2, suggesting that on the group level bullying behaviour might lead to group polarization. Also, employees’ exposure to bullying behaviours was affected by the bullying behaviours experienced by their friends, pointing to contagion or social influence effects. Limitations RSiena does not allow taking into account the multilevel nature of the data. Research/Practical Implications The findings highlight the importance of taking into account group dynamics for understanding exposure to workplace bullying and its consequences. Originality/Value The study introduces a new methodological approach to workplace bullying research, making it possible to take into account dynamics of social networks and the interdependencies between the actors and their responses to workplace bullying

Workplace Bullying among Business Professionals: Prevalence, Gender Differences and the Role of Organizational Politics

The aim of this article is to describe the prevalence of bullying experienced by business professionals and to further the understanding of bullying by analyzing to what extent gender aspects and organizational politics may contribute to bullying in knowledge-intensive career-oriented jobs. The study was conducted as a cross-sectional survey study among members of a professional organization for employees with a university degree in business studies. In addition, written stories were collected to increase the understanding of bullying. This article presents data on the prevalence of bullying, gender differences in bullying, and the relationship between bullying and organizational politics. In addition, some implications for both researchers and managers are presented. The article is based on the author’s doctoral thesis.Cet article décrit la prévalence du harcèlement professionnel dans le milieu des affaires et tente de comprendre cette réalité en considérant dans quelle mesure les différences homme-femme et la culture organisationnelle contribuent au harcèlement dans un milieu de travail compétitif où les emplois sont basés sur le savoir. Une étude transversale a été réalisée auprès de membres d’une organisation professionnelle de diplômés universitaires du milieu des affaires. Des comptes rendus écrits d’épisodes de harcèlement ont également été utilisés. Les résultats présentés décrivent la prévalence du harcèlement, les différences de genre à cet égard, ainsi que les liens entre le harcèlement et la culture organisationnelle. Des retombées intéressant les chercheurs et les gestionnaires sont également présentées. L’article est basé sur la thèse de doctorat de l’auteur.El objetivo de este artículo es describir la prevalencia de la intimidación (bullying) vivida por profesionales del área de negocios con formación superior y orientación carrierista,así como incrementar la comprensión de la intimidación, analizando el grado de contribución de los aspectos relacionados con el género y las políticas organizacionales. La investigación se desarrolló como un estudio transversal realizado entre los miembros de una organización profesional de empleados con formación universitaria en estudios de negocios. Para incrementar la comprensión de la intimidación colectamos también testimonios escritos. Este artículo presenta datos sobre la prevalencia de la intimidación, las diferencias de género y la relación entre la intimidación y la política organizacional. Además presentamos algunas implicaciones para los investigadores y los gerentes . Este artículo está basado en la tesis doctoral de la autora

Bullying and organisational politics in competitive and rapidly changing work environments

This paper argues that workplace bullying can in some cases be a form of organisational politics, that is, a deliberate, competitive strategy from the perspective of the individual perpetrator. A cross-sectional study conducted among business professionals revealed that there was a correlation between a politicised and competitive climate and bullying. This finding implies that globalisation, increased pressures for efficiency, and restructuring, which limits the number of management positions and thereby contributes to increased internal competition, may lead to more bullying. The findings have important implications for management, since the possible political aspects of bullying must be taken into account in order to be able to undertake successful prevention and intervention measures

Organisational Responses to Workplace Harassment: An Exploratory Study

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore what kind of measures personnel managers have taken to intervene in workplace harassment and to explore how organisational characteristics and the characteristics of the personnel manager affect the choice of response strategies. Design/methodology/approach – The study was exploratory and used a survey design. A web-based questionnaire was sent to the personnel managers of all Finnish municipalities and data on organisational responses and organisational characteristics were collected. Findings – The study showed that the organisations surveyed relied heavily on reconciliatory measures for responding to workplace harassment and that punitive measures were seldom used. Findings indicated that personnel manager gender, size of municipality, use of “sophisticated” human resource management practices and having provided information and training to increase awareness about harassment all influence the organisational responses chosen. Research limitations/implications – Only the effects of organisational and personnel manager characteristics on organisational responses were analysed. Future studies need to include perpetrator characteristics and harassment severity. Practical implications – The study informs both practitioners and policy makers about the measures that have been taken and that can be taken in order to stop harassment. It also questions the effectiveness of written anti-harassment policies for influencing organisational responses to harassment and draws attention to the role of gendered perceptions of harassment for choice of response strategy. Originality/value – This paper fills a gap in harassment research by reporting on the use of different response strategies and by providing initial insights into factors affecting choice of responses

The prevention of workplace bullying as a question of human resource management: measures adopted and underlying organizational factors

The aim of this study has been to analyze measures adopted to counteract workplace bullying from the perspective of human resource management. First, the kind of measures that are adopted to prevent bullying were examined. Second, factors affecting the extent of such measures were explored. The introduction of written anti-bullying policies and the provision of information were found to be the most common measures adopted. The policies strongly emphasized the role of supervisors and the immediate superior. Measures to counteract bullying were positively related to the adoption of ‘sophisticated’ human resource practices, previous negative publicity concerning bullying and the presence of a young human resource manager. The results, however, also indicated that imitation seemed to provide an important impetus behind anti-bullying efforts

Prevalence and Forms of Bullying among Business Professionals: A Comparison of Two Different Strategies for Measuring Bullying

The aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence and forms of workplace bullying among business professionals holding predominantly managerial or expert positions. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among Finnish professionals with a university degree in business studies. In the study two different strategies for measuring bullying were used and compared. When provided a definition of bullying, 8.8% of the respondents reported that they had at least occasionally been bullied during the past 12 months. However, when using a slightly modified version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire (Einarsen & Hoel 2001), containing a list of 32 predefined negative and potentially harassing acts, as many as 24.1% of the respondents reported that they had been subjected to at least one of the negative acts on a weekly basis. The respondents had experienced predominantly work-related negative acts, e.g. that their opinions and views were ignored, that they were given unreasonable deadlines or that information was withheld. Although the prevalence rates reported with the two strategies varied considerably, there was still consistency between the two strategies in the sense that those who had classified themselves as bullied also reported higher exposure rates to almost all of the negative acts included

Ways of Explaining Workplace Bullying: A Review of Enabling, Motivating, and Precipitating Structures and Processes in the Work Environment

This paper summarizes literature explaining workplace bullying and focuses on organisational antecedents of bullying. In order to better understand the logic behind bullying, a model discussing different types of explanations is put forward. Thus, explanations for and factors associated with bullying are classified into three groups, i.e. enabling structures or necessary antecedents (e.g. perceived power imbalances, low perceived costs, and dissatisfaction and frustration), motivating structures or incentives (e.g. internal competition, reward systems, and expected benefits), and precipitating processes or triggering circumstances (e.g. downsizing and restructuring, organisational changes, changes in the composition of the workgroup). The paper concludes that bullying is often an interaction between structures and processes from all three groupings

Ethical Infrastructure and Successful Handling of Workplace Bullying

Antecedents and consequences of workplace bullying are well documented. However, the mea- sures taken against workplace bullying, and the effectiveness of such measures, have received less attention. This study addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the role of ethical infrastructure in perceived successful handling of reported workplace bullying. Ethical infrastructure refers to formal and informal systems that enable ethical behavior and disable unethical behavior in organizations. A survey was sent to HR managers and elected head safety representatives (HSRs) in all Norwegian municipality organizations. Overall, 216 organizations responded (response rate = 50.2 percent). The ethical infrastructure accounted for 39.4% of the variance in perceived suc- cessful handling of workplace bullying. Formal sanctions were the only unique and signi cant contributor to the perceived successful handling of workplace bullying. The results substantiate the argument that organizations’ ethical infrastructure relate to the HR managers and HSRs’ percep- tions regarding their organizations’ handling of workplace bullying

A role of melanin-concentrating hormone producing neurons in the central regulation of paradoxical sleep

BACKGROUND: Peptidergic neurons containing the melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) and the hypocretins (or orexins) are intermingled in the zona incerta, perifornical nucleus and lateral hypothalamic area. Both types of neurons have been implicated in the integrated regulation of energy homeostasis and body weight. Hypocretin neurons have also been involved in sleep-wake regulation and narcolepsy. We therefore sought to determine whether hypocretin and MCH neurons express Fos in association with enhanced paradoxical sleep (PS or REM sleep) during the rebound following PS deprivation. Next, we compared the effect of MCH and NaCl intracerebroventricular (ICV) administrations on sleep stage quantities to further determine whether MCH neurons play an active role in PS regulation. RESULTS: Here we show that the MCH but not the hypocretin neurons are strongly active during PS, evidenced through combined hypocretin, MCH, and Fos immunostainings in three groups of rats (PS Control, PS Deprived and PS Recovery rats). Further, we show that ICV administration of MCH induces a dose-dependant increase in PS (up to 200%) and slow wave sleep (up to 70%) quantities. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that MCH is a powerful hypnogenic factor. MCH neurons might play a key role in the state of PS via their widespread projections in the central nervous system