Antecedents, consequences and interventions for workplace bullying

Abstract

Although psychiatrists are likely to treat the targets of bullying, bullying has yet to attract much attention as a research topic in psychiatry. Although the consequences of bullying can be severe for both targets and workplaces, prevention strategies are hampered by competing interests.

Organisational antecedents of workplace victimisation: The role of organisational climate, culture, leadership, support, and justice in predicting junior doctors' exposure to bullying at work

“…Finally, though care was taken to identify potential confounders from the literature and adjust each association accordingly, residual confounding may still be an issue. Though we had adjusted for sociodemographic, employment, and individual trait characteristics, other factors that have been linked to workplace bullying such as social, coping and problem‐solving skills, organisational change, and societal norms and culture were not able to be included in this study due to limited resources.…”

“…The study findings generate hypotheses that could be tested in more robust studies such as longitudinal studies to enable the ascertainment of cause‐and‐effect. Future studies examining workplace bullying among junior doctors may also focus on variables linked to workplace bullying that were not examined in this study, including psychological capital, social, coping and problem‐solving skills, conflict management styles, core self‐evaluations, organisational change, and societal norms and culture . In addition, supplementing quantitative findings with qualitative findings and considering the perpetrators' perspectives may allow for a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.…”

An Experimental Study on the Attribution of Personality Traits to Bullies and Targets in a Workplace Setting

“…A meta-analysis showed an average prevalence of 14.6% when employing targets’ self report, although the estimates varied significantly according to assessment method, sample and geographical location. Due to the significant negative consequences of workplace bullying in terms of reduced job satisfaction (Rodriguez-Munoz et al, 2009), ill-health (Kemp, 2014), and reduced productivity (McTernan et al, 2013) the need for more research into its antecedents has been emphasized by several scholars (Razzaghian and Shah, 2011; Samnani and Singh, 2012; Kemp, 2014). According to Samnani and Singh (2012) the causes of workplace bullying can be understood in terms of a hierarchical taxonomy ranging from individual factors such as personality (Linton and Power, 2013) to cultural/societal antecedents such as power distance (Vega and Comer, 2005) and masculinity-femininity (Lutgen-Sandvik et al, 2007).…”

Social Intelligence and the Explanation of Workplace Abuse

“…Some individuals require various forms of therapy to reenter the job market (Namie & Lutgen-Sandvik, 2010). Asking for more involvement by the psychiatric community, Kemp (2014) also notes that targets often need psychiatric treatment and that these attacks can have a lifelong impact. He also observes that supervisory personnel generally have difficulty identifying workplace abuse.…”