Perceptions of and reactions to workplace bullying: A social exchange perspective

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce a social exchange perspective to the study of workplace bullying. Much of the existing research on bullying has had a strong empirical focus, leaving the concept relatively under-theoretized. By applying the social exchange theory based concepts of justice, psychological contract breach, and perceived organizational support, we aim to shed light on a number of aspects of bullying that to date have remained poorly understood. First, drawing on the concepts of justice and contract breach, we highlight the perceptual and subjective element in workplace bullying. Second, the concepts of justice and contract breach allow us to provide insights into how bullying is experienced and the mechanisms through which bullying leads to negative outcomes for both targets and bystanders. Third, the concept of perceived organizational support highlights the importance of appropriate and timely responses to workplace bullying. Finally, we discuss implications for both research and practice.

The Perpetrators of Workplace Bullying in Schools: A South African Study

“…Theoretical development in the WPB literature has been described as weak (Blasé & Blasé, 2002;Parzefall & Salin, 2010;Samnani, 2013). Researchers have however, drawn on a variety of theoretical frameworks, such as the social exchange theory (Parzefall & Salin, 2010), a work environment framework (Hauge et al, 2007), Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (De Wet, 2010), critical management theory (Samnani, 2013), social dominance theory (SDT) (Parkin, Fishbein & Richey, 2006), job demands-resources model (Van den Broeck et al, 2011) and symbolic interactionism (Blasé & Blasé, 2002;Samnani, 2013) to frame and understand bullying behaviour.…”

“…Researchers have however, drawn on a variety of theoretical frameworks, such as the social exchange theory (Parzefall & Salin, 2010), a work environment framework (Hauge et al, 2007), Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (De Wet, 2010), critical management theory (Samnani, 2013), social dominance theory (SDT) (Parkin, Fishbein & Richey, 2006), job demands-resources model (Van den Broeck et al, 2011) and symbolic interactionism (Blasé & Blasé, 2002;Samnani, 2013) to frame and understand bullying behaviour. In this study we draw upon one of the most widely known and comprehensive frameworks of WPB proposed by Einarsen et al (2011), and SDT (Pratto & Stewart, 2012) to study the perpetrators of WPB in schools.…”

“…Research has established that WPB is a fairly common phenomenon (Agervold, 2007;Parzefall & Salin, 2010;Samnani & Singh, 2012) that can result in complications for employees, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and suicide (Braithwaite, Ahmed & Braithwaite, 2008;Leymann, 1996). WPB not only affects the mental and physical health of the victims, but has cost-implications for the organisation, such as complaints resulting in lawsuits, absenteeism, staff conflict, impaired job performance and high staff turnover (Braithwaite et al, 2008;Moreno-Jiménez et al, 2008).…”

“…While WPB has received a great deal of attention in Western Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, the USA and Australia (Blasé, Blasé & Du, 2008;Moreno-Jiménez et al, 2008;Parzefall & Salin, 2010), it is barely being studied in South Africa (Cunniff & Mostert, 2012). With the exception of Cunniff and Mostert's (2012) large-scale study (n=13 911) and Marais-Steinmann's (2003) Internet survey (n=1 018), South African studies have been either limited surveys (e.g.…”

Social capital and workplace bullying

“…A study on social workers showed that it was hard for them to align their personal experiences with bullying in the workplace to the principles and values they associate their work with, and this made them view their workplaces as hypocritical [48]. Bullying in itself can be viewed as a stressor and a violation of trust [50,51]. Trust violations in the workplace can be interpreted as violations of the psychological contract between employer and employee and lead to perceptions of injustice among both targets and observers according to the social exchange perspective [51], thereby undermining the organization's social capital.…”