Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira

Perceived severity of various bullying behaviours at work and the relevance of exposure to bullying

Abstract In this study, perceptions of the severity of various bullying behaviours in the workplace are investigated. The main aims are (1) to obtain the assessments of workers regarding the severity of the various types of behaviour that constitute bullying (psychological abuse), and (2) to examine whether the degree of involvement with the phenomenon (represented by three different groups: victims, witnesses and employees with no previous experience of bullying) influences the severity assessments. A sample of 300 workers from various branches of four organizations in Spain (191 women and 109 men aged between 21 and 66 years) completed a questionnaire. The results showed that assessments of the perceived severity of the different types of bullying behaviour varied. Bullying behaviours fell into six categories, with various types of emotional abuse proving to be perceived as the most severe category. Moreover, the results showed that there was no significant difference in the perceived severity of bullying behaviour among victims, witnesses and employees without previous experience of bullying. The consequences of these results and how they can influence theory, future research and practice are discussed.

Categorization and Hierarchy of Workplace Bullying Strategies: A Delphi Survey

This paper reports a study of the characteristics of psychological abuse strategies deployed in the workplace (mobbing or workplace bullying). Based on a literature review, the aim of the present study is two fold: firstly to propose a new taxonomy of mobbing strategies and to provide an operational definition for each of them, and secondly, to assess this taxonomy with the aid of several experts, by using a Delphi survey, and to evaluate the severity of each of the mobbing strategies. The experts were asked to evaluate the adequacy and the severity of the definitions for each mobbing strategy. Thirty experts working in various professions (psychology, medicine, law, sociology, etc.) participated in a two-round Delphi survey. The experts estimated that the new taxonomy and the operational definitions were appropriate, establishing content and construct validity. They ranked the workplace bullying strategies in terms of descending importance: strategies of direct nature, followed by indirect strategies. Theoretical implications of the study, its limitations and future research are discussed.

Organisational contexts that foster positive behaviour and well-being: A comparison between family-owned firms and non-family businesses

Abstract This study seeks to extend the three-way model of mobbing by emphasising the positive influence of the organisational context on employee behaviour (i. e. more altruism, less mobbing and more perceived job performance) and well-being (i. e. more work engagement and more job satisfaction), comparing family-owned firms (FB) and non-family businesses (NFB). A total of 10 organisations (5 FB and 5 NFB) composed the final sample. The associations between the different study variables were assessed through several analyses (MCA, chi-square and Pearson correlation). The results revealed that, as compared to non-family firms, family-owned businesses are perceived as having a balanced task/employee organisational focus; and as being associated with higher levels of altruistic behaviours, work engagement, job satisfaction, and lower levels of mobbing.

Amenazados y víctimas del entramado de ETA en Euskadi: un estudio desde la teoría de la exclusión moral

Resumen Este estudio investiga la vivencia del acoso y violencia padecidos por las víctimas y los amenazados del entramado de ETA en Euskadi, utilizando el enfoque teórico de la exclusión moral. Para ello, se realiza un análisis de contenido sobre los testimonios de una muestra de personas amenazadas y víctimas de ETA en Euskadi (n = 85; Hombres = 76,50%; franja de edad40—49 años; sector público = 57,60%; actividad política como razón para el acoso = 51,80%; violencia psicológica = 55,29%). Concretamente, mediante las dimensiones de exclusión moral, 187 unidades de análisis fueron detectadas a partir del análisis de contenido. Los resultados mostraron las siguientes dimensiones de exclusión moral: a) un alcance social limitado a unos colectivos específicos amenazados por el entramado etarra (51,87%); b) unos comportamientos predominantemente de baja intensidad mediante estrategias de intimidación y amenaza, reforzadas por la potencial violencia física (21,14%); c) una participación pasiva de parte de la sociedad, que ha facilitado la indiferencia hacia las víctimas y en ocasiones su propia culpabilización (12,30%). Los coeficientes de estabilidad (k =.94) y reproducibilidad (k =.87) fueron adecuados. El estudio abarca aspectos que van más allá de las formas de violencia utilizadas y de sus efectos, aportándose algunos factores clave de la percepción de exclusión moral en amenazados y víctimas de ETA en Euskadi. Finalmente, se discuten los resultados, limitaciones e implicaciones de esta investigación.

Estudio y análisis sobre cómo perciben el mobbing los trabajadores

Resumen Este trabajo se plantea como primer objetivo analizar la forma en que los trabajadores definen y delimitan el abuso psicológico en el lugar de trabajo. Y en segundo lugar analizar la incidencia del mobbing en dicha muestra de trabajadores. A través de un cuestionario auto-administrado elaborado por los autores para esta investigación, se pidió a los participantes (trabajadores en activo) a través de una pregunta abierta que expresaran qué entienden por mobbing. Además, se les pidió que juzgaran el grado de proximidad o experiencia con dicho fenómeno. Los trabajadores participantes en el estudio han descrito el mobbing apelando a los factores psicológicos y psicosociales, en detrimento de los aspectos físicos y sexuales. Además, la incidencia hallada del 10% se aprecia muy similar a la encontrada por diversos estudios de diferentes países europeos. Esta investigación ha profundizado en las percepciones de los trabajadores acerca de lo que entienden por mobbing, procurando contribuir de este modo a una mejor delimitación y evaluación del abuso psicológico en el lugar de trabajo.

Un análisis psicosocial del grupo terrorista como secta

Resumen Este trabajo pretende realizar un análisis de la dinámica interna de los grupos terroristas a partir de la dinámica característica de las sectas coercitivas. Desde una perspectiva psicosocial, y a partir de la investigación científica revisada en ambos campos, se estudian de forma paralela las características principales que definen a ambos tipos de grupos y se analizan los distintos procesos de interacción que se producen en ambos. Se aborda la interacción entre los tres elementos fundamentales, la persona, el grupo y su entorno social próximo, deteniéndose en los factores facilitadores de la vinculación de los sujetos a ambos tipos de grupos. Posteriormente, se profundiza en las estrategias de abuso psicológico que hacen servir determinadas sectas para captar y someter a sus adeptos, combinando elementos de influencia y persuasión con otras formas de control, manipulación y coacción. Se analiza así en qué medida dichas estrategias son aplicadas también por los grupos terroristas, haciendo un balance de similitudes y diferencias que constata la intersección entre ambos grupos.

Development and validation of the scale of psychological abuse in intimate partner violence (EAPA-P)

BACKGROUND In the context of intimate partner violence, psychological abuse (PA) has progressively gained scientific relevance. Even so, a greater effort is needed to define and evaluate psychological intimate partner abuse. A new exhaustive and operative taxonomy of PA strategies leads to the contribution of a new evaluation instrument. METHOD Participants were 101 women between 24 and 82 years old, who were abused by their partners and attended to in different municipal Catalan services, specialized in the topic. RESULTS The analyses have shown the suitability of a 19-item instrument divided into two factors: (1) direct PA strategies and (2) indirect PA strategies. The former includes strategies that affect the emotional, cognitive and behavioral dimension of the victim. The latter includes items that measure the amount of control and domination over the victim’s context. This scale has adequate psychometric properties in terms of score reliability and the validity of the relationship with other women’s health variables. CONCLUSIONS The EAPA-P, created based on a new definition and taxonomy of the forms of PA, is presented as a valid instrument to detect and measure intimate partner PA.

El acoso laboral o mobbing: similitudes y diferencias de género en su severidad percibida

Resumen Basándose en la teoría del rol social de género, el propósito de este trabajo es analizar el impacto de la variable sociodemográfica “género” sobre la manera en que las personas valoran la severidad de los diferentes comportamientos de acoso laboral o mobbing. En el Estudio 1, se aplica el método Delphi con una muestra de expertos. Los resultados mostraron que los hombres percibieron las conductas de abuso emocional como menos severas que las mujeres. En el Estudio 2, realizado con empleados, los resultados replicaron y extendieron los hallazgos del Estudio 1. Específicamente, las mujeres evaluaron la severidad de las conductas de agresión relacional (aislamiento y abuso emocional), de modo más severo que los hombres. Estos resultados sugieren que el género es un factor diferencial a la hora de concebir el acoso laboral. Esto puede tener implicaciones importantes a la hora de que directivos de empresas de uno u otro género hayan de decidir las formas de prevenir y actuar ante situaciones de acoso.

Psychosocial analysis of ETA"s violence legitimation discourse

Abstract This study analyses the fundamental components shaping the violence legitimation discourse of ETA (Euskadi Ta Askasuna). With this aim, a category system has been built, which organizes the psychosocial processes identified in previous studies related to violence legitimation. Based on the proposed category system, a content analysis was conducted on 21 statements of ETA, released between 1998 and 2011. An intra-observer and inter-observer reliability analysis reveals high level stability and replicability of the categorization. The results show, firstly, that outgroup components have a predominant presence over ingroup components. Secondly, in the components hierarchy, we observe that elements referring to identity come in first place, followed in similar frequencies by those related to violence representation and the definition of the situation.

Psychosocial Analysis of the Collective Processes in the United States After September 11

This article studies alterations in the values, attitudes, and behaviors that emerged among U.S. citizens as a consequence of, and as a response to, the attacks of September 11, 2001. The study briefly examines the immediate reaction to the attack, before focusing on the collective reactions that characterized the behavior of the majority of the population between the events of 9/11 and the response to it in the form of intervention in Afghanistan. In studying this period an eight-phase sequential model (Botcharova, 2001) is used, where the initial phases center on the nation as the ingroup and the latter focus on the enemy who carried out the attack as the outgroup. The study is conducted from a psychosocial perspective and uses “social identity theory” (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) as the basic framework for interpreting and accounting for the collective reactions recorded. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the interpretation of these collective reactions is consistent with the postulates of social identity theory. The application of this theory provides a different and specific analysis of events. The study is based on data obtained from a variety of rigorous academic studies and opinion polls conducted in relation to the events of 9/11. In line with social identity theory, 9/11 had a marked impact on the importance attached by the majority of U.S. citizens to their identity as members of a nation. This in turn accentuated group differentiation and activated ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986). Ingroup favoritism strengthened group cohesion, feelings of solidarity, and identification with the most emblematic values of the U.S. nation, while outgroup discrimination induced U.S. citizens to conceive the enemy (al-Qaeda and its protectors) as the incarnation of evil, depersonalizing the group and venting their anger on it, and to give their backing to a military response, the eventual intervention in Afghanistan. Finally, and also in line with the postulates of social identity theory, as an alternative to the virtual bipolarization of the conflict (U.S. vs al-Qaeda), the activation of a higher level of identity in the ingroup is proposed, a group that includes the United States and the largest possible number of countries— including Islamic states—in the search for a common, more legitimate and effective solution.