Duncan Lewis

Bullying at work: the impact of shame among university and college lecturers

This paper explores the concept of shame within the context of workplace bullying. Despite a decade or more of international research into bullying at work, there is little or no evidence for explicit exploration of shame amongst those who have experienced bullying. Based on content analysis from the narratives of 15 college and university lecturers who were self-selecting victims of bullying we find clear evidence for feelings of shame which appear to last long after the bullying episodes have ended.

Workplace bullying – interim findings of a study in further and higher education in Wales

This paper reports on an exploratory study on workplace bullying in further education and higher educational institutions in Wales. Coverage of the study compared perceptions and experiences across six areas: workplace bullying, sexual harassment, racial harassment, sex discrimination, unfair promotional opportunities, and reduced promotion opportunities. The study methodology incorporated structured interviews with 20 key informants, a postal survey of higher/further education trade union members (NATFHE) in Wales, and in depth interviews with a small number of victims of bullying. Respondents hear of workplace bullying primarily from the broadcast media and not through internal communications. Respondents to the survey had experienced higher levels of workplace bullying than they experienced sex discrimination, sexual harassment or racial harassment. As a source of hearing about bullying, colleagues appear to provide a link that enables victims to admit to their own suffering. The perceived reasons for ...

The ill-treatment of employees with disabilities in British workplaces

There are few quantitative studies that show the workplace is experienced in a different way by employees with disabilities. This article fills this gap using data from the British Workplace Behaviour Survey, which found that employees with disabilities and long-term illnesses were more likely to suffer ill-treatment in the workplace and experienced a broader range of ill-treatment. Different types of disability were associated with different types of ill-treatment. The survey also showed who employees with disabilities blamed for their ill-treatment and why they believed the ill-treatment had occurred. Drawing on the existing literature, four possible explanations for ill-treatment are considered: negative affect raises perceptions of ill-treatment; ill-treatment leads to health effects; ill-treatment results from stigma or discrimination; ill-treatment is a consequence of workplace social relations. Although some of these explanations are stronger than others, the discussion shows that more research is required in order to decide between them.

Strategic management tools and public sector management

Abstract This article highlights the applicability and effectiveness of two well established strategic management tools, value chain and stakeholder analyses, in the context of seven public sector strategic consultancy projects. The article provides a strong justification for the use of both models, when used independently, but particularly in conjunction, as powerful strategic analytical frameworks that can significantly encourage and illuminate strategic discourses in public sector organizations.  The article establishes that strategic tools such as value chain analysis, when applied in the public sector context, require significant adaptation to maximize their contribution to understanding a given situation. This study proposes that the strategic analysis of relationships that build or contribute to concepts of organizational value are of limited importance if the complex web of interdependent relationships themselves are not clearly demonstrated. This work therefore makes a clear case for applying two strategic models, value chain analysis and stakeholder analysis, in an analogous way to demonstrate how strategic understanding in the public sector is enhanced as a result of such symbiosis.

Trouble at work

Trouble in the workplace – whether it is bullying, harassment or stress – is always in the headlines. Yet, in many discussions, the research and statistics that are cited prove unreliable. This book summarises the largest specialist research programme on ill-treatment in the workplace so far undertaken. It provides a powerful antidote to half-truths and misinformation and offers a new way of conceptualizing trouble at work, moving the discussion away from individualized explanations – and talk of ‘bullies’ and ‘victims’ – towards the workplace characteristics that cause trouble at work. The biggest problems arise where organisations fail to create a workplace culture in which individuals really matter. Paradoxically, these are often the organisations which are well-versed in modern management practices.

Researching workplace bullying: the benefits of taking an integrated approach

This paper explores the difficulties encountered by researchers attempting to measure the prevalence of negative workplace behaviours and how these might be overcome. Drawing on the first stage of a major ESRC‐funded study of workplace behaviours in Britain, we demonstrate the importance of improved sampling and data collection methods. We show how judicious use of qualitative data derived from cognitive testing of survey questions can improve substantially the reliability and validity of data. In particular, we explain how a battery of questions devised by social psychologists and used as a standard measure in surveys was tested and revised following a series of 60 in‐depth interviews. These revisions ranged from fairly minor changes in wording, in order to make questions better understood, to the elimination of questions which our qualitative work persuaded us were not capturing data in the way that other researchers might have assumed they did.

Bullying and harassment and work-related stressors: Evidence from British small and medium enterprises

This article examines the relationship between work-related stressors and bullying and harassment in British small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Using representative data from a national survey on employment rights and experiences (Fair Treatment at Work), this research identifies that bullying and harassment are just as prevalent in British SMEs as in larger organisations. Drawing upon the Management Standards of the Health and Safety Executive, a number of significant relationships with bullying and harassment are established. Work demands placed upon employees are positively related to bullying and harassment behaviours, while autonomy, manager support, peer support and clarity of role are negatively associated with such behaviours. The study considers implications for human resource practices in SMEs, and the risks of informal attitudes to these work-related stressors in contemporary workplaces are discussed.

‘It’s Nothing Personal’: Anti-Homosexuality in the British Workplace

Scholarship on homophobia has been critiqued for being individualistic and psychological, failing to account for structural inequalities, experiences of homophobia and discursive manifestations of homophobia. This Economic and Social Research Council funded study attempts to address some of these concerns by focusing on the experiences of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGBs) in relation to bullying, harassment and discrimination in the British workplace. We examine what homophobia is understood to be and how psychological and organisational discourses make it difficult to make sense of negative experiences and how anti-homosexual attitudes and work environments are sustained and left unchallenged through the claim ‘it’s not personal’. Drawing on theories of selective incivility and modern discrimination, we illustrate how ambiguous anti-homosexual sentiments are, and argue that the term ‘homophobia’ not only prevents people from challenging negative experiences, but it further masks inequalities based on sexuality at work.

Fitting the bill? (Dis)embodied disclosure of sexual identities in the workplace

The disclosure of lesbian, gay or bisexual identity is generally presented as a conscious act of leaving heterosexuality. Such interpretation fails to take into account the dynamic processes involved in constructing non-heterosexual identities and to what degree such identities are embodied or disembodied. Supported by interview data among lesbian and gay employees in six British workplaces, this article explores how non-heterosexual identities become known in organizational settings by arguing that lesbians and gay men continue to collide with social expectations and stereotypical ideas of how sexual identities should be ‘worn’ and performed. These expectations and ideas both shape colleagues’ assumptions about their non-heterosexual identities and can expose lesbians and gay men to negative behaviour at work in highly gendered ways.

Lean and mean: how NPM facilitates the bullying of UK employees with long-term health conditions

This empirical study explores perceptions of bullying among public sector workers with long-term health conditions (LTHC), using focus groups and interviews with knowledgeable trade union members and representatives. While incidents of overt discrimination occurred, there was more support for the social model of disability, with bullying largely attributed to intensive working practices typical of new public management.