Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Burned by Bullying in the American Workplace: Prevalence, Perception, Degree and Impact

This study assesses the prevalence of workplace bullying in a sample of US workers, using a standardized measure of workplace bullying (Negative Acts Questionnaire, NAQ), and compares the current studys prevalence rates with those from other bullying and aggression studies. The article opens by defining bullying as a persistent, enduring form of abuse at work and contrasting it with other negative workplace actions and interactions. Through a review of the current literature, we propose and test hypotheses regarding bullying prevalence and dynamics relative to a sample of US workers. After discussing research methods, we report on the rates of bullying in a US sample, compare these to similar studies, and analyse the negative acts that might lead to perceptions of being bullied. Based upon past conceptualizations, as well as research that suggests bullying is a phenomenon that occurs in gradations, we introduce and provide statistical evidence for the construct and impact of bullying degree. Finally, the study explores the impact of bullying on persons who witnessed but did not directly experience bullying in their jobs.

Nightmares, Demons, and Slaves Exploring the Painful Metaphors of Workplace Bullying

Although considerable research has linked workplace bullying with psychosocial and physical costs, the stories and conceptualizations of mistreatment by those targeted are largely untold. This study uses metaphor analysis to articulate and explore the emotional pain of workplace bullying and, in doing so, helps to translate its devastation and encourage change. Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups, narrative interviews, and target drawings, the analysis describes how bullying can feel like a battle, water torture, nightmare, or noxious substance. Abused workers frame bullies as narcissistic dictators, two-faced actors, and devil figures. Employees targeted with workplace bullying liken themselves to vulnerable children, slaves, prisoners, animals, and heartbroken lovers. These metaphors highlight and delimit possibilities for agency and action. Furthermore, they may serve as diagnostic cues, providing shorthand necessary for early intervention.

Take This Job and … : Quitting and Other Forms of Resistance to Workplace Bullying

Adult bullying at work is an unbelievable and, at times, shattering experience, both for those targeted as well as for witnessing colleagues. This study examines the narratives of 30 workers, some of whom where targeted and all of whom saw others bullied. Their responses paint a complex picture of power in bullying situations that reframe the “power-deficient target” into agents who galvanize a variety of resources on their own or others’ behalf but also place them at considerable risk. In some cases, employees evaluate the abusive situation and quickly resign. Others protest but, if resistance fails to stop abuse, they also leave organizations. The paths of resistance, case outcomes, and dialectic nature of resistance and control are discussed.

Intensive Remedial Identity Work: Responses to Workplace Bullying Trauma and Stigmatization

This study investigates the phenomenon of intensive remedial identity work by exploring responses to the trauma and stigma of adult bullying at work. It analyses the narratives of 20 workers who reported being bullied at work, in which they talk about persistent emotional abuse and their shifting, intensifying identity work in response. The following specific questions are explored: (a) what threats to identity does workplace bullying trigger?; (b) what are the types and remedial goals of identity work?; (c) what is the processual nature of this identity work? Analysis resulted in seven inter-related types of identity work: first-and second-level stabilizing, sensemaking, reconciling, repairing, grieving and restructuring. Each of these was associated with specific identity threats and a constellation of remedial goals. Comparative analysis among self-narratives suggested that identity work occurred in three approximate phases associated with abuse onset, escalation and cessation. Findings extend understanding of intensive remedial identity work in the face of persistently traumatic and stigmatizing organizational experiences.

THE COMMUNICATIVE CYCLE OF EMPLOYEE EMOTIONAL ABUSE Generation and Regeneration of Workplace Mistreatment

Employee emotional abuse (EEA) is repetitive, targeted, and destructive communication by more powerful members toward less powerful members in the workplace. It is costly, widespread, and may be the precursor to workplace aggression and violence. This article synthesizes extant research findings with the author’s own managerial experience into a comprehensive gestalt of EEA as a communicative process that evolves, escalates, and moves to new targets when earlier targets exit the organization. The model proposed depicts a six-stage cycle that provides a means for (a) understanding the dynamics of abuse, (b) recognizing the indicators of abuse, (c) controlling or stopping the abuse, and (d) predicting the development of unchecked abuse. Practical implications of the model and areas for future research are identified.

Answering Five Key Questions About Workplace Bullying How Communication Scholarship Provides Thought Leadership for Transforming Abuse at Work

Organizational communication research is vital for understanding and addressing workplace bullying, a problem that affects nearly half of working adults and has devastating results on employee well-being and organizational productivity. A communication approach illustrates the toxic complexity of workplace bullying as it is condoned through societal discourses, sustained by receptive workplace cultures, and perpetuated through local interactions. Examining these (macro, meso, and micro) communicative elements addresses the most pressing questions about workplace bullying, including (a) how abuse manifests, (b) how employees respond, (c) why it is so harmful, (d) why resolution is so difficult, and (e) how it might be resolved. This article provides tips for addressing and transforming workplace bullying, which may be of particular interest to consultants and human resource professionals, while also offering a theoretical synthesis and launching pad for future research.

Making Sense of Supervisory Bullying: Perceived Powerlessness, Empowered Possibilities

Workplace aggression harms targeted workers, witnessing bystanders, and organizations. An emerging area of interest for organizational communication scholars is workplace bullying, a persistent harmful type of aggression. The current study examined supervisory bullying (the most common type of bullying in U.S. workplaces), specifically how targeted employees (targets) made sense of why it happened. We explored sensemaking in the face of supervisory bullying and the framing vocabularies that inform sensemaking to determine if these partially constituted the widespread perceptions of powerlessness associated with the phenomenon. Targets most often believed that bullying occurred because perpetrators (actors) were mentally ill, evil, and power-hungry. Nearly as frequently, they pointed to upper managements failure to intervene. Sensemaking drew heavily on individualism and the belief in all-knowing, all-powerful upper management. Other explanations implicated targets, coworkers, and society. These suggested sensemaking shifts that might constitute the phenomenon and responses to it in more empowering ways.