Ståle Einarsen

Harassment and bullying at work: A review of the Scandinavian approach

Abstract A hostile work environment, in which insulting or offensive remarks, persistent criticism, personal abuse, or even physical abuse and threats prevail, is a reality for many employees in both public and private organizations. In Scandinavia, the term “mobbing” is commonly used to describe situations where a worker, supervisor, or manager is systematically and repeatedly mistreated and victimized by fellow workers, subordinates, or superiors. The term is widely used in situations where repeated aggressive and even violent behavior is directed against an individual over some period of time. Although some clinical and anecdotal accounts have been described by American authors, studies of this phenomenon have mainly been restricted to the Northern European countries. The aim of this study is threefold: (1) to present a framework for future research and theory development in this field, (2) to review the Scandinavian research tradition according to this framework, and (3) to provide some suggestions for future research.

Bullying at work: Epidemiological findings in public and private organizations

Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of bullying and harassment at work, to identify risk groups and risk organizations, and to investigate who the victims report to be their tormentors. Bullying and harassment are defined as situations where a worker or a supervisor is systematically mistreated and victimized by fellow workers or supervisors through repeated negative acts. However, to be a victim of such bullying one must also feel inferiority in defending oneself in the actual situation. Data from 14 different Norwegian surveys (N = 7986) are presented, encompassing a broad array of organizations and professions. The results show that bullying and harassment at work are widespread problems in Norwegian working life. As many as 8.6% of the respondents had been bullied at work during the previous six months. Organizations with many employees, male-dominated organizations, and industrial organizations had the highest prevalence of victimization. Older workers had a higher risk of...

Harassment in the workplace and the victimization of men

Harassment and victimization among male workers were studied in a sample of 460 industrial workers, supervisors and managers within a Norwegian marine engineering industry. The results indicated that aggression and harassment are significant problems in this organizational setting. On a weekly basis, 7% of the men reported being subjected to at least one of the following behaviors from coworkers or supervisors: ridicule and insulting teasing, verbal abuse, rumors and gossips spread about themselves, offending remarks, recurring reminders on blunders, hostility or silence when entering a conversation, or the devaluing of one’s effort and work. As many as 22% reported being subjected to one or more of these acts at least monthly. Although such acts and conducts are common and experienced by most organization members now and then, they may significantly impair psychological health and well-being as well as overall job satisfaction when occurring consistently and systematically. Significant correlations were found between exposure to harassment and both job satisfaction and psychological health and well-being. Strong correlations were found between exposure to harassment and dissatisfaction with co-worker interaction.

Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice

Preface. Introduction. Part 1: The Problem. The Concept of Bullying at Work. By any other Name: American Perspectives on Workplace Bullying. Bully/Victim Problems in School: Basic Facts and an Effective Intervention Program. Sexual Harassment Research in the United States. Part 2: The Evidence. Empirical Findings on Bullying in the Workplace. Individual Effects of Exposure to Bullying at Work. Organisational Effects of Bullying. Part 3: Explaining the Problem. Individual Antecedents of Bullying: Victims and Perpetrators. Social Antecedents of Bullying: A Social Interactionist Perspective. Organisational Antecedents of Workplace Bullying. Explaining Bullying at Work: Why should we Listen to Employee Accounts? Bullying at Work: A Postmodern Experience. Bullying Policy: Development, Implementation and Monitoring. Investigating Complaints of Bullying. Counselling and Rehabilitating Employees involved with Bullying. Workplace Bullying: The Role of Occupational Health Services. To Prevent and Overcome Undesirable Interaction: A Systematic Approach Model. Challenging Workplace Bullying in a Developing Country: the Example of South Africa. Part 4: Remedial Actions: A Critical Outlook. Bullying from a Risk Management Perspective. Conflict, Conflict Resolution, and Bullying. Bullying, Emotions and the Learning Organisation. Bullying and Human Resource Management: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing? Tackling Bullying in the Workplace: The Collective Dimension. Workplace Bullying and the Law: Towards a Transnational Consensus? Bullying at Work: The Way Forward.

Bullying in Danish work-life: Prevalence and health correlates

Given the pioneering role of Scandinavian research in the field of bullying at work, it is surprising that Danish researchers have largely ignored this problem. Presumably, this has led to a situation where many Danish company managers and unions ignore the high individual and organizational costs of workplace bullying. An additional effect of this lack of research is that it has been difficult to estimate the extent to which the prevalence of bullying varies in different sectors of Danish work-life. Furthermore, the scarcity of research has impeded us from determining whether a low prevalence of bullying is a general characteristic of Scandinavian work-life as indicated by previous Swedish and Norwegian studies. Yet again, making such between-nations comparisons in the prevalence of workplace bullying is difficult given the tendency amongst researchers to employ different ways of measuring bullying. The aims of the present study were: (1) to assess the prevalence of bullying in Danish work-life; (2) to investigate if exposure to bullying behaviours at work is related to self-reported psychological and psychosomatic stress symptoms; (3) to examine potential differences in the prevalence of bullying in various work sectors; (4) to explore the hypothesis that, generally, Scandinavian work-life is characterized by low levels of bullying; and (5) to investigate the extent to which using different criteria for assessing bullying results in disparate prevalence estimates. Results showed that 2-4% of the respondents reported being victims of bullying, in most cases only occasionally. Compared to self-reported bullying, prevalence levels based on an operational definition of bullying (i.e., weekly exposure to one act for at least 6 months) were higher in all the samples, between 8% and 25%. When using a more strict criterion of two acts a week, these figures were significantly reduced. Exposure to bullying was found to be associated with increased self-reported strain reactions.

The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior.

The aim of the study is to test the assumption that laissez-faire leadership behavior is not a type of zero-leadership, but a type of destructive leadership behavior that shows systematic relationships with workplace stressors, bullying at work, and psychological distress. A survey of 2,273 Norwegian employees was conducted and analyzed. Laissez-faire leadership was positively correlated with role conflict, role ambiguity, and conflicts with coworkers. Path modeling showed that these stressors mediated the effects of laissez-faire leadership on bullying at work and that the effects of laissez-faire leadership on distress were mediated through the workplace stressors, especially through exposure to bullying. The results support the assumption that laissez-faire leadership behavior is a destructive leadership behavior.

Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study

Abstract This paper contributes to the relatively sparse knowledge about relationships between stressful work environments and bullying. Relationships between job stressors and leadership behaviour were analysed as possible predictors of bullying at work on the basis of the work environment hypothesis, which states that stressful and poorly organized work environments may give rise to conditions resulting in bullying. Analyses of a representative sample (n=2539) of the Norwegian workforce showed role conflict, interpersonal conflicts, and tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership behaviour to be strongly related to bullying, and that the strength of associations to a high degree differed for various measures of bullying. Support was found for an interactive relationship between decision authority and role conflict at different levels of laissez-faire leadership. Not only targets and bully/targets but also bystanders assessed their work environment more negatively than did non-involved employees, while perpetrators of bullying did not differ significantly from non-involved employees as regards their perception of the work environment. Hence, bullying is likely to prevail in stressful working environments characterized by high levels of interpersonal friction and destructive leadership styles. In addition, bullying is particularly prevalent in situations where the immediate supervisor avoids intervening in and managing such stressful situations.

Relationships between exposure to bullying at work and psychological and psychosomatic health complaints: The role of state negative affectivity and generalized self–efficacy

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between exposure to behaviors identified as workplace bullying and self-report measurements of psychological and psychosomatic health complaints. Secondly, we investigated whether these relationships were mediated by the state negative affectivity of the victim. Thirdly, we investigated the extent to which generalized self-efficacy moderated the relationships between exposure to bullying behaviors and health complaints. Two hundred and twenty-four white- and blue-collar employees from a Danish manufacturing company participated in the study. Exposure to bullying behaviors was associated with an increase in psychological health complaints, increased levels of psychosomatic complaints and an elevated level of state negative affectivity. Whereas bullying by itself accounted for 27% of the variance in psychological health complaints and 10% of the variance in psychosomatic complaints, the results pointed to state negative affectivity as a partial mediator of the relationships between exposure to bullying behaviors and both measures of self-reported health. Though not directly related to reported exposure to bullying behaviors, generalized self-efficacy seemed to act as a moderator of the relationship between exposure to bullying behaviors and psychological health complaints.

Psychiatric distress and symptoms of PTSD among victims of bullying at work

Distress and symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were investigated among targets of experienced bullying at work, that is, the exposure to persistent or recurrent oppressive, offensive, abusive behaviour where the aggressor may be a superior or a colleague. The participants in the present study were all recruited from two associations of bullied victims (n=102, response rate=57%). A high level of distress and symptoms of PTSD was revealed in the sample, both according to recommended cut point scores for HSCL-25, PTSS-10 and IES-R, and when comparing the sample with traumatised samples. Three out of four victims reported an HSCL-25 level higher than the recommended threshold for psychiatric disease. Sixty and 63% of the sample reported a high level of IES intrusion and IES avoidance, correspondingly. The level of bullying, operationalised as the frequency of negative acts the individual had been exposed to at work, showed a stronger interconnection with distress and PTSD than a more unspecified, subjective measure of bullying, as well as the time since the bullying took place and the duration of the bullying episode. Those still being pestered reported a higher level of distress and PTSD than victims in which the bullying episodes were terminated more than 1 year ago, but the findings were somewhat mixed. Positive affectivity (PA) and especially negative affectivity (NA) contributed significantly to the explained variance of distress and PTSD in various regression analysis models, but did not interact with measures of bullying. Nor were mediator effects found between bullying, PA/NA and traumatic stress reactions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Outcomes of exposure to workplace bullying: A meta-analytic review

Abstract This paper reports results from two meta-analyses of the potential individual-level outcomes of exposure to workplace bullying. After introducing a theoretical framework for the possible relationships between bullying and outcomes, Study 1 summarizes 137 cross-sectional effect sizes from 66 independent samples (N=77,721). The findings show that exposure to bullying is associated with both job-related and health- and well-being-related outcomes, such as mental and physical health problems, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, burnout, increased intentions to leave, and reduced job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Non-significant or weak associations were established for absenteeism, performance, self-perceptions, and sleep. Study 2 examines longitudinal relationships between bullying and mental health and absenteeism, respectively. Based on prospective associations from 13 samples (N=62,916), workplace bullying influenced mental health problems over time, while baseline mental health problems were associated with a similar increased risk of subsequent reports of exposure to bullying. The long-term effect of exposure to bullying on absenteeism was rather weak. To summarize, the two meta-analyses provide robust evidence for the detrimental effects of workplace bullying that are in line with the theoretical framework presented. The findings have implications for the development of strategies against bullying. Directions for future research are discussed.