Have you ever been the victim of bullying at
your place of employment? Have you ever been the target of rumors, the silent
treatment, sabotage, insults, social isolation, singling out of your work,
unfair reprimands or other destructive and harmful behaviors at work? If so,
you’re not alone.
Research shows that workplace bullying is
increasing across the world (some international studies cite up to 37% of
workers reporting having been the victim of workplace bullying) and taking on a
myriad of forms that can be difficult to recognize immediately. And, the
effects of workplace bullying can be distressing, traumatic and even
catastrophic for the targets of bullying behavior. Being the victim of
workplace bullying is associated with increased psychological distress,
increased absenteeism, decreased work performance, and long-term negative
effects on one’s career. Some researchers have concluded that workplace
bullying is a greater threat to workers than physical violence. In short, it
should be cause for serious concern in organizations of all sizes and types and
in all industries.
My colleagues (Dr. Mpho Pheko and Mr. Mondi
Segopolo at the University of Botswana) and I recently published a paper on how
organizational culture may perpetuate workplace bullying – When Work
Hurts: A Conceptual Framework Explaining How Organizational Culture May
Perpetuate Workplace Bullying – in the Journal of Human
Behavior in the Social Environment.
We propose a conceptual framework that
hypothesizes a relationship between specific aspects of organizational culture
and workplace bullying. Organizational culture “represents shared values,
beliefs, traditions, and behavioral patterns” within the workplace. It
represents the group norms of the organization and impacts everything from
organizational practices to specific policies to unspoken expectations. Some of
these cultural facets are more tangible and visible and others lie beneath the
surface and are unconscious. The research we surveyed indicates that workplace
bullying may proliferate in environments where “dishonesty, quick
judgements and judgmental attitudes are common,” in demanding work
environments with little support, and in workplaces with a high performance
orientation- as opposed to high humane and future orientations.
For our own investigation, we used Dutch
psychologist Geert Hofstede’s and colleagues’ six dimensions of
culture:
1. Power distance
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Individualism vs. collectivism
4. Masculinity vs. femininity
5. Long-term vs. short-term orientation
6. Indulgence vs. restraint
and a 7th dimension – Job-oriented vs.
employee-oriented organizational culture.
While we acknowledge that workplace bullying is
a multi-faceted and complex phenomenon that is affected by wider economic,
employment relationship, and cultural factors, our conceptual model proposes
that different organizational culture dynamics may intentionally or
unintentionally encourage, reward and perpetuate workplace bullying.
Read our article in full to find out the
definitions of the aforementioned cultural definitions, our specific
propositions for how each of the cultural dimensions contributes to workplace
bullying, and recommendations for how organizations can better understand the
relationship between workplace culture and bullying. Read the
article HERE: