Defining workplace bullying behaviour professional lay definitions of workplace bullying

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Abstract

As is commonly the case in new areas of research, workplace bullying researchers and practitioners have struggled to establish a single agreed-upon definition of this phenomenon. As a consequence, there are numerous definitions of workplace bullying currently in use around the world to investigate this serious workplace issue, to educate the workforce about this form of harassment and to assess claims involving allegations of workplace bullying. Additionally, little is known about how employees and people in general define workplace bullying behaviour, and whether current researcher, practitioner and legal definitions coincide with lay definitions of bullying. To compare researcher, practitioner and legal definitions of workplace bullying with lay definitions, the content of definitions composed by adults from diverse personal and professional backgrounds (N = 1095) was analysed. Results confirmed that components commonly used by researchers and practitioners, including the occurrence of harmful and negative workplace behaviours, were frequently cited by participants as central defining components of bullying behaviour. In addition, lay definitions often included themes of fairness and respect. The emergence of these themes has important consequences for organisations responding to, and attempting to prevent the occurrence of workplace bullying behaviour in that organisations in which bullying is tolerated may violate both local laws as well as their ethical responsibility to provide employees with a safe, professional and respectful workplace.

Section snippets

Types of workplace bullying behaviours

One feature common to all definitions of workplace bullying is the experience of negative verbal or non-verbal behaviour. Using victim accounts as a basis, a diverse array of negative workplace behaviours, ranging from the covert and subtle, such as a dirty look or a snide comment, to the overtly aggressive, such as an item being thrown or a physical threat, have been cited by researchers and practitioners as examples of workplace bullying conduct (Ayoko et al., 2003, Baron and Neuman, 1998,

Persistence of workplace bullying

Associated with many definitions of workplace bullying is the criterion that a behaviour must occur more than once and must be experienced by a target on a frequent and persistent basis to warrant the label “bullying” (Einarsen et al., 2003). Persistent conduct is deemed an important defining component of workplace bullying interactions by many researchers and practitioners as it effectively distinguishes the severe and negative impact that bullying can have on targets from less severe

The significance of a uniform definition of workplace bullying

There are several reasons why a uniform definition of workplace bullying is desirable. As is noted above, the use of varying definitions by researchers worldwide has limited the opportunity for the findings of studies to be compared and for firm conclusions to be made. Development of a uniform definition of workplace bullying will aid the development of strategies to address this serious and prevalent workplace issue. Similarly, from a legal perspective, the development of a uniform definition

Participants

The research participants were 1095 adults recruited from a pool of first year university students, organisations, unions, and through advertisements on the World Wide Web. Of the 1095 participants who completed the study and composed a definition of workplace bullying, approximately two-thirds (66.8%) were female and one third (33%) were male. The age range of the participants spanned more than 50 years (16 to 69 years). Over half of the participants were under the age of 25 years. The mean

Results

Overall, both of the hypotheses were supported. Definitions of workplace bullying composed by the lay participants reflected all five definitional components used in current research and by organisations. Stronger support was found for some definitional components than others. Participants most frequently included two of the five core criteria within their personal definitions of workplace bullying: (a) bullying involves the perpetration of a negative behaviour and (b) bullying is the

Discussion

The key aim of this study was to determine whether definitional criteria, both essential and non-essential, comprising current operational definitions, used in both scientific research and in practice, coincided with definitional criteria featured in layperson definitions of workplace bullying. Overall, lay definitions of workplace bullying included two of the five formal definitional criteria: the occurrence of a negative behaviour and a behaviour that inflicts harm on the target with current

Conclusion

The occurrence of bullying in the workplace can have serious and costly consequences for both the target and the organisation. As a consequence, organisations should ensure that they do everything within their means to effectively prevent its occurrence and assist employees who have been bullied. This study demonstrated that definitions of workplace bullying, prevalent in the scientific and professional communities, differ from employees' definitions in several respects. Specifically, it was

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    This research comprised part of the first author's doctoral dissertation in Organisational Psychology in the School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia.

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