Uncovering Workplace Bullying

Awareness of workplace bullying as an organisational phenomenon is one
thing, but understanding the complexity and multifaceted nature of such a
slippery concept is another. The gathering of information on workplace bullying
can take many forms, including, for example, staff surveys, conversations,
and casual anecdotes. How useful are these sorts of evidence in understanding
and uncovering the phenomenon of workplace bullying? This article provides
a case study that explores two routes to detecting the existence and prevalence
of bullying at work. The use of a standardised instrument for measuring bullying
at work coupled with an open-ended qualitative approach produces some
interesting findings. By far the most useful evidence comes from the rich
qualitative accounts of organisational participants. These everyday explanations
of what bullying means to ordinary members of the workforce can be usefully classified using an existing typology of occupational violence. This classification might prove useful to those charged with eradicating the insidious behaviours that underpin bullying in organisations.