This is the first episode in a blog series that reviews the research on workplace bullying. The series will cover:
Episode 1: The impact of workplace bullying
Episode 2: What types of workplaces are prone to bullying?
Episode 3: How can we reduce bullying?
How much bullying is going on?
If you’ve worked for long enough you’ll have either been subjected to, accused of or observed bullying in the workplace. An Australian study published in 2016 found that 7% of staff were experiencing bullying or had in the previous 6 months (Butterworth et. al., 2016). That number balloons out to 46% of the workforce having experienced bullying at some time in their work life (Butterworth, 2016). Given there are no consistent ways to measure bullying it is difficult to know what the benchmark figure is around the world but one extensive study found that the average rate of bullying across the world was 15% at any one time (Nielsen et. al., 2010).
You may say “that can’t be all bullying, sure it’s conflict but it’s not bullying, and those surveys aren’t reliable”. It’s true the surveys aren’t reliable, in fact the numbers could be worse. According to research conducted on the methods of identifying bullying numbers, self reporting (i.e. “here is a definition of bullying have you been bullied?”) underestimates the level of bullying compared to other methods (Butterworth et. al., 2016).
Bullying has slightly different definitions across the world and researchers don’t always use a consistent criteria but generally bullying refers to repeated behaviour that the victim is unable to stop. Bullying is separated from conflict and other forms of incivility.
The 2012 Australian House of Representatives inquiry into workplace bullying defined workplace bullying as (Butterworth et. al., 2016):
“repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or group of workers, that creates a risk to health and safety”
This definition has stuck in Australia and the criteria of “creates a risk to health and safety” is unique whereas broader definitions across the globe refer to the power imbalance and the inability of the victim to make the behaviour cease. This could add to the Australian definition, as the reference to a power imbalance is absent from the current definition.
Bullying falls into three categories (Boudrias et. al., 2021):
Person-related (i.e., gossiping, social exclusion),
Work-related (i.e., withholding information, being given unreasonable tasks) and
Physically intimidating (i.e., shouting, being jostled)
The insidious nature of the work-related bullying means that it is easy to do but very hard to detect.
Impacts
Is it such a big deal? Conflict happens so we have to just work it out and get on with things, don't we? If you’ve encountered bullying you’ll know that it has a huge impact on those around where it is occurring.The research on the impact of bullying is extensive and the major consequences are (Dhanini et. al., 2019; Zahlquist et. al., 2019; Boudrias et. al., 2021; Nielsen and Einarsen, 2018):
Increased stress and subsequently anxiety and depression. People subjected to bullying are two to three times more likely to suffer from depression and the effects of the depression can still exist four years after the bullying has stopped.
Detrimental effects on physical health (e.g. neck pain and back pain)
Burnout
Decreased task performance and job satisfaction
Increased sick leave (eight days per person per year in one study)
Bullying of the type that involves physical intimidation increases the risk of suicide ideation
The financial cost of this is also significant. The previously mentioned Australian House of Representatives inquiry estimated the national cost to be between $6 billion and $36 billion per year. A more recent examination of the financial cost estimated it to be in excess of $30 billion per year (Ballard and Bozin, 2023). An Irish study estimated the national cost to be €239 million per year (Cullinan et. al., 2020).
Bullying is a phenomena that creates a vicious cycle. The stress that bullying causes victims and observers leaves both emotionally and physically depleted. This depletion means targets are unable to confront and deal with the bullying behaviour, which means the bullying continues, things get worse and the stress continues to feed on itself (Nielsen and Einarson, 2018).
The stresses of bullying and the additional stress that bullying creates forms an environment where bullying is more likely to occur further (Dhanani et. al. 2019). A high mental load means we are less equipped to manage the demands of conflict (Zahlquist et. al., 2019). One study found that where there was high workload and subsequently high demands on our mental capacity, bullying was more likely to be found in the workplace (Zahlquist et. al., 2019).
The other draining aspect of bullying is the strain that occurs when people have to put on a positive face but inside they are feeling something quite different. This internal conflict (sometimes referred to as emotional dissonance) causes emotional and physical depletion which in turn exacerbates the effects of bullying (Boudrias et. al., 2021).
Bullying also leads to increased levels of burnout. Bullying forms a barrier to our attainment of two of our most basic needs, autonomy and competence. By losing our sense of control of our environment and a lack of a feeling of mastery over our work can lead to burnout (Trepanier, 2016). A Canadian study of 699 nurses over 12 months found that workplace bullying thwarted the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs such as autonomy and competence. And it wasn’t because these nurses were needy to begin with, the bullying was identified as the cause of the burnout. The burnout occurred 12 months after the bullying began, indicating a gradual build up of the stresses caused by bullying eventually leads to an inability to cope with the work environment (Trepanier et. al., 2016).
Bullying is about power and control and when one individual has power over another it takes away some of the say they have in their work and life. Turning up to work and being worried about being put down or excluded by the bully and then going home and continually thinking about your treatment at work is an example of loss of autonomy (not to mention the stress that would be occurring). While we’re worrying about being bullied our life is taken over by it and prevents effort going into what we find rewarding.
Similarly bullying behaviours restrict people’s opportunity to do their job to the best of their ability. Constantly being worried about whether they will be undermined and criticised for their performance leads to a diminishing of self belief to the point where the bullying target no longer believes they are capable of doing their job well. This inability to achieve acceptable levels of autonomy and competence leads to burnout (Trepanier et. al., 2016).
If you have unexplained burnout (displayed by low energy, increased negativity and cynicism and reduced performance) in the workplace, you may have unaddressed bullying behaviours.
In the next episode we’ll look further on the research of what type of work environment is more prone to bullying.
References
Ballard, A., & Bozin, D. (2023). The true (financial) costs of workplace violence in Australia. Alternative Law Journal, 48(3), 191-196.
Boudrias, V., Trépanier, S-G., & Salin, D. (2021). A systematic review of research on the longitudinal consequences of workplace bullying and the mechanisms involved. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 56 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2020.101508
Butterworth, P., Leach, L. S., & Kiely, K. M. (2016). Why it’s important for it to stop: Examining the mental health correlates of bullying and ill-treatment at work in a cohort study. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(11), 1085-1095.
Cullinan J, Hodgins M, Hogan V, Pursell L. The value of lost productivity from workplace bullying in Ireland. Occup Med (Lond). 2020 Jun 20;70(4):251-258. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa067. PMID: 32421800.
Dhanani, L., Wolcott, A., & Pueschel, A. (2019). Is it the person or the place? A meta-analytic test of the antecedents of workplace incivility. In Academy of management proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 12256). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Nielsen, M. B., Matthiesen, S. B., & Einarsen, S. (2010). The impact of methodological moderators on prevalence rates of workplace bullying. A meta‐analysis. Journal of Occupational and organizational Psychology, 83(4), 955-979.
Nielsen, M. B., & Einarsen, S. V. (2018). What we know, what we do not know, and what we should and could have known about workplace bullying: An overview of the literature and agenda for future research. Aggression and violent behavior, 42, 71-83.
Trépanier, S. G., Fernet, C., & Austin, S. (2015). A longitudinal investigation of workplace bullying, basic need satisfaction, and employee functioning. Journal of occupational health psychology, 20(1), 105.
Zahlquist, L., Hetland, J., Skogstad, A., & Einarsen, S. V. (2019). Job demands as risk factors of exposure to bullying at work: The moderating role of team-level conflict management climate. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 471375.
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