Tackling work place bullying

Killing ourselves with laughter … mapping the interplay of organizational teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the interplay of organizational humorous teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life in order to investigate how workplace bullying can emerge from doctors and nurses experiences of what, at first, appears as “innocent” humorous interactions.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an ethnographic field study among doctors and nurses at Rigshospitalet (University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark) field notes, transcriptions from two focus groups and six in-depth interviews were analyzed using a cross-sectional thematic analysis.

Findings

This study demonstrates how bullying may emerge out of a distinctive joking practice, in which doctors and nurses continually relate to one another with a pronounced degree of derogatory teasing. The all-encompassing and omnipresent teasing entails that the positions of perpetrator and target persistently change, thereby excluding the position of bystander. Doctors and nurses report that they experience the humiliating teasing as detrimental, although they feel continuously forced to participate because of the fear of otherwise being socially excluded. Consequently, a concept of “fluctuate bullying” is suggested wherein nurses and doctors feel trapped in a “double bind” position, being constrained to bully in order to avoid being bullied themselves.

Originality/value

The present study add to bullying research by exploring and demonstrating how workplace bullying can emerge from informal social power struggles embedded and performed within ubiquitous humorous teasing interactions.

Preventive Strategies and Processes to Counteract Bullying in Health Care Settings: Focus Group Discussions

The aim of the present study was to explore preventive strategies and processes to counteract bullying in workplaces. Data were collected by individual interviews and focus group discussions at one hospital and two nursing home wards for elderly, a total of 29 participants. In the analysis of the interviews we were inspired by constructivist grounded theory. Persistent work with a humanistic value system by supervisor and coworkers, raising awareness about the bullying problem, strong group collaboration, and conflict management, along with an open atmosphere at the workplace, appears to be imperative for accomplishing a policy of zero tolerance for bullying.

Bullying and Its Prevention Among Intensive Care Nurses

PURPOSE

International studies report that nurse bullying is a common occurrence. The intensive care unit (ICU) is known for its high stress levels, one factor thought to increase bullying. No studies were found that investigated bullying in this population. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of ICU nurse bullying and what measures were taken to prevent bullying.

DESIGN

This was a descriptive study of a convenience sample of 156 ICU nurses from five medical centers in Israel. Data collection was conducted over a 10-month period in 2012 and 2013.

METHODS

After ethical approval, three questionnaires (background characteristics, Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised, and Prevention of Bullying Questionnaire) were administered according to unit preference. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all responses and a Pearson product moment correlation was calculated to determine the relationship between bullying and its prevention.

FINDINGS

Most of the nurses in the study were married, female staff nurses with a baccalaureate in nursing. No participant responded that they had been bullied daily, but 29% reported that they were a victim of bullying. The mean bullying score was 1.6 ± 1.4 out of 5. The mean prevention score was 2.4 ± 0.3 out of 4. Significant differences were found between hospitals on bullying, F (4,155) = 2.7, p = .039, and between hospitals, F (4,155) = 2.9, p = .026, and units, F (5,143) = 3.4, p = .006, on prevention. The Prevention Scale significantly correlated with the bullying scale (r = .58, p < .001). No other variables were found to be associated with either bullying or prevention scores.

CONCLUSIONS

An alarming percentage of nurses were victims of bullying. Levels of bullying were low to moderate. Level of prevention was weak or moderate. The higher the level of bullying, the lower the level of prevention. The work environment as opposed to individual characteristics seems to have an impact on bullying and its prevention.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

More measures must be taken to prevent bullying. Nurses must be educated to accept only a zero tolerance to bullying and to report bullying when confronted by bullying.

Cumulative Effects of Multiple Forms of Violence and Abuse on Women

Little is known about how patterns of workplace bullying contribute to the negative effects of lifetime violence. Analysis of longitudinal data from a study of women's health after separating from an abusive partner revealed that 76% of 229 women had experienced workplace bullying. Workplace bullying was associated with child sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and ongoing partner abuse. Timing was critical, with those experiencing past workplace bullying having poorer health and fewer personal and social resources than those experiencing none, ongoing, or past and ongoing bullying. Lifetime sexual harassment (54%) was associated with higher posttraumatic stress disorder symptomology and greater likelihood of leaving workplaces and physical bullying (16%) with poorer health and personal, social, and economic resources. These findings highlight the importance of including bullying in studying lifetime violence.

Development, implementation and evaluation of a process to prevent and combat workplace bullying

Aim: Our objective was to develop and implement an intervention program in collaboration with workplace personnel, to evaluate the process as a vehicle to prevent and combat bullying. Methods: The project emanates from a community-based participatory approach. We obtained data from individual and focus group interviews. We used grounded theory methodology, and made a comparative analysis before and after the intervention. Results: Focus group interviews at the three first meetings indicated that those best positioned to prevent and combat bullying were the immediate supervisors, in collaboration with co-workers and upper management. The goal of zero tolerance toward bullying can be achieved if all concerned work together, using a humanistic value system, an open workplace atmosphere, group collaboration and conflict resolution. We developed an intervention, including lecturers and reflection groups, which ultimately resulted in an action plan. Focus group interviews at the fourth meeting, after the implementation, showed that employees were then more aware of bullying problems; the atmosphere at the workplace improved; the collaboration between and within the group was stronger; and the supervisor worked continuously to prevent and combat bullying, using the humanistic values suggested. We propose additional systematic work to implement our action plan and a conflict resolution system. Conclusions: The anti-bullying program implementation in the workplace achieved some success, but the intervention process is ongoing.

Workplace bullying influences women's engagement in the workforce

Workplace bullying creates hostile work environments, affects mental and physical health, and has social, economic, and career implications. Over 70% of targets of workplace bullying become unemployed either by losing their jobs or by leaving voluntarily. In a grounded theory study, we explored how experiencing workplace bullying and its health consequences affected 40 Canadian women. Further, I examined whether women stayed at or left workplaces after being bullied, how they left, and the influences on whether they stayed or left. Implications of this study are that bullied women and the organizations for which they work need to be assisted to manage this experience more effectively.

Nurses’ perceptions of individual and organizational political reasons for horizontal peer bullying

Nurses are exposed to bullying for various reasons. It has been argued that the reason for bullying can be political, meaning that the behavior occurs to serve the self-interests of the perpetrators. This study aims to identify how nurses perceive the relevance of individual and political reasons for bullying behaviors. In February 2009 a survey was conducted with nurses working in a research and training hospital located in Turkey. The results showed that the aim of influencing promotion, task assignments, performance appraisal, recruitment, dismissal, allocation of equipment and operational means, together with allocation of personal benefits and organizational structure decisions, were perceived as potential political reasons for bullying by nurses. Moreover, the reasons for the various bullying behaviors were perceived as relevant to individual characteristics, namely, the perpetrators’ need for power, and their psychological and private life problems.

Effects of Workplace Bullying on How Women Work

Work is central to well-being but working is problematic when people experience workplace bullying, which includes psychological, physical, and sexual abuse or harassment. The purpose of the present grounded theory study was to extend current understanding, from the perspective of women, of how workplace bullying affects their work and how they engage in the workforce. The study was conducted in eastern Canada with 36 English-speaking women who had been bullied in the workplace. They reported mainly psychological bullying. The central problem for women is they cannot continue working as they had before the workplace bullying. The authors named a four-stage process of how women address this problem as “Doing Work Differently.” The four stages are Being Conciliatory, Reconsidering, Reducing Interference, and Redeveloping Balance. The process is influenced by women’s support systems, the effects on their health, and financial circumstances. There are implications for public education, workplace policies, and health care workers.

Workplace bullying in health care affects the meaning of work

Our purpose in this grounded theory study was to explore the impact of workplace bullying (WPB) on women working in health care. We analyzed interviews with 21 women, professionals and nonprofessionals. The women experienced a change in their meaning of work (MOW) when they had experienced WPB, and they addressed this change through a process we called the shifting meaning of work. This process has three stages. The first, developing insight, involves recognizing causes of changed MOW as external. In the second stage, resisting, women defend against changed MOW by sustaining acceptable MOW and work performances, and by confronting causes. In the final stage, rebuilding, women try to adapt and modify approaches to work by coming to terms, adjusting work attitudes, and investing in self. We identified implications of this process for managing health and work issues with women, health care providers, and employers.