Comments on: Bullying: A Widespread Concern

By: Janet Salmons

Janet Salmons — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:59:59 +0000

Here is another article:

Corrosive Leadership (or Bullying by Another Name): A Corollary of the Corporatised Academy?

by Margaret Thornton
Australian National University – ANU College of Law

Australian Journal of Labour Law, Vol. 17, pp. 161-184, 2004

It is available for free download, with registration from the Social Science Research Network: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1313528

By: Nancy Woodring

Nancy Woodring — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:49:36 +0000

P.S. On a positive note, we could publish an article on the topic. Anyone up for the challenge?

By: Nancy Woodring

Nancy Woodring — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:45:56 +0000

Luciane makes an excellent point about the relationships between bullying and the negative effects on organizations and targets. I started bully research (IO Psy doctoral student) two years ago when there was scant research on the topic. Since then, as the US caught on that this, indeed, is a pervasive, dangerous, workplace security issue not to mention the devestation it causes victims as they lose their social networks in the workplace, and often quit their jobs. There are reported cases of suicide once the trickle-down effects hit families who try to deal with the depression, PTSD, and loss of identity. Surely the problem will escalate as the result of economic pressure and fear in the workplace. Bullying has become specific to industries: nursing, teaching, sales, and lately, countries like CHINA are bravely reporting cases of bullying. Imagine that. Problem is, most are self reports, and if leaders embrace hardline, aggressive managers while looking away, chances of legislation in the near future are slim. I appreciate Lucianne bringing to my attention turnover and rates of illness- people will do anything to get away from bullies. One more comment … well, two actually. Training programs? What a joke. They train bullies how to bully AND secondly, one of these days I’ll write a book about what it was like to be a bully victim. Almost three years and I still suffer. It’s an incredible story, and as I write this, my hands shake even thinking about it. But I’m ok, would be better if I could shake up Capitol Hill.

By: Luciane Berg

Luciane Berg — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:44:31 +0000

I am just joining this site and I do have comments. I have been working on this topic from the perspective of a psychologist for the last few years. I am an administrator in higher education. I have a couple of great data sets involving workers perceptions and health status. I have found a relationship between bullying and turnover and rates of illness. I think that in the current climate, we will see more individuals being the victims of bullying as more and more people fear for their jobs. It seems that when the going gets tough people respond with defensive and aggressive behaviors.

There are a lot of studies from the psychological literature too. thanks for the references from the business world.