Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that is often observed in working settings. It is associated with targeting, mistreating, harassing individuals for the purpose of upsetting and causing emotional as well as physical harm (Bowling & Beehr, 2006). As a result of prolonged bullying, its victims become less productive, emotionally instable, and their performance becomes worse (Jóhannsdóttir & Ólafsson, 2004). Workplace bullying is viewed as a critical issue in working environments because it is a cause of many conflicts, abuse, and misunderstanding in teams (Vukelić et al., 2019). The purpose of this paper is to provide the review of the relevant literature on the topic of workplace bullying.
There are certain factors in the workplace that can be viewed as triggers for bullying and harassment. In their empirical study, Aquino and Bradfield (2000), as a result of several factor analyses, determined the following factors as influencing victimization and workplace bullying: hierarchy, negative affectivity, and aggressiveness. Aquino and Bradfield (2000) discussed the problem from the perspective of victims of bullying, and this approach was also followed by Bowling and Beehr (2006), who found that both environmental factors and victims’ individual differences could provoke harassment and bullying, leading to conflicts. Einarsen et al. (2009) also focused on discussing factors, and they conducted the factor structure analysis with reference to the results for the sample of 5288 employees in the UK. They found that the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) is an appropriate instrument for measuring exposure to workplace bullying because of focusing on such factors as work-related bullying, personal bullying, and physical bullying.
Individual factors that influence bullying also include age, race, and gender among others. After conducting the factor and regression analyses, Jóhannsdóttir and Ólafsson (2004) found that gender was extremely important to determine specifics of bullying in the workplace as men tend not to report harassment, but passive responses can provoke more bullying. Schneider et al. (2000) focused on the race factor and examined the details of ethnic harassment with reference to the sample of 575 men and women. The researchers found that ethnic harassment in the form of exclusion and verbal harassment is typically observed during the first two years of working in a company.
In addition to bullying-related factors, there are also specific stressors that are associated with workplace bullying. Hauge et al. (2010) conducted a quantitative study with a focus on the sample representing employees in Norwegian companies. They concluded that workplace bullying is a major social stressor causing depression and anxiety in workers and leading to decreased job satisfaction and higher turnover intention rates. Hauge et al. (2011) referred to a larger sample including 10,000 employees and stated that role stressors and ineffective leadership approaches and practices could influence the development of workplace bullying. Thus, if working environments are unfavorable and leadership is ineffective, these stressors can provoke the bullying.
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