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Workplace bullying is a major concern that can adversely affect employees’ health and overall well-being. A recent study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland provides new insights into how social relationships influence workplace bullying. By examining the aspects of social interactions and workplace culture, the research highlights the roles that these dynamics play in the occurrence of bullying. Such bullying can arise from various sources, including colleagues, supervisors, workplace groups, or even the organization as a whole.
“Our research emphasizes that workplace bullying is not just a result of personal traits but is also deeply connected to power dynamics in the workplace and the level of support individuals have during bullying episodes,” explains Pasi Hirvonen, a lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Eastern Finland.
The study analyzed 136 personal experiences of workplace bullying, gathered from online forums where individuals shared their stories. These accounts detailed the origins of the bullying, the reactions of the work community, and the outcomes of these situations.
The findings reaffirm earlier conclusions about the long-lasting detrimental effects of workplace bullying on both individual health and the performance of organizations.
The work community plays a vital role in workplace bullying
This research applied the concept of positioning theory, which examines how rights, responsibilities, and roles concerning workplace bullying are developed and discussed during everyday interactions. This perspective has been infrequently utilized in past studies.
In the shared experiences of bullying, individuals described their differing positions within their work communities. The dynamics of workplace bullying were influenced not only by the individuals being bullied and the perpetrators but also by the larger work community and external entities like occupational health professionals and regulatory bodies.
“Those who experienced workplace bullying often conveyed feelings of losing their health and work capacity or perceived the bullying as something that the work community accepted passively. Many described it as an unresolved conflict, or conversely, as a situation they overcame by actively resisting the bullying. Nevertheless, these survival stories were quite rare,” they noted.
Supervisors are crucial for addressing bullying
The study indicates that supervisors play a key role in managing bullying situations. When supervisors openly and fairly address these situations, they can help prevent further escalation. However, if they ignore or tolerate the bullying, it can significantly endanger the bullied employee’s ability to stay in their job.
“Many accounts of bullying we reviewed depicted how the targeted individuals felt isolated and powerless, often lacking opportunities for fair resolution or even guidance on how to address the issue,” adds Pekka Kuusela, also a lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Eastern Finland.
By focusing on the positionality of individuals relative to one another, this storyline-based analysis shifts attention from personal attributes to the power dynamics and interactions among employees, providing a new viewpoint on workplace bullying.
“To effectively understand how to tackle bullying scenarios, future research should also look into stories from work communities that have successfully addressed workplace bullying,” the researchers suggest.
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