Bully University? The Cost of Workplace Bullying and Employee Disengagement in American Higher Education

Workplace bullying has a detrimental effect on employees, yet fewstudies have examined its impact on personnel in American higher educationadministration. Therefore, two central research questions guided this study: (a) What isthe extent of workplace bullying in higher education administration? and (b) What is thecost of workplace bullying specifically to higher education administration? Participantsfrom 175 four-year colleges and universities were surveyed to reveal that 62% of highereducation administrators had experienced or witnessed workplace bullying in the 18months prior to the study. Race and gender were not parameters considered in the sample.A total of 401 (n = 401) higher education respondents completed the instrument fromvarious departments on a campus: academic affairs, student affairs, athletics,development/advancement, admissions/financial aid, information technology, arts faculty,sciences faculty, and executives. Employment disengagement served as the theoreticallens to analyze the financial cost to higher education when employees mentally disengagefrom organizational missions and objectives. With this lens, the study examined staffhours lost through employee disengagement and the associated costs