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Revision of the workplace bullying checklist: the importance of human resource management's role in defining and addressing workplace bullying
Author(s) -
Fox Suzy,
Cowan Renee L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
human resource management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.44
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1748-8583
pISSN - 0954-5395
DOI - 10.1111/1748-8583.12049
Subject(s) - workplace bullying , checklist , psychology , perspective (graphical) , scale (ratio) , human resources , resource (disambiguation) , human resource management , work (physics) , social psychology , applied psychology , public relations , political science , cognitive psychology , mechanical engineering , computer network , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , engineering
Human resource professionals ( HRP s) in the US are important actors in workplace bullying ( WB ) situations. Most WB research currently focuses on the target but fails to include the individual most often left to interpret and respond to complaints of bullying – the HRP . We argue that because HRP s must work to identify, understand and deal with victims and bullies; HR should have a voice in assessing WB . The difficulties HRP s report in effectively responding to employee complaints of WB have been attributed to a number of factors, including conflicts among multiple HR roles in the organisation, a paucity of specific organisational policies and guidelines for dealing with bullying, and ambiguous definitions and criteria for behaviour to be considered bullying. The impetus for the study reported here was the need to clarify the definition of bullying incorporating the HR perspective, determine what behaviours and criteria are seen as bullying by HRP s. Scale use and limitations are discussed as well as theoretical and practical implications.