Open AccessInterpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace
Author(s) -
Charlotte Pietersen
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
sa journal of industrial psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.438
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 2071-0763
pISSN - 0258-5200
DOI - 10.4102/sajip.v33i1.256
Subject(s) - psychology , interpersonal communication , workplace bullying , social psychology , context (archaeology) , phenomenon , interpretative phenomenological analysis , interpersonal violence , isolation (microbiology) , interpersonal relationship , mobbing , interpersonal interaction , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , qualitative research , sociology , epistemology , paleontology , philosophy , social science , medicine , environmental health , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
In this paper employing a phenomenological method to explicate seven informants’ experience of interpersonal bullying behaviors in a South African work context, I demarcated four general themes namely: lack of recognition, discrimination, obstructionism, and isolation. Moreover, I found that perpetrators (male and female managers) predominantly used verbal and indirect negative acts to bully subordinates. Finally, racial tensions contributed to bullying behavior. While a phenomenological approach shows promise to explore local bullying behavior more research is needed to broaden our understanding of the phenomenon, including explicating bullying through the eyes of bystanders and alleged bullies