interventions to reduce the health impact of workplace bullying
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Interventions to Reduce the HealthImpact of Workplace Bullying: Where Do
We Go From Here?
Dr Christine A. Sprigg, Institute of Work Psychology(IWP), Management School, University of Sheffield,SHEFFIELD, UK.
EAWOP Small Groups Meeting, Nottingham. 24
th
May, 2012 at 4pm.
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What is Bullying at Work?
Bullying is a non-physical and psychological form ofunacceptable behaviour. Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf andCooper (2003) suggest this definition:
Bullying at work means harassing, offending, socially excluding
someone or negatively affecting someones work tasks. In order for
the label bullying (or mobbing) to be applied to a particular activity,interaction or process it has to occur repeatedly and regularly (e.g.,weekly) and over a period of time (e.g., about six months)(p.15).
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What is Bullying at Work?
The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) (2011) statesthat there is no legal definition of bullying but that it can
take many forms and involve:
ignoring or excluding someone
spreading malicious rumours or gossip
humiliating someone in public
giving someone unachievable or meaningless tasks, and
constantly undervaluing someones work performance
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A Bully at Work?
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Prevalence of Workplace Bullying the UK
Quine (1999) found 38% (N=1,100) of employees in aUK NHS community trust had experienced one or more
types of bullying in previous year
Hoel & Giga (2006) found 13.6% (N=1,041) of publicsector employees in previous 6 months, compared to anearlier 10.6% described as a national average by Hoel
& Cooper (2000)
Coyne et al., (2003) reported 39.6% (N=288) in oneregional operation of a male-dominated public sectororganisation
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Prevalence of Workplace Bullying the UK
Research conducted by Charlotte Rayner & colleaguesfor UNISON in 2011 found a prevalence of 35% of staffbeing bullied in the previous 6 months (more thanN=6,000)
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Costs of Workplace Bullying
Estimated cost of 13.75 billion in 2007 (Giga, Hoel &Lewis, 2008)
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Workplace Bullying & Psychological &Physical Health
Extensive previous research links bullying topsychological, psychosomatic and physical ill health
(e.g., Mikkelsen & Einarsen, 2002)
Hansen et al.s (2006) study in Southern Sweden
suggests that workplace bullying may have physiologicalconsequences as well as psychological ones
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Workplace Bullying & Psychological &Physical Health
Niedhammer et al., (2006) study of the general workingpopulation in the SE France examined the relationships
between workplace bullying and depressive symptoms in3132 men and 4562 women
Workplace bullying was a strong risk factor fordepressive symptoms for both men and women
Association between workplace bullying and depressivesymptoms may be underestimated in the study becauseof the working sample used
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Workplace Bullying & Psychological &Physical Health
Quine (1999): Bullied employees experiencedsignificantly lower levels of job satisfaction, and higher
levels of job-induced stress, depression, anxiety, andreported being more motivated to leave their job
Finne, Knardahl & Lau (2011) found self-reportedworkplace bullying is a predictor of mental distress two
years later. Bullying had independent effect afteradjustments for job demands & job control. Mentaldistress also predictor of bullying reverse relationshipimportant too.
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Workplace Bullying & Psychological &Physical Health
Rugulies et al (2012) found that workplace bullyingincreased the risk of a major depressive episode (MDE)
among Danish female eldercare workers. MDE did notpredict risk of bullying.
*Eliminating workplace bullying may contribute topreventing MDE* (Rugulies et al, 2012).
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Workplace Bullying and SicknessAbsence
Surprisingly weak relationships with sickness absencehave been previously found (Einarsen et al. 2003)
But, Kivimaki et als (2000) study of Finnish hospital stafffound that the rate of medically certified sicknessabsence was 51% greater in the bullied employees thanamong other employees
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Workplace Bullying and SicknessAbsence
Hoel and Coopers (2000a) unpublished UK national
study of bullying reports a relatively weak relationship
with absence
BUT, the bullied still took on averageseven days moresick leave per year than other employees
With a bullying rate at 10%, this accounts for 18 millionlost working days in the UK (Einarsen et al., 2003)
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Thus, interventions really needed...
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Clear economic incentives to fully understandingbullying (Einarsen et al, 2003)
Strong moral imperative to limit the health impact ofworkplace bullying on employees
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How do we create effective workplaceinterventions for bullying?
Organisational Level (Monks & Coyne, 2011)
Bullying policy that creates a culture of respect and dignity at
work
Risk management approach treats bullying as a psychosocialhazard. Improve work design (reduce stressors) and goodleadership (Spurgeon, 2003)
Informal buddy networks Clear grievance policy to deal with bullying cases
Monitoring and evaluating the grievance approach used
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How do we create effective workplaceinterventions for bullying?
Group Level (Monks & Coyne, 2011)
Changing group norms and values. Awareness training and
developing group norms against bullying
Occupational Health can work on initial prevention and mediatein group conflict situations (Vartia et al. 2003).
If group norms too entrenched outside expertise might be
needed and/ or changing group membership
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How do we create effective workplaceinterventions for bullying?
Individual level (Monks & Coyne, 2011)
Training in emotional regulation and assertiveness might reduce
vulnerability and submissiveness of the victim and dominance ofthe perpetrator
Victims should be able to access informal and informal supportthrough dignity at work advisers and counselling
Rehabilitation of both victim and potentially perpetrator (Tehrani,2003)
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How do we create effective workplaceinterventions for bullying?
Conclusions:
Monks & Coyne (2011) conclude that despite variousinitiatives and practical guidance to tackle workplacebullying there is little evidence for the effectiveness ofsuch approaches
Those that have attempted to evaluate interventions(Hoel & Giga, 2006; Mikkelsen et al, 2008) thenevidence of success has been inconclusive
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Where do we go from here?
We need to focus on the mechanisms through whichbullying leads to employee ill-health to facilitate the
design of successful workplace interventions....
Interventions need to map onto current thinking onworkplace bullying and undergo increased evaluation(Monks & Coyne, 2011)
Boosting the self-esteem (Mikkelsen & Einarsen, 2002)and optimism (Sprigg, Martin, Niven & Armitage, 2010)of the bullied or indeed all employees may proveuseful...?
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Initial Key Findings from IOSH Study
Funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety &Health (IOSH) to examine unacceptable behaviour
From cross-lagged moderation analyses (N=169), wefound three moderators of causal relationships:
Optimism
Job Demands Self-Esteem
Full details please see Sprigg, Martin, Niven & Armitage (2010) report freeto download from IOSH web pages.
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Low Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
High Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
EmotionalEx
haustio
Low Optimism
High Optimism
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Low Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
High Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
EmotionalE
xhaustio
Low Job DemandsHigh Job Demands
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Low Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
High Frequency Bullying
From Inside Organisations
GeneralMentalStrain(GHQ)
Low Self-EsteemHigh Self-Esteem
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Raises many questions about potentialworkplace bullying interventions...
How do we develop an optimism or a self-esteembooster?
Do we work with what applied positive psychology hasalready given us?
Do we use the intervention on everyone?
Do we just target the known bullied? How do we convince employers to examine workload
demands?
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The Really Big Question
What do we here today know that might help us inour quest to design and build effective interventions
which may limit the very costly and very unpleasanthealth impact of workplace bullying?
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More Research NeededMy Work Here is Not Done!
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Thanks & Acknowledgements
IOSH Unacceptable Behaviour Team: Dr Chris Armitage (Dept. ofPsychology) & Dr Karen Niven (now at Manchester Business
School) & Alex Martin (now at Sheffield Hallam University) Cyberbullying Team: Dr Carolyn Axtell, Dr Iain Coyne (I-WHO,
Nottingham University) & Sam Farley (Leeds University) (Currentresearch & subject of bid to IOSH)
IOSH & Cyberbullying: All employees and organisations who
participated in the research IOSH Data Support Team: Dr Jeremy Dawson (IWP/ScHARR) & Dr
Ian McDonald (Dept. of Psychology)
The Social Support Team: All my IWP colleagues & Dan Toffolo....
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Thank you for listening!
Any questions?
Email: [email protected]