Workplace Bullying: Current Status and Future Directions

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brightwell WS ; Grosch JW ; Grubb, Paula L. ; Roberts RK
• Description:
  Workplace bullying has emerged as an important organizational issue, particularly in Europe where investigators spearheaded initial research efforts. In the U.S., however, bullying has received less emphasis as the focus has been on high-profile workplace shootings and homicides spotlighted in the media. Studies of bullying have shown that being on the receiving end of such behaviors results in deleterious effects in worker health and well-being. In terms of cost to the organization, bullying has been associated with absenteeism, higher turnover rate, reduced productivity, and litigation costs. There is literature documenting the link between work organization factors and bullying. This presentation will discuss general measurement issues for workplace bullying. It will also provide an overview of the National Organizations Survey (NOS-III), a national telephone survey of U.S. organizations. This presentation will discuss the prevalence of workplace bullying in general, as well as specific findings from the NOS-III. Results from the NOS-III indicate that 24% of companies reported some degree of bullying occurring during the past year. In the most recent incident, the aggressor was typically an employee and the victim of bullying was also typically an employee. Findings of the NOS-III as well as other studies indicate that workplace bullying is pervasive. Future research should be aimed at establishing the linkages between workplace bullying and work organization factors in U.S. workers, and at assessing workplace bullying as a psychosocial stressor. The end goal of this process is to develop processes or tools for organizational interventions for workplace bullying and to evaluate the efficacy of these interventions. The presentation will offer suggestions for next steps, with specific emphasis on NIOSH activities. 1. Describe behaviors that are considered workplace bullying. 2. Identify risk factors for workplace bullying. 3. List potential prevention strategies for workplace bullying. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Absenteeism Behavior Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Behavior-patterns Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-measures Safety-practices Work-environment Work-performance Workers Workplace-monitoring Workplace-studies
• Publisher:
  Centers and Disease Control and Prevention
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings ; Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Colorado ; Georgia ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 8
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20027976
• Citation:
  2005 National Injury Prevention and Control Conference, May 9-11, 2005, Denver, Colorado. Atlanta, GA: Centers and Disease Control and Prevention, 2005 May; :106
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• NORA Priority Area:
  Work Environment and Workforce: Organization of Work
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  2005 National Injury Prevention and Control Conference, May 9-11, 2005, Denver, Colorado
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:1cfe5f8e83e583d6e9146bb1520e0e8169b5f29b1bf9979b9874b83d26b8d08db28212af3567bd21e878b45ef0d190fe29da9ff9a71113843f66fb5f3d7605e6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/189709/cdc_189709_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 182.61 KB ]