Understanding the Impact of Bullying in a Unionized U.S. Public Sector Workforce

Details

• Personal Author:
  El Ghaziri M ; Johnson JV ; Lipscomb, Jane A. ; London M ; McPhaul K ; Simons S ; Storr CL ; Trinkoff AM
• Description:
  Background: Workplace Bullying (WPB) can have a tremendous, negative impact on the victims and the organization as a whole. The purpose of this study was to examine individual and organizational impact associated with exposure to bullying in a large U.S. unionized public sector workforce. Methods: A cross-sectional Web-based survey was conducted among 16,492 U.S. state government workers. Survey domains included demographics, negative acts (NAs) and bullying, supportiveness of the organizational climate, and individual and organizational impacts of bullying. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the impact among respondents who reported exposure to bullying. Findings: A total of 72% participants responded to the survey (n = 11,874), with 43.7% (n = 5,181) reporting exposure to NAs and bullying. A total of 40% (n = 4,711) participants who experienced WPB reported individual impact(s) while 42% (n = 4,969) reported organization impact(s). Regular NA was associated with high individual impact (negatively impacted them personally; odds ratio [OR] = 5.03) when controlling for other covariates including: female gender (OR =1.89) and job tenure of 6 to 10 years (OR = 1.95); working in a supportive organizational climate and membership in a supportive bargaining unit were protective of high impact (OR = 0.04 and OR = 0.59, respectively). High organizational impact (transferring to another position) was associated with regular NA and bullying (OR = 16.26), female gender (OR = 1.55), providing health care and field service (OR = 1.68), and protective effect of organizational climate (OR = 0.39). We found a dose-response relationship between bullying and both individual and organizational-level impact. Conclusion/Application to Practice: Understanding the impacts of WPB should serve to motivate more workplaces and unions to implement effective interventions to ameliorate the problem by enhancing the organizational climate, as well as management and employee training on the nature of WPB and guidance on reporting. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Bullying Health Personnel Occupational Health Safety Sex Characteristics Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Bullying Gender Factors Health Care Workers Impact Organizational Climate Questionnaires Work Organization Workplace Bullying Workplace Studies
• ISSN:
  2165-0799
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Maryland ; Massachusetts ; New York ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  139-153
• Volume:
  68
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059916
• Citation:
  Workplace Health Saf 2020 Mar; 68(3):139-153
• Contact Point Address:
  Mazen El Ghaziri, PhD, MPH, RN, Alan and Susan Solomont School of Nursing, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Health and Social Sciences Building, 113 Wilder Street, Office 361, Lowell, MA 01852
• Email:
  mazen_elghaziri@uml.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  University of Maryland, Baltimore
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20060901
• Source Full Name:
  Workplace Health & Safety
• End Date:
  20120831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f66fc8252f806db57fa676038b0a966bf197281d350da095b22c697f24fd385f94c285b3888602d3ba78913c3b3453e6ce5c6d21dd8dc5cf6ba1d39f760b858f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/223970/cdc_223970_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 187.08 KB ]