The Perpetrators of Workplace Bullying in Schools: A South African Study

Corene De Wet and Lynette Jacobs (2014) A general concern in the workplace is not only how management manages, but also what goes on when colleagues choose to turn their heads. Previous research has looked at such undisclosed behaviour as sexual harassment, emotional and physical abuse, and workplace aggression, the psychological impact of these behaviours on the individual, as well as the organisational cost implications (Cox, 1978; Hoel, Sparks and Cooper, 2002; Turney, 2003; Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf and Cooper, 2003; Matthiesen and Einarsen, 2004; Hoel and Faragher, 2004; Penney and Spector, 2005; Steinman, n. d). Workplace bullying is a particular form of aggression where direct or indirect acts lead an employee to being systematically subjected to acts involving degrading and disrespectful treatment due to serious personal differences between employees (Einarsen, Hoel and Nielsen, 2005). There are many possible factors that could lead an individual to experience bullying within their work environment. These pertain to organisational factors that foster bullying, perpetrator’s personality characteristics and individual personality characteristics of the victim. Much of the recent research has focused on the distinguishing features that define a ‘bully’, as well as trying to determine the characteristic traits of the victim. This has led to unnecessary stereotypes (Bowie, Fisher and Cooper, 2005), thus not every individual may perceive their negative experiences as bullying but rather prefer to label their actions differently in order to cope. Certain aspects of a person has been considered in order to assist researchers in determining the characteristics that define the bully, such as an individual’s age, gender (Olafsson and Johannsdottir, 2004) and his/her mental status (Goldman, 2006). Research indicates that a child belonging to an aggressive family is a central indicator that the child is likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour (Radke-Yarrow and Kochanska, 1990). As will be discussed, aggression is a fundamental trait in a bully (Einarsen, 1999), thus 2 aggressive children are likely to be a bully in the schoolyard playing field as well as to carry this behaviour with them through life to become the workplace bully themselves (Smith, Singer, Hoel and Cooper, 2003; as cited in Branch, Ramsay and Barker, 2008). Bullying at work is claimed to be an extreme form of social stress. Bullying in the workplace is referred to as a more crippling and devastating problem for employees than all other work-related stressors put together (Matthiesen et al. , 2004). Coping may be seen as a moderator of the impact of the negative behaviour, thus it is necessary to consider the coping strategies victims are likely to employ when faced with a bullying situation. However, coping styles are person-specific, according to their social norms and may vary the impact on the individual during the bullying process (Cox, 1978)