NIOSHTIC-2 Publications Search

Workplace bullying: current status and future directions.

Grubb PL; Roberts RK; Grosch JW; Brightwell WS

2005 National Injury Prevention and Control Conference, May 9-11, 2005, Denver, Colorado. Atlanta, GA: Centers and Disease Control and Prevention, 2005 May; :106

20027976

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.

Workers; Work-environment; Behavior-patterns; Behavior; Absenteeism; Work-performance; Workplace-studies; Workplace-monitoring; Risk-factors; Risk-analysis; Safety-measures; Safety-practices

20050509

Conference/Symposia Proceedings; Abstract

2005

DART

Work Environment and Workforce: Organization of Work

2005 National Injury Prevention and Control Conference, May 9-11, 2005, Denver, Colorado

OH; GA; CO