Mobbing E-Book

Tiffany Lauder

• Herausgeber: BookThug
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 37

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Psychoterror in the workplace is increasingly common nowadays. The current working environment, which is extremely competitive and violent, favors the emergence of toxic and psychopathic leaders. Figures indicate that this problem is becoming more frequent, usually achieving its ultimate aim: to force the victims to quit their jobs or cause their dismissal. Discover the major aspects of workplace harassment, its possible consequences, and learn how to avoid the most perverse psychological mechanisms taking place in companies nowadays.

Leseprobe

Working Together is Living Together

Workplace bullying, also known as mobbing, is a phenomenon which has existed for many years, but has recently become relevant. Research on this issue began in 1980 and has increased rapidly, but the concept of mobbing is yet not clearly defined.

French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Christophe Dejours, specialist in occupational medicine, reported an increase in the number of suicides in the workplace due to the fact that employees are defeated by the current world of work. For him, good relationships between workers and cooperation are essential. But in recent years, the situation has changed and solidarity is overshadowed by a type of market which prioritizes the individual over the collective. According to this expert, the most affected persons are those who are more engaged in the company where they work. For Dejours, “working is not only producing; it’s also coexisting.”

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What is Mobbing?

Although there is not a unique definition for mobbing or workplace bullying, it is considered physical or psychological harassment which systematically targets a single person, or a group of people (rarely), and is intended to force the person out of the workplace. Swedish sociologist Heinz Leymann defines it more thoroughly as “a set of actions involving hostile communication by one or more individuals towards one individual which occur at a very frequent basis and over a long period of time, in which the relationship between the stressor and the victim is evident.” Leymann explains that the victims of this type of harassment are unable to control the situation and solve the problem.

According to author Marie Hirigoyen, workplace bullying can be defined as “any manifestation of an abusive conduct and, specially, the behavior, words, acts, gestures or written communication which may threaten the individual’s dignity, physical and psychological integrity, or may endanger his workplace or deteriorate the working environment.”

Iñaki Piñuel, researcher and professor at University of Alcalá, considers mobbing “the frequent, deliberate and humiliating oral aggression towards a worker by a colleague or a group of colleagues, either subordinate or superiors, which behave cruelly in order to cause his psychological destruction and force him to quit his job through different illicit methods.” Some experts argue that one of the main aims of mobbing, if not the only one, is to force the worker out of his workplace.

The European Commission included the following definition in the Randstad report, with the intention to define workplace violence: “Incidents where persons are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being and health.” It also included definitions on some keywords such as abuse, unwanted physical or psychological behavior; threats, the advert intention of harming an individual; and assault, any attempt or action intended to cause physical harm. In all cases, it’s important to highlight that most of the definitions have three elements in common: harassment at the workplace is defined by the effect it has on the victim, and not by the intention of the stressor; there must be a negative consequence for the victim; and the aggressions must be frequent.

Experts who have studied this phenomenon define two approaches for treating it -- the American approach and the European one. The first one focuses mainly on general violence by clients or users; that is, it considers aggression outside the workplace. It seeks to understand and classify the isolated incidents which are included in mobbing. However, the European approach focuses on the persistent violence by people inside the same company or workplace, emphasizing the process of victimization.

The victims become the target of unjustified and excessive hostilities such as insults, unfounded rumors within the workplace or being ignored by their partners or bosses. These actions are repeated during a long period of time, which may be from months to years (the harassment must last at least six months to be considered mobbing). In the worst case scenario, there may be episodes of physical or sexual violence.

Usually, the victims don’t realize they are being ill-treated immediately and get used to it, even convincing themselves they deserve it for having failed to do their jobs correctly.

Mobbing is different from bullying in that the former rarely implies physical violence, while the latter is characterized by it. This difference was pointed out by Leymann, who also prefers to use the word bullying to refer to violence among children and mobbing to refer to violence among adults. He suggests “harassment” and “psychoterror” as synonyms.