Prevention of and interventions in workplace bullying: a global study of human resource professionals’ reflections on preferred action

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze Human Resource Professionals’ reflections on the prevention of and intervention in workplace bullying across different countries. More specifically, the study sought to identify what actions were, in the experience of human resource professionals, best to prevent and intervene in bullying and uncover organizations’ motives for engaging in such work. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews (n = 214) in 14 different countries/regions, representing all continents and all GLOBE cultural clusters. Qualitative content analysis was performed to analyze the material. The findings indicate that bullying was largely conceptualized as a productivity and cost issue, and that was largely driving efforts to counter bullying. Training and policies were highlighted as preferred means to prevent bullying across countries. In contrast, there were large national differences in terms of preferences for either disciplinary or reconciliatory approaches to intervene in bullying. This study advances our understanding of what human resource professionals consider preferred ways of managing workplace bullying, and adds to our understanding of cross-national differences and similarities in views of this phenomenon. As such, the results are of relevance to both practitioners and scholars.

Keywords:

• Bullying
• human resource professionals
• intervention
• multi-country study
• prevention
• qualitative content analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Suzy Fox, who inspired and initiated the project, but who had to withdraw at an early stage due to health reasons. We would also like to thank Minerva Peijari, who worked as a research assistant for the first author. We are further indebted to the following persons for help with data collection and transcription: Sergio Madero, Rosemary Danesi, Busola Akintayo, Ademola Ajeyomi, Iiris Hytönen, Julia Kilpelä, Tea Isokaari, Dominik Stockhammer, Harrison Card, Gulsah V. Ozkan, Irene Fotopoulou and George Skoulikaris. Dawid Mitrzyk and the 4th year students of the Master Programme of Business Psychology at University of Wrocław, Poland – including Maria Rojewska, Joanna Krzywak, Joanna Antczak, Anna Skrobol, and Arkadiusz Grylicki – also deserve our thanks.