Health consequences of workplace bullying: experiences from the perspective of employees in the public service sector

By L. Hallberg, M. Strandmark. 2006

155 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The aim of the study was to explore the perceived health consequences of workplace bullying. Open interviews were conducted with 22 informants; 20 bully victims and two persons working with bullying prevention. Data was assessed and analysed simultaneously in line with grounded theory methodology. A conceptual model was grounded in data, describing experiences of deteriorating psychological and physical health following bullying and efforts of returning to a “normal” life. The core category, “remaining marked for life”, illuminates the manner in which bullying was perceived as a psychic trauma or a traumatic life event causing the bullied person to be marked forever. The model includes five additional categories: “feeling guilt, shame and diminishing self-esteem”, “developing symptoms and reactions”, “getting limited space of action”, “working through the course of events” and “trying to obtain redress”. Bullying included the spreading of rumours and repeated insults aimed at changing the image of the victim and resulting in feelings of guilt, shame and diminishing self-esteem. Physical and psychosomatic symptoms gradually emerge and medical treatment and sick listing follow. The longer the bullying continues, the more limited the possibility to change the situation and the victim has a more limited space of action. Returning to a “normal” life was possible, but presupposed that the victim had worked through of the course of events. The bullied person also tried to obtain redress, such as through monetary compensation or professional confirmation. Despite this, bullying left an internal scar: the bully victim was marked for life.

Subfields: Radiological and Ultrasound Technology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/09b9abc99bb162cd88d87ff645d1d09cf323a379

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In Radiological and Ultrasound Technology

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Workplace victimization: aggression from the target's perspective. (2009, background): “…et al. 1996, Keashly et al. 1997, Lapierre et al. 2005, Quine 2001, Tepper 2000, Vartia & Hyyti 2002) and life satisfaction (Tepper 2000), shame (Hallberg & Strandmark 2006, Lewis 2004), fear (Rogers & Kelloway 1997), and emotional exhaustion (Goldberg & Grandey 2007, Grandey et al. 2007,…”
The effect of exposure to bullying on turnover intentions: the role of perceived psychological contract violation and benevolent behaviour (2017, background): “Research has shown that bullying itself is typically a highly stressful and draining experience (Hallberg & Strandmark, 2006; Hauge et al., 2010; Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012), and that it can have severe negative impacts on self-confidence (e.g. Hallberg & Strandmark, 2006).”