Pathways of Job-related Negative Behaviour

Workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment unfolds as a process, usually recursive and escalating, that involves multiple actors and stakeholders. Through Section 1 of this volume, the antecedents and effects of workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment are detailed. Apart from discussing individual and organizational causative factors and adverse outcomes for targets and organizations, this section presents issues pertaining to target coping and survival and power versus powerlessness as dialectic rather than sovereign. Emergent research examining the physiological impact on targets, the controversial interplay of personality and the striving towards well-being is showcased. Section 2 brings together chapters on the various key players in the workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment scenario. The focus here is on targets, bullies, bystanders, leaders and significant others as well as the range of interventionists (such as HR managers, therapists, organizational practitioners, unionists and so on) who address situations of misbehaviour. The motives, experiences and outcomes of the former group and the roles, dilemmas and challenges of the latter group are elaborated.

Premilla D’Cruz holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. She is currently Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India. Together with Ernesto Noronha, Premilla has been researching the area of workplace bullying for over a decade and has covered various facets of the phenomenon through pioneering work which has extended the boundaries of our understanding. In addition to two authored books on workplace bullying (Workplace Bullying in India [Routledge] and Depersonalized Bullying at Work [Springer]), Premilla has recently co-edited both a special issue of Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management (Emerald) on workplace bullying and a book titled Indian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying: A Decade of Insights (Springer). She has published numerous papers in reputed peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Business Ethics, Information and Organization, Economic and Industrial Democracy and International Journal of Human Resource Management, and made several international presentations on the topic. Premilla’s other research interests include emotions at work, self and identity at work, organizational control, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) and organizations. Premilla has been a visiting scholar at various European and Australian universities and has received multilateral and bilateral study grants, in addition to several awards for outstanding academic and research work throughout her student and professional career. She has been President of the International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH) between 2016 and 2018, having earlier served as Secretary (2010–2016) and Special Interest Groups Coordinator (2008–2010). She is currently the section editor of Labour Relations and Business Ethics at the Journal of Business Ethics. More details about Premilla’s work are available at https://www.iima.ac.in/ web/faculty/faculty-profiles/premilla-d-cruz.

Ernesto Noronha holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. He is currently Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India. Together with Premilla D’Cruz, Ernesto has been involved in pioneering studies on various aspects of workplace bullying and has several published papers and presentations in the substantive area. Ernesto’s other research interests include workplace ethnicity, technology and work, and labour and globalization, and he has numerous papers published in reputed peer-reviewed journals on these topics, including Journal of Business Ethics, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Information and Organization and Journal of Contemporary Asia. He has recently co-edited Critical Perspectives on Work and Employment in Globalizing India (Springer). Ernesto has received bilateral and multilateral grants to study various aspects of employee experiences of work in India’s offshoring and outsourcing sector, focusing on new and unexplored areas such as organizational control, diversity, telework and collectivization, in addition to the VVEF Outstanding Researcher Award 2009 and 2017 at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Ernesto has been a Visiting Professor at the Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) School, Cornell University, and at the Institute for Sociology, University of Vienna. He has presented invited talks as a visiting scholar at numerous European universities, such as Strathclyde, Portsmouth, Bergen and Hamburg, in addition to the keynote address at the 2010 Work, Employment and Society (WES) conference. He is currently a board member of the RC30 Sociology of Work group at the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the section editor of Labour Relations and Business Ethics at the Journal of Business Ethics. More details about Ernesto’s work are available at https://www.iima.ac.in/ web/faculty/faculty-profiles/ernesto-noronha.

Elfi Baillien is Associate Professor at the Research Centre for Work and Organization Studies (WOS) of the Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Belgium. From 2017 to 2020, she has also been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychosocial Science of the University of Bergen, Norway (TOPFORSK). In 2011, Elfi obtained her Ph.D. at the Research Group of Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOPP), Faculty of Psychology, KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research topics focus around workplace bullying and interpersonal mistreatment, work stress, conflict management and psychosocial well-being. Elfi has (co-) authored a range of studies on these topics in impact factor, international, peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Work and Stress, Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Personnel Psychology, Aggressive Behaviour, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, New Media and Society, Media Psychology and Journal of Happiness Studies, among others.

Bevan Catley is Professor in the School of Management (Auckland) at Massey University, New Zealand. He is co-founder of the Healthy Work Group, a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Massey interested in psychosocial factors in workplace health and safety. Bevan’s primary research focus has been on workplace bullying and workplace violence, and he has published extensively on these topics. Bevan has been involved in some of the first large-scale research projects to investigate workplace bullying and violence in the New Zealand context. He was the chair of the organizing committee for the biennial conference of the International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH) held in Auckland in 2016. Bevan is also a board member of the IAWBH since 2017 and has been a board member for the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) from 2013 to 2019.

Karen Harlos is Professor and past Inaugural Chair, Department of Business, University of Winnipeg, Canada. She researches workplace mistreatment and bullying, employee silence and voice in response to mistreatment, healthcare management and work–life quality. Karen has published work in high-quality journals and presented numerous papers and workshops internationally. She consults on conflict resolution, team building, leadership and healthy workplaces. Her honours include several nationally funded grants as principal investigator, research distinctions and university exceptional performance awards (www.karenharlos.com). She recently led an interdisciplinary, international team investigating workplace bullying that partnered with large public sector organizations for evidence-based practice, policy and decision support (www.uwinnipeg.ca/wbmp). Karen serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Management Inquiry and is past Western Academy of Management Executive (elected), reserve board member for the IAWBH and member of provincial Advisory Group for SAFE Work Manitoba’s Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace Strategy.

Annie Høgh is Professor Emeritus of Work and Organizational Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. At the university, Annie founded and coordinated her department’s Work and Organizational Research Group. Prior to that, she held a position as senior researcher at the Danish National Research Centre for the Working Environment. Annie’s research has mainly focused on bullying, violence and harassment at work. She has been the principal investigator of a multicentre research project on antecedents, mechanisms, long-term consequences and prevention of negative social relations at work. Annie has presented her research at many international conferences, seminars and workshops. Likewise, her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, such as Work and Stress, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, Journal of Advanced Nursing and Journal of Nursing Management, among others.

Eva Gemzøe Mikkelsen is Associate Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Having completed her Ph.D. thesis in 2001, Eva worked for many years as an occupational psychologist while continuing her research. Eva currently focuses on intervention research. This includes effects of psychosocial rehabilitation of targets of workplace bullying and the development and evaluation of preventive organizational interventions, such as the bystander intervention “Intervene”, which she co-developed. Eva has presented papers at numerous international conferences. Her research has been published in international refereed journals, including the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Work and Stress, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Annals of Work Exposures and Health and Journal of Change Management. She has co-authored chapters in Danish and international textbooks and is the principal author of a comprehensive Danish textbook on bullying. Eva is presently a board member of the IAWBH.