Workplace bullying in NHS community trust: staff questionnaire survey

British Medical Journal,  Jan 23, 1999  by Lyn Quine

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For the analyses of variance to test whether support at work could moderate the effects of bullying 209 (19%) staff were classified as having poor support and 884 (81%) good support from the support at work variable. The figure shows that there were main effects of support for each outcome variable except job induced stress, and interaction (moderating) effects for three of the five outcome variables.

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Discussion

In this study more than a third of staff (38%) reported experiencing one or more types of bullying in the past year, which should be a cause for concern. This prevalence compares with 1 in 8 reporting being bullied in the past five years in a recent study of 1000 workers by the Institute of Personnel and Development,[24] about 1 in 5 found in a recent Unison survey,[4] 1 in 3 in a Royal College of Nursing Survey,[25] and 1 in 2 of 1137 mature students at one English university reporting being bullied "at some time during their working life."[6] Comparisons should be treated with caution because of differences in definition and time. The most frequently reported bullying behaviours were shifting the goal posts, withholding necessary information, undue pressure to produce work, and freezing out, ignoring, or excluding. If these four bullying behaviours only were included, the prevalence would be 32% (346). Unqualified residential care staff were most likely to report experiencing each of the five categories of bullying except enforced overwork.

Staff who had experienced bullying reported lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of job induced stress. They were more likely to be clinically anxious and depressed and were more likely to report wanting to leave. Three explanations could account for these associations. Firstly, being bullied leads to psychological ill health and reduced job satisfaction. Secondly, certain staff may be more likely to report being bullied than others. These may be people who are more pessimistic in outlook. Such people might also report higher levels of job dissatisfaction, propensity to leave, etc than other workers. Thirdly, being depressed, stressed, or anxious may cause a person to be bullied by unscrupulous workers who choose weaker people as their victims. Anxiety and depression may also weaken a person's ability to cope with stressors such as bullying or make them more likely to perceive other people's behaviour as hostile and critical. Longitudinal data are required to try to disentangle these effects.

Despite these difficulties, the finding that 42% of staff had witnessed the bullying of others, including many who did not report being bullied themselves, confirms that it is not purely a subjective phenomenon. Similarly, the finding that higher proportions of unqualified residential care staff and younger staff report being bullied suggests a role for aspects of the organisational climate.

Support at work

The results are consistent with the hypothesis that a supportive work environment can protect people from some of the harmful effects of bullying. Support at work may function as a buffer against stress by providing resources to enable them to cope with stressful.[26] Other factors may also be able to perform this protective role, among them high levels of job control and personal dispositions such as hardiness, optimism, or sense of personal control (self efficacy). These merit further research interest.