Abstract
Workplace bullying, the repeated and regular act of harassing, offending, socially excluding someone, or negatively affecting someone’s work has been recognized as a serious threat to the health and well-being of employees. This study explored resilience, the successful adaptation despite challenging and threatening circumstances, as a coping strategy to help improve the physical and mental health of professional women who have experienced workplace bullying.
The central research question was, how does perceived resilience, when used as a coping strategy, help with the physical and mental health stressors while helping to improve the overall well-being of professional women who were or have experienced workplace bullying? Four major themes emerged: Negative Experiences, Consequences of Bullying, Impact on Health, and Support Systems. The results suggested that the participants believed they were targeted because of race, gender, and age. Workplace bullying does have negative health consequences; however, various support systems greatly increased their resilience.
Keywords: Workplace bullying; Resilience; Coping strategy; Health; Well-being
Introduction
One of the fastest growing problems in the American workforce is workplace bullying [1]. Workplace bullying is the repeated and regular act of harassing, offending, socially excluding someone, or negatively affecting someone’s work over a period and has been recognized as a serious threat to the health and well-being of employees [2]. The negative behavior manifests itself in multiple ways including direct (physical and verbal), indirect (psychological and relational), work-related (withholding information), personrelated (socially excluding), and physical intimidation (finger pointing) [3]. According to Keashly & Harvey [4], a significant number of workers have been persistently exposed to abusive behavior in the workplace. In fact, research indicated that in both Europe and North America, 10% to 15% of the workforce have been exposed to workplace bullying [5,6]. A survey conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute [7] on U.S. workers estimated that approximately 27% of U.S. workers have experienced some level of workplace bullying.
Introduced as a workforce phenomenon in the 1970’s, workplace bullying emerged as a complex issue that was often misunderstood [8]. Research scholars have had a growing interest in the phenomenon and over the past 20 years, they have sought to gain a better understanding while attempting to find strategies to combat the issue [9,10]. From an organizational perspective, workplace bullying can pose a huge problem for both the organization and the employees, as the negative consequences can significantly diminish overall well-being, employee morale, productivity [11,12], and increase turnover, while incurring significant financial loss and legal cost to the organization [13-16]. For workers, workplace bullying can lead to physical and mental stresses that can diminish the effectiveness of the employees. For women, workplace bullying occurs more frequently compared to men [17] and is one of the most troublesome issues that they face in the workplace [1].
Workplace bullying literature supported the fact that women were bullied at higher rates and more often compared to men [7]. According to a statistical survey conducted by the [7], women made up 60% of the bullied targets. Additionally, of the people who are targeted, 69% of the perpetrators were men. Research also showed that women who were targeted, experienced increased health consequences, which resulted in a significant amount of time away from the workplace posited that women were more vulnerable to bullying behavior because they were considered the weaker sex, and it was recognized in organizations as acceptable behavior [17,18].
Women who continue to encounter difficulties in the workforce, their work performance, as well as their mental health, are greatly impacted [19]. Additionally, Lewis S [17], argued that women who experienced bullying in the workplace greatly affected their physical and mental health, resulting in well-documented psychological effects consistent with stress, anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression [20-26]. Unfortunately, the literature clearly lacked enough methods that helped professional women cope with the effects of workplace bullying. Mikkelsen EG, et al. [27] argued that greater understanding was needed to fully grasp the extent and magnitude of workplace bullying; while the current research suggested that using resilience might help protect workers from the negative health effects of those who were or have experienced workplace bullying [28,29].
A review of the literature lacked enough studies that explored the physical and mental health consequences of workplace bullying in professional women [1,30]. Resilience, which is the process or capacity to successfully overcome challenges and threatening circumstances (Masten, Best & Garmezy, 1990), when used as a coping strategy, may help improve the overall well-being of professional women who have or are experiencing workplace bullying [27-30]. Researchers argued that greater understanding is needed to fully grasp the extent and magnitude of workplace bullying; while the current research suggested that using resilience may help protect workers from the negative health effects of those who are or have experienced workplace bullying [27-30]. This study looked at perceived resilience as a coping strategy to help facilitate increased well-being of professional women within an organizational environment who are dealing with workplace bullying.
Workplace Bullying and well-being
In 1990, Leymann studied bullying behaviors on the playground and drew similar conclusions of the negative behaviors experienced in the workplace. This brought much need attention to workplace bullying. Since then, several researchers have investigated workplace bullying and have created their own definition of the phenomenon [31,32] Despite the various definitions of workplace bullying, the common denominator was that the targeted individual must have been exposed to the negative behavior frequently and over a period of time, typically over a 6-month period [33-35].
Workplace bullying behaviors can range from harassment, offending or socially excluding individuals in the workplace [36], to an individual’s professional status being undermined [3,37]. The behavior can also negatively affect a person’s ability to accomplish his or her job [38,39] determined that the adverse effects of workplace bullying could result in anxiety, stress, burnout, and depression. Workplace bullying can also jeopardize the overall health and well-being of individuals, and if not dealt with properly, not only is an individual’s health diminished, but his or her work productivity decreases, which can incur significant recruiting and retention costs to organizations [12,26][40-42]. The literature suggested that women were more susceptible to workplace bullying resulting in them either leaving their jobs or suffering significant challenges to their physical and mental health [12].
Considering the limited strategies and/or tools available to combat this organizational issue, there is still a gap in the literature that considered effective resources to help professional women cope and deal with the phenomenon. In fact, throughout the literature, resilience is hardly mentioned as an available tool to help cope with workplace bullying [28-31]. Research on resilience showed that it can empower people to overcome physical and mental stressors, become more confident, and show a stronger sense of self in the workplace [20,43].
Influence of resilience on workplace bullying
Professional women who are resilient when dealing with negative workplace behaviors, can increase their overall wellbeing and work performance within an organization. When used as a coping strategy, resilience literature suggested that it could be “synonymous with reduced vulnerability” [44] Additionally, resilience has also been identified as a significant contributor to improved health, cognitive processes, and coping skills [31,43]. Recent studies posited that using resilience as a personal resource might help protect workers from the negative health effects of workplace bullying [29,30].
The current study
This research demonstrated that resilience could be used as a strategy to help professional women cope with the physical and mental health stressors associated with workplace bullying. Additionally, this study also showed that increased resilience could decrease worker turnover. This project built on those previous studies by examining professional women within the National Capital Region of Washington, DC, who reported that they had experienced workplace bullying over a 6-month period or more.
This qualitative single-case study explored how the influence of resilience, when used as a coping strategy, could help professional women overcome the physical and mental health stressors associated with workplace bullying, while helping to improve their overall well-being. Additionally, it focused on three specific areas of inquiry:
1. whether professional women perceived that they were targets of workplace bullying based on demographics (age, gender) and culture (race, ethnicity);
2. if perceived resilience was considered an effective coping strategy for professional women’s overall well-being when exposed to workplace bullying.
3. if perceived resilience helped to improve their overall physical and mental health levels as a result of workplace bullying.
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