Workplace Mobbing: Expulsion, Exclusion and Transformation

Abstract

Workplace mobbing, defined here as “ganging up” and “the malicious attempt to force a person out of the workplace” (Davenport, Distler-Schwartz, & Pursell-Elliott, 1999), is a serious issue for individuals, organisations and ultimately broader society. As such, very high psychological, physical and financial costs have been identified for those targeted, with important, far-reaching repercussions. The objective of this thesis is to develop a greater understanding of workplace mobbing and aims to investigate the experience of those who have self-identified as targets of workplace mobbing, to clarify workplace mobbing as a distinct form of workplace violence, and to explore the actions of organisations in responding to workplace mobbing. While much of the research about mobbing is from the discipline of psychology, the sociological perspective is explored in this thesis with the objective of developing a greater understanding of the problem. In pursuit of this objective, this qualitative inquiry aims to identify any commonalities that typify and distinguish the phenomenon, as well as any patterns in organisational response. To better understand the social complexities of the problem, post-structuralist theoretical concepts, in the critical tradition, are drawn upon. This thesis is the result of a three year investigation into the experience of some of those adversely impacted on by the problem. It investigates the problem of workplace mobbing from the perspective of 212 participants, who self-identified as having been targeted in public sector organisations across Australia. It explores important individual and organisational behaviours involved, and the efforts made by participants to alleviate the problem. The data was gathered from multiple sources including 10,000 emails between members of an online virtual community, interview data, hundreds of documents including medical reports, legal documents and court transcripts, and correspondence from a range of agencies contributing to the mobbing experience of the participants. While the experience of some participants included public humiliation in the print and electronic media, the media was also accessed by other participants to achieve positive outcomes and these reports are also included as important sources of data. To organise and facilitate the coding and sorting of vast quantities of data, qualitative data analysis computer software programs, including NVivo and MAX, were utilised. Consistent with the emancipatory ambitions of qualitative inquiry and exemplarian action research (Coenen, 2003), this methodology seeks the achievement of positive outcomes for the participants, for their communities, and for the organisations where they were employed at the time of their mobbing experience. The thesis framework follows grounded theory principles (Glaser & Corbin, 1967) regarding the choice of literature and the theoretical context that follow the identification of propositions. The approach is multi-disciplinary and draws upon scholarly and non scholarly sources to better inform the problem. There are nine propositions that emerged from this thesis and these can be further refined into the three themes of expulsion, exclusion, and transformation. The propositions provide a framework for discussion (Bryant & Charmaz, 2007) throughout this thesis and the themes are discussed in separate chapters. In relation to outcomes, 10 exemplars are identified that may have application for others in similar circumstances. This thesis concludes that mobbing is a form of oppression or social exclusion where those who are in the cultural minority in terms of organisational power and decision-making (Young, 1990) tend to be negatively labelled, stereotyped, and discredited as being inferior to the dominant culture. Propositions for future research, identified by those immersed in the problem, include the toxic and dysfunctional nature of public sector culture, the powerful influence of gossip, the denial of organisational justice, inadequate support systems, the relationship between gender and mobbing, and the process of social exclusion. However, the priority areas identified include naming the problem and the introduction of anti-mobbing legislation, not only to provide legal remedies to those targeted, but also to assist organisations in more effectively dealing with the problem.