dc.description.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. | |