Organisational strategies to manage workplace bullying

Abstract

Organisations may adopt a range of approaches in order to attempt to deal with workplace bullying, but evidence for the effectiveness of these approaches is mixed. Eight hundred and twenty-six participants in New Zealand responded to a secure online survey at two time points three months apart. In general, participants were frequently unaware of which initiatives their organisations had in place to address workplace bullying, but reported that the initiatives they knew about were likely to be effective. Participants who had not been bullied reported that their organisations had more initiatives in place and that these initiatives were more effective than those who had been bullied; managers reported more initiatives as being in place than non-managers. The initiatives reported as most prevalent were not necessarily those reported as being most effective. In general, even the presence of initiatives which were seen as effective did little to buffer the negative effects of bullying on well-being, intentions to leave, and perceptions of organisational leadership and support.