Title: Employee accounts of bullying at work

Authors: Andreas P.D. Liefooghe

Addresses: School of Management and Organisational Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK

Abstract: When incidence rates of bullying tend to be reported at levels of approximately 10% when measured by instruments such as the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ), but self-report measures are closer to 50%, the question arises as to how we explain the missing 40%. This case study offers some suggestions by exploring the views of employees regarding bullying at work. Using Discourse Analysis (DA), findings suggest that the use of the term bullying varies in ordinary talk, incorporating a more organisational dimension of bullying. The implications of this are reviewed.

Keywords: bullying; employee accounts; discourse.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2003.002486

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2003 Vol.4 No.1, pp.24-34

Published online: 18 Jul 2003 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article