Title: Do policies on bullying make a difference? Contrasting strategy regimes within higher education in Australia and Croatia

Authors: Dragana Krestelica, Llandis Barratt-Pugh

Addresses: School of Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. ' School of Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

Abstract: It is well established that bullying within organisations has a significant negative effect on individuals, social relations and business performance. In this paper, we present the findings from a study that investigated and explored the relations between policy, organisational awareness and resulting social behaviours within higher education. It appears that bullying behaviour may require a far greater emphasis on permeating the culture than is achieved by the mere production of informative policy texts. The paper suggests that organisations are challenged in bridging the divide between the words on the page of policy and the actions of actors within the workplace.

Keywords: bullying policies; prevention; amelioration; universities; higher education; cross-cultural; cultural differences; Croatia; Australia; international; anti-bullying strategies; management decisions; organisational awareness; social behaviour.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2009.026680

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2009 Vol.10 No.5/6, pp.303 - 320

Published online: 23 Jun 2009 *

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