Witnessing bullying at work: Employee silence in higher education institutions

IF 2.8 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY Pub Date : 2023-10-10 DOI:10.1111/hequ.12472

Angela Mazzone, Anastasios Karakolidis, Vasiliki Pitsia, Yseult Freeney, James O’Higgins Norman

{"title":"Witnessing bullying at work: Employee silence in higher education institutions","authors":"Angela Mazzone, Anastasios Karakolidis, Vasiliki Pitsia, Yseult Freeney, James O’Higgins Norman","doi":"10.1111/hequ.12472","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Workplace bullying is a widespread phenomenon within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Employee tendency to remain silent is one of the most common reactions to workplace bullying. Yet, employee silence in the context of workplace bullying is poorly studied. Building on the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and the Learned Helplessness Theory (LHT), this study investigated employee reluctance to take action when witnessing workplace bullying (employee silence). The sample comprised 560 employees working in 20 HEIs in Ireland. Respondents filled out a survey measuring employee silence, victimisation, and team psychological safety. Results showed a negative association between team psychological safety and employee silence, indicating a reluctance to report bullying among respondents with low levels of team psychological safety. In line with the COR and the LHT, a positive association was found between victimisation and employee silence. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible actions for bullying prevention in HEIs.</p>","PeriodicalId":51607,"journal":{"name":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","volume":"78 3","pages":"640-655"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/hequ.12472","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hequ.12472","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Workplace bullying is a widespread phenomenon within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Employee tendency to remain silent is one of the most common reactions to workplace bullying. Yet, employee silence in the context of workplace bullying is poorly studied. Building on the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) and the Learned Helplessness Theory (LHT), this study investigated employee reluctance to take action when witnessing workplace bullying (employee silence). The sample comprised 560 employees working in 20 HEIs in Ireland. Respondents filled out a survey measuring employee silence, victimisation, and team psychological safety. Results showed a negative association between team psychological safety and employee silence, indicating a reluctance to report bullying among respondents with low levels of team psychological safety. In line with the COR and the LHT, a positive association was found between victimisation and employee silence. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible actions for bullying prevention in HEIs.

查看原文本刊更多论文

目睹工作中的欺凌行为：高等教育机构中员工的沉默

工作场所欺凌是高等教育机构（HEIs）中的一种普遍现象。员工倾向于保持沉默是对工作场所欺凌最常见的反应之一。然而，对工作场所欺凌背景下员工沉默的研究却很少。本研究以资源保护理论（COR）和习得性无助理论（LHT）为基础，调查了员工在目睹工作场所欺凌时不愿采取行动的情况（员工沉默）。样本包括在爱尔兰 20 所高等院校工作的 560 名员工。受访者填写了一份调查问卷，测量员工沉默、受害情况和团队心理安全。结果显示，团队心理安全与员工沉默之间存在负相关，表明团队心理安全水平低的受访者不愿报告欺凌行为。与 COR 和 LHT 一致，受害情况与员工沉默之间存在正相关。本文最后讨论了高等院校预防欺凌的可能行动。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Higher Education Quarterly publishes articles concerned with policy, strategic management and ideas in higher education. A substantial part of its contents is concerned with reporting research findings in ways that bring out their relevance to senior managers and policy makers at institutional and national levels, and to academics who are not necessarily specialists in the academic study of higher education. Higher Education Quarterly also publishes papers that are not based on empirical research but give thoughtful academic analyses of significant policy, management or academic issues.