NCJ Number
125398
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1990) Pages: 119-126
Date Published
1990
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Swedish researchers have been investigating a phenomenon called "mobbing," which consists of employees ganging up on a colleague and subjecting him to psychological harassment, resulting in severe psychological and occupational consequences for the victim.
Abstract
Four critical phases exist during the process of mobbing, which can continue for long periods of time, although supervisors should have been able to stop it early. The triggering situation or original critical incident, is usually a conflict over work. Mobbing and stigmatization consists of actions designed to punish a person by manipulating his reputation, communication toward the victim, social circumstances, the nature of his work performance, and violence or threats of violence. The workplace's management intervenes in the third stage, personnel administration, where the supervisor usually takes over the prejudices of the mobbers. The final stage is expulsion from the workplace. The victim suffers psychical, social, and psychosomatic effects including social isolation, voluntary unemployment, loss of coping resources, and a feeling of desperation and great anxiety. Long periods of sick leave, production dropoff by the entire group, and the necessity for intervention by managers, occupational health staff, and company health care centers amount to great financial consequences of mobbing. Successful conciliation and arbitration actions can act as ameliorative interventions against expulsion of mobbing victims. 12 references.