Developing Organizational Strategies for Work Place Bullying Reduction

Study Summary

Related Reports

Study Summary:

The Research Team on Work Place Violence and Abuse, Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research, has prepared this proposal to pursue our work on the issue of work place bullying. During 2004, the team completed research into the nature of work place bullying in New Brunswick from the perspectives of those being bullied and explored approaches they had used to address it. We discovered that work place bullying has a widespread impact, with clear health effects and that participants recommended a number of formal and informal strategies that may be applicable at various levels. Growing out of these initial findings, the team has been able to generate a good deal of public awareness and dialogue through media interviews and workshop presentations.

We believe that the key to successful implementation of new approaches lies in (a) ensuring that they are appropriately tailored to the specific organizational context and (b) using a careful community development process to build the necessary commitment to change. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop and pilot test practical processes to address work place bullying, considering organizational, financial, and ethical contexts.

This proposal builds on  what we have learned so far and uses a community development process to establish key informant and stakeholder dialogue from the viewpoint of private, public, and not-for profit sector organizations. This project is designed to provide a safe and confidential forum in which management and union representatives and specialists in human resources, organizational development, coaching, and counselling will be able to explore the issues and challenges they are encountering in their efforts to address work place bullying, share strategies that have proven successful, and generate new program and policy options. We will invite some of these participants to implement new approaches during this project, while having the benefit of support through this discussion forum. By developing and maintaining an electronic listserv, we intend to extend this learning conversation to organizations, practitioners, and applied researchers across Canada who are interested in sharing lessons learned and better practices in the field of work place bullying reduction.

Related Reports:

Publications

MacIntosh, J. (2006). Experiences of work place bullying in a rural area.  Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 26(9), 893-910.

Presentations

MacIntosh, J. (2006, April). Fostering positive relationships: Strategies to address work place bullying. Keynote Address at Capital District Health Authority Nursing Leadership Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

MacIntosh, J. (2006, April). Understanding the effects of work place violence on the health of  women. Paper Presented at the Nurses Network on Violence Against Women International Conference, Portland, Oregon.

MacIntosh, J., Merritt-Gray, M., & Wuest, J. (2006, April). The Impact of Workplace Bullying on Women’s health. UNB Nursing Research Day, Fredericton, New Brunswick.