Thesis proposal workplace bullying

Title
Workplace Bullying of Employees in
Indian Organizations: A Grounded
Theory Approach
Centre for Research Studies, BIMTECH
1

Flow of Presentation
 Introduction
 Definitions
 Review of Literature
 Scope of Study
 Research Gaps
 Research Questions
 Research Objectives
 Research Philosophy and Design
 Research Methodology
 Data Collection and Sampling
 Chapter Scheme
2

Introduction
 Workplace bullying is a global phenomenon (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2003)
 Prevalent across various cultures, sectors and organizations (Ciby & Raya, 2015)
 A complex phenomenon which is identified as an occupational hazard for the
employees (Richards & Freeman, 2012)
 Negative impact on individuals, groups, organizations and society as a
whole(Cooper, Hoel, & Faragher, 2004; Djurkovic, et al., 2004; Einarsen, Hoel, & Notelaers, 2009)
 Despite high prevalence, lack of awareness regarding workplace bullying in
India(D’Cruz, 2016)
3

Definitions
 The repeated actions and practices that are directed to one or more
workers, which are unwanted by the victim, which may be done deliberately
or unconsciously, but clearly cause humiliation, offence and distress, and
that may interfere with job performance and/or cause an unpleasant
working environment (Einarsen, 1999).
 Repeated and persistent negative actions towards one or more individual(s),
which involve a perceived power imbalance and create a hostile work
environment. Bullying is thus a form of interpersonal aggression or hostile,
anti-social behavior in the workplace (Salin, 2003, p. 1214).
 The repeated, health-harming mistreatment of an employee by one or more
employees through acts of commission or omission manifested as: verbal
abuse; behaviors – physical or nonverbal – that are threatening,
intimidating, or humiliating; work sabotage, interference with production;
exploitation of a vulnerability – physical, social or psychological; or some
combination of one or more categories (Workplace Bullying Institute).
4

Extensively Used Definition
Bullying at work means harassing, offending, socially
excluding someone or negatively affecting someone’s
work tasks. In order for the label bullying (or mobbing) to
be applied to a particular activity, interaction or process it
has to occur repeatedly and regularly (e.g., weekly) and
over a period of time (e.g., 6 months). Bullying is an
escalating process in the course of which the person
confronted ends up in an inferior position and becomes
the target of systematic negative social acts.
A conflict cannot be called bullying if the incident is an
isolated event or if two parties of approximately equal
‘‘strength’’ are in conflict (Einarsen et al., 2003, p. 15)
5

Literature Review – Keywords used
 Workplace Bullying
 Mobbing
 Antecedents of workplace bullying
 Consequences of workplace bullying
 Workplace bullying in India
 Organized Sector of India
 Qualitative studies workplace bullying
 Content analysis workplace bullying
 Phenomenology workplace bullying
 Grounded Theory workplace bullying
6

Databases
7
Database Number of Papers
ProQuest 154
EBSCOhost 110
PubMed 83
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) 71
Education Research Information Centre (ERIC) 62
Directory of Open Access Journals 61
Google Scholar 35
Total 576

Inclusion & Exclusion Generic Criteria
8
Inclusion Exclusion
Articles published in English Non-English articles
Papers since 1990 (Seminal work in
English)
News paper articles
Published Reports Magazine articles
Full Text Papers Only Papers from non peer-reviewed journals

Inclusion & Exclusion Content Criteria
9
Inclusion Exclusion
Definition of workplace bullying Organizational Interventions
Prevalence Globally Laws against workplace bullying
Antecedents of Workplace bullying
Consequences of Workplace bullying
Coping Styles
Studies in India

Summary of Filtration
10
Level 1
Initial Search 576
Level 2
After Elimination through
exclusion criteria 388 (non-
English papers, newspaper
articles)
Level 3
Keywords & abstracts 166
(workplace bullying, Mobbing,
antecedents of workplace
bullying, consequences of
workplace bullying
Level 5
Full Text papers relevant to the
study 140

Various terminologies
11
Concepts Regions
Mobbing (Leymann, 1996; Zapf, Knorz,
& Kulla, 1996)
France and Germany
Harassment (Bjorkqvist, Osterman, &
Hjelt-Black, 1994)
Finland
Workplace bullying (Einarsen, Hoel,
Zapf, & Cooper, 2003)
Australia, United Kingdom
and Northern Europe Asia,
USA

Characteristics of Workplace Bullying
 Negative Treatment
 Frequency of negative treatment
 Persistent negative treatment
 Power imbalance
(Coyne, 2011)
12

Perpetrators
 Superiors
 Peers
 Subordinates
(Zapf & Einarsen, 2011)
13

Stages of Workplace Bullying
14
Behavioural Examples
Increasing Intensity and
frequency of Negative
Behaviour
Impact
Expulsion or Leave
Voluntarily
Severe Trauma
Devaluating work,
Physical threats,
Increasing workload,
Public Humiliation
Impact
Withdrawn
Stigmatization
Belittling remarks,
personal jokes,
intentional demeaning,
constant criticism and
negative eye contact
Impact
Humiliation
Escalation
Constant teasing,
badgering, ridiculing,
gossiping and spreading
lies
Impact
Confusion
Indirect Aggressive
Behaviour
Einarsen, et al., 2011

Prevalence
15
Region Population Study Victims Witnes
s
Scandinavia
Finnish University (338) Bjorkqvist et al.,1994 24.4 %
Norwegian (7986) Einarsen & Skogstad, 1996 8.6 %
Finnish Professionals (377) Salin, 2001 24.1 % 30.4%
Danish Workers (687) Mikkelsen & Einarsen 2001 25%
Danish Food Manufacturing (186) Agervold Mikkelsen 2004 13% 10.6%
Danish Employees (3024) Agervold, 2007 4.7% 3.3%
Norwegian (2539) Nielsen, 2009 14.3% 13%
Danish (3249) Ortega et al., 2009 8.3% 42%
Norwegian (2539) Stogstad et al., 2009 6.8%
Norwegian transport (1024) Vie et al., 2011 11.6%
Europe
English NHS Trust (1100) Quine, 1999 38% 42%
British Employees (5288) Hoel, Cooper, 2000 24.7% 46.5%

16
Region Population Study Victims Witness
Europe
French (7694) Niedhammaer, et
al., 2006
12.8%
Portugal Nurses (107) Sa & Flemming,
2008
13%
Spanish (300) Escartin, et al.,
2009
10% 39%
Spanish (1730) Baguena et al.,
2011
12.8%
Italian University (371) Giorgi, 2012 19%
Greek (840) Galanki &
Papalexandris,
2013
44.8% 42.2%
English NHS (2950) Cartel, et al.,
2013
20% 43%
Czech Republic University
(1533)
Zabrodska &
Kveton, 2013
13.6%
America
US (403) Lutgen-Sandvik
et al., 2007
46.8% 10.9%
Massachusetts Nurses
(511)
Simons, 2008 31%
Canadian Nurses (415) Laschinger et al.,
2010
33%

17
Region Population Study Victims Witness
Australia &
New
Zealand
Australian Health Sector
(311)
Bentley et al., 2009 17.8%
Australian (174) Keuskamp et al., 2012 15.2%
New Zealand (1728) Demir, Rodwell & Flower,
2013
24%
Asia
Turkish workers (877) Bilgel et al., 2006 55% 47%
Turkish Nurses (286) Yidrim, 2009 21%
Pakistani
Telecommunication
(280)
Bashir & Hanif, 2011 52%
South Korean Seo et al., 2012 5.7%
Indian ITES-BPO (1036) D’Cruz & Rayner, 2013 42.3%
Africa
South African (13911) Cunniff & Mostert, 2012 31.1%
Nigerian University
Workers (600)
Nkporbu & Douglas, 2016 43.9%

Forms of Bullying
18
Overt Behaviour Covert Behaviour Work related
Belittling Remarks Excluding/Isolating Increasing workload
Personal Jokes Snide comment Belittle opinion
Intentional Demeaning Devaluating Work Taking away
responsibilities
Constant Criticism Constant Teasing Refusing to give leave
Insults Badgering Assigning Menial Tasks
Verbal Abuse Ridiculing Unrealistic Goals
Aggressive eye contact Talking behind the back Withholding Information
Physical Threats Rumours Negative Appraisal
Intimidating Physical
Gestures
Ignoring Overruling Decisions
Physical attacks Criticising Work
(Barttell & Bartlett, 2011)

Antecedents and Consequences
19
AntecedentsConsequences

Coping Styles
 Humour (in confusion state)
 Communication (in Humiliation state)
 Non Participation (withdrawal state)
 Revival Through External Counselling (after leaving)
(Zapf & Gross, 2001)
20

Workplace bullying in India
 Lack of research on Workplace bullying in India (D’Cruz, 2016)
 Prevalence in India 42.3 % (ITES-BPO) (D’Cruz & Rayner, 2013)
 Unique features pertaining to India (D’Cruz, 2016)
- Unidirectional (Ciby & Raya, 2014; D'cruz, 2016)
- Self-Serving Bias (D'Cruz, 2012)
- Discrimination based on caste, religion and social class (D'Cruz,
2012)
21

Definition in Indian Context
Unwanted negative abusive, intimidating and aggressive
behaviours, involving the misuse of power, displayed directly
and/or indirectly by an individual and/or a group, publicly and/or
privately, over a period of time
(D'cruz, 2016)
22

Research Methodologies Used
23
Qualitative Quantitative
Instrument Analysis Instrument Analysis
Interviews Thematic Analysis Survey Chi-Square Analysis
Focus Group Content Analysis Questionnaire ANOVA
Written accounts Grounded Theory MANOVA
Interpretive
phenomenological
analysis
Descriptive Statistics
Regression
Spearman’s Rank
Correlation
Confirmatory Factor
Analysis
Exploratory Factor
Analysis

Scope of Study
White Collar Employees in Indian Organizations which shall Include:
 Public Company where
- not less than fifty-one per cent of the paid-up share capital is held or
controlled by the Central Government or by any State Government or
Governments or partly by the Central Government and partly by one or more
State Governments (The Companies Act, 2013)
 Private Company is
- an establishment which is not an establishment in public sector and where
ordinarily twenty- five or more persons are employed to work for (Ministry of
Labour, 1959)
24

Research Gaps
1) Dearth of studies on workplace bullying in India (D'Cruz, 2012) with lack of
empirical studies on forms, antecedents, consequences and coping styles
for workplace bullying among Indian employees.
2) Lack of awareness of the term bullying among Indian employees (D'Cruz
& Rayner, 2013)
3) Studies undertaken are mainly quantitative, hence, need of more
qualitative studies (D'cruz, 2016)
25

Research Questions
1) What are the forms of bullying being experienced by employees?
2) What are the factors that lead to the incidents of bullying at the workplace?
3) How do negative behaviours at the workplace influence the targets?
4) What coping styles do the targets opt for as a result of workplace bullying?
26

Research Objectives
Considering the employees of Indian public and private sector organizations
as research participants, following are the objectives of the research:
1) Identifying the forms of workplace bullying
2) Identifying the antecedents of workplace bullying
3) Identifying the consequences of workplace bullying
4) Identifying the coping styles adopted by the employees
27

Research Philosophy and Design
28
Design
Research Philosophy and Design
Philosophy
Epistemology Ontology
Interpretivist Relativism
Literature Review
Identifying Gaps
Research Questions
Research Objectives
Approach – Inductive
Methodology – Grounded
Theory

Belief System for Inquiry – Constructivism
paradigm
 Interpretivist (Gray, 2014)
 Relativism (Guba & Lincoln, 2005)
 Hermeneutical and dialectical (Guba & Lincoln, 2005)
- it is the mind of an individual which constructs reality (Lincoln & Guba,
1985)
- the inquirer is a “passionate participant” (Guba & Lincoln, 2005)
- the “results of an inquiry are always shaped by the interaction of the
inquirer and inquired into” (Guba, 1990)
29

Research Methodology – Constructivist
Grounded Theory
 Primarily an Inductive Approach
- According to Tracy et al.,(2006) "An inductive approach is especially
worthwhile for making sense of messy interactive processes such as
bullying, that have no definite face. Such an analysis serves to name and
make tangible a process that can be invisible.“
 Theory emerges from data which is grounded (Glaser & Strauss, 1967;
Strauss & Corbin, 1998; Charmaz, 2006; 2014).
 Data and analysis both are results of the of participants’ shared
experiences (Charmaz, 1990; 1995; 2003; 2006)
30

Core Aspects of Grounded Theory
 Constant Comparison Method
 Memo Writing
 Theoretical Sampling
31

Process of
Constructivist
Grounded
Theory
Centre for Research Studies,
BIMTECH
32
Focused Coding
and Categorizing
Incomplete
understanding
raises questions
Writing-
up/dissemination
Theory Building
Initial Coding
Data Collection
(Interviewing)
Sampling of
participants
Research Question
Memo-
Writin
g
Examples present
within the data or
from new data
Categories
Reaching
Saturation
Constant
Comparative
Method
Tweed and Charmaz (2011, p. 133)

Data Collection and Sampling
 Unit of Analysis – Individual
 Grounded Theory requires "evidence enough only to establish a
suggestion – not an excessive piling up of evidence to establish a proof”
(Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
 Focus of the sampling is towards category construction and not being
representative of population or verification of a hypothesis (Glaser, 1978;
Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss, 1987)
33

Data Collection
 Primary Data
- in-depth interviews
- semi-structured open ended questions
 Secondary Data
- These data shall come from literature itself as, in grounded theory
literature review is also considered as a source of data collection.
34

Sampling
 Purposive Sampling – to extract tentative analytical constructs
 Theoretical sampling –
- Theoretical sampling is the process of data collection for generating theory
whereby the analyst jointly collects, codes, and analyses his data and decides
what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as
it emerges, (p. 45)
- According to Neuman and Kreuger (2003), this type of sampling is suggested for
exploratory studies (like the current one)
35

Participants for study
 Currently or previously holding permanent position in a public or private
sector organization in India.
 Should be working in the same company for at least six months.
 Should have experienced or witnessed workplace bullying and/or negative
treatment at work.
36

Chapter Scheme
 Introduction
 Literature Review
 Research Methodology
 Data Analysis and Interpretations
 Findings and Recommendations
37

Thank You
38

Thesis proposal workplace bullying

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