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Methods to Prevent and Tackle Emotional Workplace Abuse

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Abstract

The chapter brings forth two intertwining approaches to prevent and tackle emotional abuse at work: development of ethical leadership and management, and co-creation of policies and practices towards a caring organizational culture. This chapter emphasizes that ‘quick fixes’ are insufficient to prevent and tackle abuse. In addition, it highlights the ways in which organizations, rather than individual targets, carry the main responsibility for the prevention of emotional workplace abuse, and discusses this through the role middle management. As the abuse often relates to superior positions, formal and informal power relationships and the role of bystanders are crucial for further analysis. In future research, intersectional analysis of gendered structures and processes is called for in order to understand in-depth the mechanisms that feed the abusive behaviours and toxic organizational cultures.

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Correspondence to Elina Penttinen .

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Penttinen, E., Jyrkinen, M., Wide, E. (2019). Methods to Prevent and Tackle Emotional Workplace Abuse. In: Emotional Workplace Abuse. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19993-7_4

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