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Managing Workplace Bullying Complaints: Conceptual Influences and the Effects of Contextual Factors

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Dignity and Inclusion at Work

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment ((HWBEAH,volume 3))

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Abstract

Workplace bullying complaints are commonly utilized as the primary intervention approach for organizations where employees seek to stop inappropriate behaviour or gain redress. No single agreed-upon approach has been forwarded as a best practice for organizations to adopt. Instead, complaints can be viewed as disciplinary matters, health and safety concerns or public disclosures that can be raised through whistleblowing. These different conceptualizations adopt differing terminology and assumptions, which in turn has implications for how bullying is tackled. A critical concern in this area is the high prevalence of bullying reported in academic literature and staff surveys. In contrast, the number of complaints is often much lower indicating significant under-reporting. A range of organizational and individual factors are discussed that may enable and inhibit the efficacy of a complaint process. The means by which the complaint process may act as a negative influence as a form of undermining through raising vexatious complaints, with the intent of undermining the accused perpetrator, are also discussed. A review of these factors will ultimately contribute towards a consideration of what constitutes a successful complaint process and what practices and strategies organizations can adopt to ensure the effective handling of workplace bullying complaints. Finally, future directions for research are also proposed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Neill Thompson

  2. Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

    Bevan Catley

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  1. Neill Thompson
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Correspondence to Neill Thompson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Organizational Behaviour (OB), Indian Institute of Management Organizational Behaviour (OB), Ahmedabad, India

    Premilla D'Cruz

  2. Organizational Behaviour, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad Organizational Behaviour, Ahmedabad, India

    Ernesto Noronha

  3. University of New South Wales, Faculty of Science University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW, NSW, Australia

    Carlo Caponecchia

  4. University of Barcelona, Department of Organizational Behavior University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Espanya, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Escartín

  5. Hanken School of Economics , Helsinki, Finland

    Denise Salin

  6. University of South Australia , South Australia, SA, Australia

    Michelle Rae Tuckey

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Thompson, N., Catley, B. (2018). Managing Workplace Bullying Complaints: Conceptual Influences and the Effects of Contextual Factors. In: D'Cruz, P., Noronha, E., Caponecchia, C., Escartín, J., Salin, D., Tuckey, M. (eds) Dignity and Inclusion at Work. Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5338-2_5-1

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