To date, little empirical work regarding workplace bullying has been done in Canada, thus, a more extensive look at this phenomenon in the Canadian context is needed. One-hundred-and-twenty University of Saskatchewan employees at different levels (e.g., faculty, support staff, administration) were recruited to complete an on-line survey designed to test a number of predictions. The primary goals set forth in the present project were threefold: (1) estimate the prevalence of varying workplace bullying behaviours in a Canadian context; (2) examine connections between workplace environments and prevalence of these aggressive behaviours; and (3) explore whether individuals willingness to intervene in aggressive actions they witness is tied to features of the workplace environment and other mitigating factors.
In relation to prevalence, employees reported more witnessed bullying, as compared to experienced bullying. Although no gender differences were observed for rates of bullying, participants did report significantly more female than male perpetrators. In accordance with the studys predictions, negative work environments were positively associated with the prevalence of bullying behaviour. However, in general, negative work environments were not tied to bystanders willingness to intervene in aggressive actions. Other mitigating factors were positively linked to a bystanders willingness to intervene in a bullying incident, including: bullying event is considered serious; someone else steps in to intervene first; bullying is considered a recurring event; bystander likes the victim; bystander dislikes the bully; bystander believes victim did not deserve the bullying behaviour; and victim believes intervening will not take a lot of time and energy. Implications, as well as practical applications of these findings are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-01062010-104505 |
| Date | 13 January 2010 |
| Creators | Haffner, Carli |
| Contributors | McDougall, Patricia, Lawson, Karen, Wormith, Steve |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-01062010-104505/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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