IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v9y2019i4p2158244019894278.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Enlightened Environment? Workplace Bullying and Incivility in Irish Higher Education

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret Hodgins
  • Patricia Mannix McNamara

Abstract

This study explores the experiences of workplace ill-treatment of academic staff in the Irish Higher Education sector, with a focus on organizational response to experienced or witnessed workplace bullying and/or incivility. Workplace bullying is a significant problem, affecting approximately 15% of the workforce, with considerable variation by sector. Educational workplaces typically display prevalence rates that exceed average workplace bullying rates. The negative impacts on health and well-being are well documented and evidence is also emerging to show that organizational responses are less than optimal. The data collected comprise 11 qualitative in-depth interviews with academic staff in three of Ireland’s seven Universities. Applying a phenomenological analysis approach, data revealed that participants’ experiences were overwhelmingly negative in respect of organizational response, despite the fact that each University had an anti-bullying policy. This is explored and discussed in the context of failure to address the complex power relations, which are particularly relevant in professional organizations, intensified by current changes in the higher educational sector. Study limitations include the small number of Universities and small sample size, thus limiting generalizability.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret Hodgins & Patricia Mannix McNamara, 2019. "An Enlightened Environment? Workplace Bullying and Incivility in Irish Higher Education," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(4), pages 21582440198, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:2158244019894278
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244019894278
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019894278
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244019894278?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Denise Salin, 2003. "Bullying and organisational politics in competitive and rapidly changing work environments," International Journal of Management and Decision Making, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1), pages 35-46.
    2. Hazel Mawdsley & Duncan Lewis, 2017. "Lean and mean: how NPM facilitates the bullying of UK employees with long-term health conditions," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(5), pages 317-324, July.
    3. Leah P. Hollis, 2015. "Bully University? The Cost of Workplace Bullying and Employee Disengagement in American Higher Education," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(2), pages 21582440155, June.
    4. Richman, J.A. & Rospenda, K.M. & Nawyn, S.J. & Flaherty, J.A. & Fendrich, M. & Drum, M.L. & Johnson, T.P., 1999. "Sexual harassment and generalized workplace abuse among university employees: Prevalence and mental health correlates," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(3), pages 358-363.
    5. Niamh Hardiman, 2010. "Economic Crisis and Public Sector Reform: Lessons from Ireland," Working Papers 201013, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jolita Vveinhardt & Włodzimierz Sroka, 2020. "Workplace Mobbing in Polish and Lithuanian Organisations with Regard to Corporate Social Responsibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-28, April.
    2. Patricia Mannix-McNamara & Niamh Hickey & Sarah MacCurtain & Nicolaas Blom, 2021. "The Dark Side of School Culture," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Teresa Shiels & Neil Kenny & Roy Shiels & Patricia Mannix-McNamara, 2021. "Incivility in Higher Education: Challenges of Inclusion for Neurodiverse Students with Traumatic Brain Injury in Ireland," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, June.
    4. Margaret Hodgins, 2021. "Taking on the Institution: An Autoethnographic Account," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, April.
    5. Margaret Hodgins & Patricia Mannix-McNamara, 2021. "The Neoliberal University in Ireland: Institutional Bullying by Another Name?," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert (A.J.) Dur & Ola Kvaloy & Anja Schottner, 2018. "Non-Competitive Wage-Setting as a Cause of Unfriendly and Inefficient Leadership," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-094/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Ciara Brown & Colin Scott, 2010. "Regulation in Ireland: History, Structure, Style and Reform," Working Papers 201044, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. Shannon, Candice A. & Rospenda, Kathleen M. & Richman, Judith A., 2007. "Workplace harassment patterning, gender, and utilization of professional services: Findings from a US national study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 1178-1191, March.
    4. Cokkie Verschuren & Maria Tims & Annet H. De Lange, 2023. "Beyond Bullying, Aggression, Discrimination, and Social Safety: Development of an Integrated Negative Work Behavior Questionnaire (INWBQ)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(16), pages 1-24, August.
    5. Robert Dur & Ola Kvaløy & Anja Schöttner, 2022. "Leadership Styles and Labor Market Conditions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 3150-3168, April.
    6. Sebastian Dellepiane Avellaneda & Niamh Hardiman, 2010. "The European Context of Ireland’s Economic Crisis," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 41(4), pages 473-500.
    7. Teresa Shiels & Neil Kenny & Roy Shiels & Patricia Mannix-McNamara, 2021. "Incivility in Higher Education: Challenges of Inclusion for Neurodiverse Students with Traumatic Brain Injury in Ireland," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-14, June.
    8. Lorraine Busby & Linda Patrick & Alice Gaudine, 2022. "Upwards Workplace Bullying: A Literature Review," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    9. Margaret Hodgins & Rhona Kane & Yariv Itzkovich & Declan Fahie, 2024. "Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(9), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Amna Gul & Farooq Ahmad & Shahida Mariam, 2019. "Interactive Effect of Perceived Organizational Politics and Hierarchical Status on Workplace Victimization," Global Political Review, Humanity Only, vol. 4(4), pages 29-40, December.
    11. Ashley Nicole West & Gary M. Fleischman, 2023. "The Roles of Cynicism, CFO Pressure, and Moral Disengagement on FIN 48 Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 545-562, July.
    12. Cohen, Mark, 2017. "A systemic approach to understanding mental health and services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 1-8.
    13. Yuh-Jin Chung & Woo-Chul Jung & Hyunjoo Kim & Seong-Sik Cho, 2017. "Association of Emotional Labor and Occupational Stressors with Depressive Symptoms among Women Sales Workers at a Clothing Shopping Mall in the Republic of Korea: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-9, November.
    14. Niamh Hardiman & Sebastian Dellepiane, 2010. "European Economic Crisis: Ireland in Comparative Perspective," Working Papers 201046, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    15. Nizamettin Dogar, 2015. "Workplace Bullying Scale: The Study of Validity and Reliability," Academicus International Scientific Journal, Entrepreneurship Training Center Albania, issue 11, pages 97-105, January.
    16. Asio, John Mark Ramos & Gadia, Ediric D., 2019. "Students’ Perception on Instructor Bullying in a Local College in Zambales, Philippines," OSF Preprints u8anm, Center for Open Science.
    17. Claudia Benavides Espinoza & George Cunningham, 2010. "Observers’ Reporting of Sexual Harassment: The Influence of Harassment Type, Organizational Culture, and Political Orientation," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 323-337, December.
    18. Krieger, Nancy & Chen, Jarvis T. & Waterman, Pamela D. & Hartman, Cathy & Stoddard, Anne M. & Quinn, Margaret M. & Sorensen, Glorian & Barbeau, Elizabeth M., 2008. "The inverse hazard law: Blood pressure, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, workplace abuse and occupational exposures in US low-income black, white and Latino workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(12), pages 1970-1981, December.
    19. Rana Muhammad Shahid Yaqub & Aneeta Rehman & Shakeela Kausar & Zakariya Hassan Qureshi, 2022. "Insights from Theory of Reason Action to Determine the Faculty Turn-Over Intentions in HEI’s of Southern Punjab: Mediating and Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Justice and Organizational ," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(2), pages 375-389, june.
    20. Tam Luong Huynh & Ha Minh Nguyen, 2024. "Transactional leadership and workplace bullying among employees in Vietnam," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 14(2), pages 3-22.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:2158244019894278. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.