Comparing Sexual Harassment to Other Forms of Workplace Aggression

‘While animals mostly fight physically, and young children include verbal means in their aggressive repertoire, adult humans harm their enemies in much more subtle and sophisticated ways’ (Bjorkqvist, Osterman and Lagerspetz, 1994, p. 32). Since adult humans spend a large portion of their waking hours at work, it should not be surprising that their ‘subtle and sophisticated’ methods of aggression come to work with them. Workplace aggression or ‘efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work or the organizations in which they are employed’ (Baron and Neuman, 1996, p. 161) is prevalent within many organizations. Over 50 per cent of the respondents in one study stated that they had experienced workplace abuse such as verbal and physical aggression (Richman et al., 1999). Indeed, workplace aggression has become so widespread that two psychologists initiated a ‘bully-busting’ campaign on the World Wide Web. Their website, www.workdoctor.com, which averages over 40,000 visitors per month, allows workers who have endured abuse from a co-worker or boss to tell their story. For example, one employee complained that his boss works himself into fits of profanity and rage so violent that workers are reduced to tears (Guynn, 1998).