Human resource management practitioners' responses to workplace bullying: cycles of symbolic violence

Harrington, Susan, Warren, Samantha ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3989-9098 and Rayner, Charlotte 2015. Human resource management practitioners' responses to workplace bullying: cycles of symbolic violence. Organization 22 (3) , pp. 368-389. 10.1177/1350508413516175

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

In the United Kingdom the majority of those reporting being bullied at work claim their manager as ‘the bully’ (Hoel and Beale, 2006). A global phenomenon, workplace bullying is damaging to those involved and hence their organizations (Einarsen et al., 2003), justifying academic attention and a practical need to develop mechanisms that tackle the phenomenon. Bullying is typically a problem ‘owned’ by Human Resource (HR) departments, yet existing evidence suggests that targets perceive HR practitioners (HRPs) as inactive, hence ineffective, in response to claims (Lewis and Rayner, 2003). However, very little is known about how HRPs themselves interpret and respond to claims of bullying. We address this gap, drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic violence’ to interpret experiential interview data. Our findings suggest HRPs enact symbolic violence on employees who raise claims of bullying against their managers by attributing managerial bullying behaviours to legitimate performance management practices. A critical discourse analysis identified four interpretive mechanisms used by HRPs that served to exonerate managers from bullying behaviours, thereby protecting the interests of the organization at the expense of an employee advocacy role. These data suggest that, rather than being solely a phenomenon perpetrated by individuals, workplace bullying is often a symptom of managerialist and capitalistic discourses of intensified performance management in organizations, reinforced by the embedding of existing professionalization discourses with the field of Human Resource Management in the UK.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1350-5084
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/75619

Citation Data

Cited 48 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item