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The unique practices of workplace bullying in academe: An exploratory study

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Abstract

Over the past two decades there has been a growing interest in workplace bullying in academe, and studies show that it is on the rise. The current study sought to explore the unique bullying methods and practices enacted in academe, and to estimate their prevalence. A preliminary study yielded 23 academic bullying methods, which constituted the basis for constructing a study questionnaire; we also included questions about the organizational culture in the institution where each respondent works and Big Five personality traits of respondents. Respondents were also encouraged to describe their specific experiences of being bullied. Participants were 328 faculty members from academic institutions around the state of Israel and of various academic ranks who completed our study questionnaire. The 23 bullying methods were classified into three categories by means of exploratory factor analysis as follows: humiliation; exploitation of status; and obstruction of promotion. Participants were also asked to mark what emotional, cognitive, physical, and medical self-reported consequences they suffer as a result of the bullying. We present these disturbing results as well as the self-reported adverse consequences to the victims. Participants working in institutions characterized by a clan organizational culture are less likely to experience academic bullying of all three types. Women report higher levels of humiliation and promotion obstruction as compared to the men. Untenured faculty suffer significantly higher levels of humiliation and exploitation of status than their tenured counterparts. We provide sample quotations of answers written by some of the many respondents who shared with us cases of bullying. We discuss these results and provide some practical recommendations to act against academic bullying.

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Data Availability

Data are available from the corresponding author (YBC) upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to the directors of the Academic College of Israel in Ramat-Gan for the funding of this research project.

Funding

This study received funding from the Academic College of Israel in Ramat-Gan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Resources, The Israel Academic College in Ramat-Gan, 87 Ruttenberg St., Postal code 5227528, Ramat-Gan, Israel

    Ya’arit Bokek-Cohen

  2. Department of Management, Business School, HEC Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Or Shkoler

  3. CEO Effective Management Ltd., Herzliya, Israel

    Eitan Meiri

Authors
  1. Ya’arit Bokek-Cohen
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  2. Or Shkoler
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  3. Eitan Meiri
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Correspondence to Ya’arit Bokek-Cohen.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 8 Demographical characteristics of the sample
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Appendix 2

Profiling Bullying Factors

Table 9 MANCOVA descriptive statistics and statistical tests for dispositional/personality profiling
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Table 10 MANCOVA descriptive statistics and statistical tests for organizational culture profiling
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Bokek-Cohen, Y., Shkoler, O. & Meiri, E. The unique practices of workplace bullying in academe: An exploratory study. Curr Psychol 42, 19466–19485 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03090-2

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