Using the Workplace Power Control Wheel to Name Abusive, Bullying, Controlling, and Coercive Behavior by Corporate Psychopaths at Work

Abstract

Up to 52% of employees are or have been subject to workplace bullying (WB) globally, in a wide variety of professions. The research on WB suggests that it is both costly and encompasses a wide variety of behaviors and interactions ranging from subtle and covert tactics, like withholding information and isolating a victim, to overt aggression and physical abuse. This may be one possible reason as to why researchers differ in their definition of the term “bullying,” often equalizing it with “mobbing,” “harassment,” or “aggression.” Many agree with a definition of bullying which includes a pattern of recurring adversarial verbal and nonverbal interactions directed toward a target and resulting in negative consequences on the target’s physical and mental health. Boddy (J Bus Ethics 100:367–379, 2011) offers strong, positive, and significant correlations between the ethical issues of bullying and unfair supervision in the workplace and the presence of corporate/workplace psychopaths. This chapter describes the Workplace Power-Control Wheel (WPCW), which assumes that those who target workers are motivated by the need for power and control in the workplace. Offenders, including workplace psychopaths, use both overt and covert tactics to keep targets off balance, adding to the psychological toll of being bullied at work. The WPCW described in this chapter helps targets of bullying name their experiences more effectively, which may aid in documenting and countering abusive and controlling workspace experiences. It may also be useful as a pre-emptive training tool when onboarding new members of an organization in helping prospective workers in identifying methods of both overt and covert control.