Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions: A Scoping Review.

Workplace bullying is broadly defined as a detrimental form of negative micro-political interaction(s) incorporating a range of aggressive interpersonal behaviours. While targeted toxic behaviour based upon legally protected grounds such as ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation is conceptualised as harassment, this paper positions harassment as a constituent subset of workplace bullying-distinct, but inextricably linked to the broader landscape of workplace predation and incivility. Meta-analyses of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies demonstrate a robust relationship between being bullied and compromised health, and some sectors, e.g., education, display higher than average levels of exposure, suggesting that contexts matter. The higher education sector is the focus of this scoping review. High rates of bullying have been reported in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), where many of the organisational factors that drive bullying are present. One systematic literature review has been carried out on bullying in HEIs, reviewing papers prior to 2013. Since the sector has seen considerable contextual change since that time, another review is timely. This systematic scoping review aims to identify the volume, range, nature, and characteristics of studies of workplace bullying in HEIs between 2003 and 2023, with a specific focus on how the context of HEIs contributes to the enactment and/or the response to workplace bullying. To this end, 3179 records were identified, with 140 papers charted to identify methods, institution, population, and country. Forty-seven papers were subjected to full-text review for the exploration of contextual factors. Priorities for future research lie in addressing the pernicious effects of neoliberal governance models as well as the complex and intersecting power relations that are unique to higher education.

Students' Emotional Well-Being, and Perceived Faculty Incivility and Just Behavior Before and During COVID-19.

This research set out to measure the impact of the lockdown condition and social distancing imposed on higher education by the Israeli government during the COVID-19 period and the shift to online learning, on students' emotional well-being, the way they perceived their teachers' just behavior, and faculty incivility, compared to pre-pandemic conditions. An additional aim was to explore the set of connections among these factors. The total sample included 396 undergraduate students from three academic colleges. Data were gathered via three questionnaires: Positive/negative affect, Faculty Incivility, and Teacher Justice. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The main finding showed that students' negative emotions were informed by the lockdown condition. This perceived negative affect had an impact on how the participants experienced social interactions with their faculty. Those who exhibited higher levels of negative affect perceived themselves as targets of faculty incivility. The same trajectory was detected with the way students experienced their teachers' just behavior. Students who held negative emotions, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions, also viewed their teachers' behavior toward them as unjust. This study stresses the role of one's emotional condition in instigating negative interpretations of social interactions. Directions for subsequent research and practical implications for promoting students' well-being and civil and just communications in the learning environment are discussed.

Social Identity in a public hospital: sources, outcomes, and possible resolutions.

The comprehensive, twofold goal of this paper is to investigate how social identities in a multilayered social platform of a public hospital are shaped, and to explain the impact of these identities on staff interrelations, patients, and the organization's overall ability to meet challenges. We conducted a qualitative study, collecting data from 30 employees working in a medium-sized public hospital in Israel using a semi-structured interview guide. Using a thematic analysis approach and drawing on social identity theory, we found that departmental identity is the most prominent social identity associated with the hospital staff. This identity was strengthened by strong in-group management, but little influenced by senior out-group management; its importance also caused organizational goals to be overlooked. We discuss these findings and offer recommendations for addressing the adverse impacts of departmental identity on staff, patients, and the organization's ability to meet challenges. This study has clarified sources and impacts of SI in a hospital context. It has also demonstrated the need for a more unified hospital identity to improve the hospital's daily work and achieve the organization's goals in a dynamic, competitive environment. Most literature on social identity has addressed personal- and group-level antecedents of social identity, neglecting the potential participation of in-group and out-group management in shaping these identities, as well as management's contribution to the achievement or nonachievement of organizational goals. By adopting a qualitative approach, the current study provides a deeper understanding of how senior management and direct in-group management can shape social identities-a perspective heretofore missing from the research. Recognizing these identity-shaping forces is essential for understanding the challenges that hospitals face, and the various (at times, life-or-death) consequences of these forces. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-02729-4.

A call for transformation: Exit, Voice, Loyalty and Neglect (EVLN) in response to workplace incivility.

BACKGROUND: Interrelations between incivility and its precursors or consequences, as well as the role of these interrelations in employees' reactions to incivility are still poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to assess different reactions to workplace incivility while identifying specific and individual-based appraisals and emotions associated with these reactions. METHOD: A qualitative research approach using semi-structured in-depth interviews, with a sample of 42 employees in a beverage manufacturing corporation in Israel to capture employees' voices regarding their incivility experiences. RESULTS: Analysis of the interviews indicated four reaction-categories: (1) Exit; (2) Voice; (3) Loyalty; and (4) Neglect, in line with the theoretical EVLN model for describing reactions to stressful conditions. In particular, the interviews revealed a dynamic reaction process and suggested that intentionality of reaction provides a third, new dimension. Additionally, an underlying emotional process rooted in appraisals and aroused emotions was evident in each of the reactions. CONCLUSIONS: Organizations that wish to reduce incivility events may wish to examine the emotions of targets of incivility, explore the underlying appraisals associated with these emotions, and be mindful of the dynamic and highly individual reaction processes involved.

Constructing and Validating Students' Psychological Contract Violation Scale.

For two and a half decades, psychological contracts are researched mainly in work organisations as drivers of the attitudes and behaviours of employees, overlooking the importance of understanding the nature of the psychological contracts of students in higher education. This study constructs and validates a new scale for measuring the perceived psychological contract violations of students in the context of faculty incivility. A mixed-method approach was applied to study the issue in three phases. First, a qualitative method was used to capture and analyse the perceived entitlements of students, as described by 78 college students, resulting in 37 items or elements identified by students as reflecting their psychological contracts. Second, a sample of 244 students was studied to identify the perceptions of violated expectations of students. In the final phase, items were rephrased as expectations and were given to the third sample of 154 undergraduate college students to determine the level of fulfilment of these expectations. Additionally, to ascertain discriminate and convergent validity measures, students were asked about the extent to which they experienced faculty incivility (discriminant validity) and frustration with the quality of interaction with their faculty (convergent validity). From these results, students' psychological contract violation scale was constructed and validated.

Health and Risk Behaviors of Bystanders: An Integrative Theoretical Model of Bystanders' Reactions to Mistreatment.

This article constructs a comprehensive theoretical model that outlines bystanders' emotional and behavioral responses to the mistreatment of adolescent peers. The model captures bystanders' risk and health risk behaviors, which have been overlooked in the context of their reactions; when addressed at all in connection with bystanders of bullying among adolescents, they have been treated separately. Here, we present bystanders' emotional and cognitive reactions and their impact on bystanders' responses including a set of responses that demonstrate risk and health risk behaviors that are directed to the bystander as a victim by proxy. The theoretical framework is the conservation of resources theory, which posits that personal resources (i.e., potency and moral disengagement) and social resources impact the process that leads to bystanders' reactions. Previous models have overlooked the integrative viewpoint of bystanders, and comprehensive models that explain bystanders' behavioral and emotional responses have received little attention especially with regards to adolescents. Two recent models overlooked core features embedded in the current model, including the risk and health risk behaviors that it integrates. The proposed model presents a novel and more comprehensive view of bystanders' reactions and the process underlying these reactions. It integrates existing knowledge embedded in other existing models. At the same time, this perspective indicates the centricity of potency as a key resource that dictates the emotional response and behaviors of bystanders. This potentially allows for new applications in the mitigation of adverse impacts that follow the witnessing of mistreatment. The article discusses these applications, which are based on previous findings, their implications for practice, and directions for future empirical research necessary to validate the model.