How Do Men Evaluate and Blame Victims of Mobbing? Depending on the Victims' Identification as Feminist or Egalitarian.

In the current research, our objective was to explore how men assess and assign blame to both a man and a woman who are victims of workplace mobbing, depending on whether they identify as feminist or egalitarian. It is well recognized that the label "feminist" carries distinct connotations when applied to individuals of different genders. However, it remains unclear whether these varied connotations are due to the label itself or its underlying meaning. Given that the feminist label has been traditionally stigmatized, we aimed to disentangle the influence of the label from its semantic content. To achieve this, we compared the evaluations and attributions of victim blame directed toward targets labeled as feminist with those labeled with a similar but more neutral term-that is, egalitarian-as well as with unlabeled targets. Considering that much of the previous research in this area has focused on samples predominantly composed of women, we aimed to investigate how men respond to these labels. Through three experiments involving male participants (N = 628), we presented fictitious scenarios depicting a man or a woman who were victims of workplace mobbing due to their identification as feminist or egalitarian. The key finding of our research is that the feminist label, rather than its semantic content, significantly influences the evaluations and assignment of blame expressed by men who strongly adhere to traditional male role norms. These findings underscore the importance of these labels (feminist and egalitarian) in social judgments, particularly when applied to victims of workplace mobbing.

The use of religious resources in helping victims of workplace mobbing.

Research shows that in providing assistance to individuals who have experienced psychological traumas, it is beneficial not only to take into account the specific religious spiritual needs but also to employ religious resources. Although the role of religious counsellors using various psychological theories in helping to cope with traumatising experiences is acknowledged, there is still a lack of a conceptualising approach to the possibilities of employing religious resources used in Christian spiritual assistance, seeking to help cope with the effects of workplace mobbing. Therefore, this study aims to conceptualise the perspective of integrating Christian spiritual assistance resources in overcoming the individual consequences of workplace mobbing. This review is based on an interdisciplinary approach and abundant literature of psychology, psychotherapy and theology sciences. The article details the main physical, psychological and social aspects of damage to the person, caused by mobbing, which provide for a corresponding triple assistance perspective. After highlighting the essential resources provided by the Christian religion for coping with traumatic experiences, the necessity to consider the religious needs of the victims of mobbing is reasoned and the possibilities of using religious spiritual resources are discussed. In the context of helping victims of mobbing, two main functions of Christian spiritual assistance are distinguished and discussed: auxiliary and main. The results of this review are a useful resource for lay and religious counsellors and encourage their collaboration. The research findings also provide a basis for further research on the use of religious resources in the context of helping victims of mobbing.

Religious and Non-Religious Workplace Mobbing Victims: When Do People Turn to Religious Organisations?

Researchers' interest in the impact of religious-spiritual assistance on victims of violence has increased in recent decades; however, factors that are relevant to workplace mobbing victims who seek such assistance remain poorly investigated. The purpose of this study is to highlight the factors that make spiritual assistance of religious organizations acceptable to religious and non-religious workplace mobbing victims. The study involved 463 adults working in Lithuanian organizations, of whom 79.5 per cent indicated that they were religious. ANOVA and Chi-square tests revealed that the significant factors were similarity of personal and religious values, the relation with the person providing assistance, and the circumstances characterising assistance. This study promotes further scientific discussion on the involvement of religious organizations in helping victims of workplace mobbing and explains why religious and non-religious individuals seeking assistance turn to religious organizations. The article presents only a part of the research results of the implemented project.

Is a CSR Policy an Equally Effective Vaccine Against Workplace Mobbing and Psychosocial Stressors?

In this study, the problem question was raised whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) is/can be an effective tool against workplace mobbing and psychosocial stressors in organizations. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to determine the prevalence of workplace mobbing in Lithuanian and Polish organizations in order to compare in which organizations the manifestation of the phenomenon is the strongest and analyzing psychosocial stressors in parallel. To achieve the purpose, 823 employees of three types of organizations were surveyed. The respondents belonged to organizations that implement the principles of corporate social responsibility, organizations that intend to become socially responsible and organizations that do not implement corporate social responsibility and do not seek to become socially responsible. The empirical study was conducted using the questionnaire "Mobbing as a Psychosocial Stressor in the Organizations Accessing and Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility-MOB-CSR". This questionnaire is valid and reliable; the correlation relationships between subscales show interconnectedness and statistically reliable relationships. The research results were calculated using the chi-squared test and the linear regression model. Statistically reliable relationships were found between the prevalence of workplace mobbing, psychosocial work stressors and corporate social responsibility. The results of the study show that along with the weakening of variables of corporate social responsibility, the probability of workplace mobbing is increasing but CSR in itself does not ensure the prevention of workplace mobbing in the case of Lithuanian and Polish organizations. If the findings of the study are considered by the managers of organizations, this can affect both employees' quality of life towards improvement and more transparent/purposeful implementation of corporate social responsibility, i.e., responding to the true meaning of CSR.

Cardiovascular health outcomes of mobbing at work: results of the population-based, five-year follow-up of the Gutenberg health study.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to determine if there is an increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) resulting from workplace mobbing measured with two mobbing instruments in the Gutenberg Health Study. METHODS: In this prospective study, we examined working persons younger than 65 years for the presence of mobbing at baseline and at a 5-year follow-up using a single-item and a 5-item instrument. We used multivariate models to investigate the association between mobbing and incident CVD, hypertension, and change in arterial stiffness and further stratified the models by sex. RESULTS: After adjustment for confounders, mobbed workers appeared to have a higher risk of incident CVD than those not mobbed (single-item HR = 1.28, 95% CI 0.73-2.24; 5-item HR = 1.57, 95% CI 0.96-2.54). With the 5-item instrument, men who reported mobbing had a higher risk of incident CVD (HR = 1.77, 95% CI 1.01-3.09), while no association was observed for women (HR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.38-2.91). There was no difference in risks between men and women with the single-item instrument. No association between mobbing and incident hypertension and arterial stiffness was seen. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show an indication of an increased risk of incident CVD for those mobbed at baseline when using the whole study population. Differences in risks between men and women when using the five-item instrument may be due to the instrument itself. Still, it is essential to detect or prevent workplace mobbing, and if present, to apply an intervention to halt it in order to minimize its adverse effects on CVD.

Workplace Mobbing in Polish and Lithuanian Organisations with Regard to Corporate Social Responsibility.

The 'mobbing' phenomenon is regarded as the actions or behaviour referring to an employee or directed against an employee, comprising persistent and drawn-out harassment or intimidation of that employee. This phenomenon causes substantial negative workplace consequences, but, above all, one should stress the consequences for the victims, which are devastating. This has been observed in a variety of organisations, regardless of the sector and country. Given these facts, the purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of workplace mobbing in Polish and Lithuanian organisations with regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The research sample included a group of 823 entities operating in both countries in both the private and public sectors (410 from Lithuania and 413 from Poland). A closed-type questionnaire was used in the survey. Several research methods including factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, Spearman-Brown, factor loading, and total item correlation were used in our study. The results achieved showed that there were both similarities as well as differences between the analysed organisations. More specifically, our research revealed that: (1) Employee attitude to CSR depends on the company's sector of activity and the country; (2) In Poland, workplace mobbing is more prevalent in the public sector than in the private, whilst in Lithuania there were no substantial differences; (3) Organisations that implemented the CSR concept showed less imposed mobbing prevalence; and (4) Employees who faced mobbing in the workplace had worse relationships with clients and users of the company's services/products.

Development and psychometric properties of the Polish basic version of the SDM questionnaire for measuring bullying.

Aim. This article presents the construction, validation and psychometric properties of the Polish basic version of a workplace bullying questionnaire (called the SDM questionnaire). Method. The tool was developed in phases, with reference to the international bullying literature and Polish socio-organizational background. The study from 2005/2006 (N = 347) established the structure of the scales' reliability, while the questionnaire's convergent validity was tested in 2018 (N = 500). Among the main statistical methods used were exploratory factor analyses, estimation of internal consistency with Cronbach's α and correlations analyses. Results. The main version of the SDM questionnaire comprises two consistent, correlating scales: the main behavioural scale (SDM-IDM scale, 43 items; Cronbach's α = 0.96) used for diagnosing exposure to bullying behaviours; and an auxiliary emotional-cognitive scale (SDM-ODC scale, 21 items; Cronbach's α = 0.97), which completes the psychological picture of bullying interaction. Each of these scales may be divided into three, more specific, subscales. All of the SDM questionnaire scales positively correlate with the negative acts questionnaire - revised and with three self-report measures of job stressors. Conclusion. The SDM questionnaire is an accurate and reliable psychometric tool for measuring workplace bullying in Polish conditions.

Assédio moral no trabalho, gênero, raça e poder: revisão de literatura / Workplace bullying, gender, race and power: a review

Resumo Introdução: o assédio moral no trabalho (AMT) é considerado violência baseada em humilhações, agressões, psicoterror e abusos de poder que interferem na saúde dos trabalhadores e em suas trajetórias profissionais. Objetivo: analisar as produções científicas brasileiras sobre AMT nas áreas de saúde e educação considerando as relações de gênero, poder e raça. Métodos: revisão integrativa utilizando as bases de dados SciELO, BVS-Regional, PubMed, Scopus e Web of Science. Foram encontradas 249 produções publicadas de 2006 a 2016. Após análise, foram selecionados 20 artigos. Resultados: há carência de estudos que tenham o gênero e a raça como categorias centrais; as pesquisas apontam a necessidade de investigações sobre o assédio sexual vivenciado pelas mulheres; a organização, as condições de trabalho e as relações de poder foram apontadas como centrais nas vivências do AMT. Conclusão: os achados reiteraram a influência do AMT na saúde do(a) trabalhador(ra), na sua vida familiar e no desenvolvimento da sua carreira e indicam a necessidade de integrar às investigações científicas as categorias de raça e gênero. Recomenda-se desenvolver programas e instrumentos legais específicos para prevenir a violência ocupacional, a violência de gênero e o racismo.

Abstract Introduction: workplace bullying (WB) is considered violence based on humiliation, aggressions, psychological terror and abuse of power that interferes with workers' health and the course of their careers. Objective: to analyze Brazilian scientific production on WB within the Health and Education fields considering gender, race and power relations. Method: integrative review using SciELO, Virtual Health Library-Regional Portal, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases. After analysis of 249 studies, published from 2006 to 2016, 20 articles were selected. Results: there is shortage of research that has gender and race as central categories; the studies points at the need for investigations into sexual harassment experienced by women; organization, working conditions and power relations were pointed out as central to the WB experiences. Conclusion: the findings reiterated the influence of WB on workers' health, their family life and career development, and indicated the need to have the race and gender categories integrated into scientific investigations. Preventive programs and specific laws are recommended to avoid occupational and gender violences, and racism.

Workplace mobbing: How the victim's coping behavior influences bystander responses.

Victims of workplace mobbing show diverse coping behavior. We investigated the impact of this behavior on bystander cognitions, emotions, and helping toward the victim, integrating coping literature with attribution theory. Adult part-time university students (N = 161) working at various organizations participated in a study with a 3(Coping: approach/avoidance/neutral) × 2(Gender Victim: male/female) × 2(Gender Bystander: male/female) design. Victims showing approach (vs. avoidance) coping were considered to be more self-reliant and less responsible for the continuation of the mobbing, and they elicited less anger. Continuation responsibility and self-reliance mediated the relationship between the victim's coping behavior and bystanders' helping intentions. Female (vs. male) participants reported more sympathy for the victim and greater willingness to help, and female (vs. male) victims elicited less anger. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Workplace mobbing and bystanders' helping behaviour towards victims: the role of gender, perceived responsibility and anticipated stigma by association.

We examined victims' perceived responsibility and bystanders' anticipated risk of being victimized themselves when others associate them with the victim (stigma by association, SBA) as possible antecedents of bystanders' helping behaviour towards a victim of workplace mobbing, and explored the effects of gender. Guided by the attribution model of social conduct (Weiner, 2006), a 2 × 2 vignette experiment was conducted. Participants were Dutch regional government employees (N = 161). Path analyses generally supported the hypotheses, but showed different results for women and men. In the strong (Vs. weak) responsibility condition, women reported less sympathy and more anger and men only more anger, which resulted in lower helping intention. Additionally, for men the results showed an unexpected direct positive effect of responsibility on helping intention. Furthermore, in the strong SBA condition, women and men reported more fear and men, unexpectedly, more anger. Consequently, helping intention decreased. The findings on gender are discussed in the context of social role theory, gender and emotion. Our findings suggest that to prevent and tackle mobbing, organizations and professionals should be aware of the attributional and emotional processes and gender differences in bystanders' helping behaviour.