Perspectives on bullying in the New Zealand health and hospitality sectors

Perceived risk factors for bullying were mainly related to the social organization of work, including issues of hierarchy, resourcing, and leadership, and an absence of adequate reporting and poor human resource practices were identified as further organizational - level risk factors.

Abstract

Increasingly, workplace bullying is becoming an important issue for OHS professionals and employers. This exploratory study sought to understand the perceptions of key industry informants from the New Zealand health sector regarding workplace bullying, and to compare these perceptions with those in the New Zealand hospitality sector. The study involved semi-structured qualitative group interviews and individual face-to-face interviews with key industry informants. For the health sector, bullying was reported as being fairly widespread across subsectors, while in hospitality, bullying was associated with a number of "hot spots" (notably, the kitchen). Perceived risk factors for bullying were mainly related to the social organisation of work, including issues of hierarchy, resourcing and leadership. An absence of adequate reporting and poor human resources practices were identified as further organisational-level risk factors.