Workplace bullying in a group context

Abstract

This study examined the sociometric status of victims, perpetrators and bully–victims (those who self-reported being a victim and a perpetrator) in functional workplace teams and assessed the relationship between victimisation and bullying on team effectiveness. A sample of 288 fire-fighter personnel in 36 teams were asked to self-report and peer-report levels of victimisation and bullying. Using sociometry, individuals rank ordered three other team members they most preferred working with and self-reported their perceptions of the level of effectiveness of the team. Results illustrated that in general victims were nominated as preferred people to work with and were more often nominated as sociometric stars. Self- and peer-reported perpetrators tended to be judged the least preferred people to work with but bully–victims were more likely to be isolated in teams than any other group. Sociometric cohesion tended to be higher (p<0.05) and perceptions of team success tended to be lower (p<0.05) in teams with higher levels of victimisation.