"Gender" in workplace bullying: A phenomenological study on nurses.
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Abstract
AIMS This paper adopts a gender role socialization theoretical lens to analyze how different types of bullying techniques are heavily influenced by indirect passive aggression strategies usually considered normal "women's behavior". BACKGROUND Workplace bullying as an organizational phenomenon has so far been examined within gender-neutral parameters. This study tries to overcome this existing lacuna within the literature on gender and workplace bullying. METHOD The study integrates dialectical phenomenology and in-depth interviews with nine nurses from the nursing field to examine the gendered nature of workplace bullying. RESULTS The empirical data reveals that it is possible to interpret workplace bullying as an acceptable practice due to certain societal and cultural conditioning of women, thereby hindering the ability of management to combat and condone it within the healthcare sector effectively. CONCLUSION This study widens perspectives pertaining to power, control, gender, and workplace bullying. Insights are provided on how bullying techniques are similar to passive aggressive techniques used by females rendering bullying an integral feature of the nursing profession despite its negative outcomes. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT It might be challenging to erase workplace bullying from the nursing field because of its gendered implications, raising serious ethical considerations for the healthcare system.