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Abstract
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Bullying is defined as an aggressive behavior in which there is repetitive and intentional aggression from an individual or a group of persons (perpetrator(s)) that targets persons (victim(s)) who are weaker as compared to the person inflicting harm. These behaviors prevail in an organization in which there is an imbalance of power.1 Bullying may be direct or indirect aggression or a combination of both1,2:
1. Direct bullying (physical and verbal) includes overt behaviors like hitting, threatening and persistent humiliation in front of others.
2. Indirect bullying (non-verbal bullying) includes hidden behaviors. It is difficult to detect early and may include spreading rumors, withholding information, and intentionally isolating or excluding from a group.
In British English, the term "bullying" stands for victimization, harassment, behavioral, emotional abuse, and psychological harassment while sometimes the term 'mobbing' is also used.3,4 Volk et al.,1 suggest that negative behavior can only be labelled as bullying when it fulfils three criteria: a power imbalance between the victim and perpetrator, a clear intention to cause harm, and repetitiveness of negative behavior over time (Figure 1). There are various short and long-term effects of bullying on victims such as poor physical health, higher rate of depression, absenteeism, anxiety, anger, loneliness, sleep disorders, antisocial personality, negative impact on learning, poor acquisition of skills and professional engagement, reduced morale, demotivation, psychological complaints, drug abuse, suicidal ideations, and suicide.3,5 On the organization level, bullying can cause disruption in the quality of care and decision-making, intent to leave, or actually dropping out and permanently leaving the profession.6,7 Because of these detrimental effects on the health and well-being of the victims and the organization, the knowledge about prevalence and the severity of bullying is important to prevent and to address this problem.
Language: en |