Human, Organizational and Societal Aspects of Workplace Bullying in Times of Open Innovation: Understanding, Organizing, and Prevention

During past decades, bullying has been increasingly recognized as a prevalent problem in contemporary working life. Workplace bullying is seen as a persistent, long-lasting, escalated aggression, systematically targeted towards one or more individuals by one individual or a group. Several studies point out the serious negative effects bullying may have on individuals, organizations, families of the victims and society, as a whole. Bullying has the potential to damage the targets’ physical and emotional health and undermine their professional interests. In addition, it has been shown to be associated with higher absenteeism and intent to leave the organization, decreased commitment, productivity and efficiency. Various researches support the view that bullying is the result of a dynamic interaction of various factors, ranging from personality traits to organizational and psychosocial work environment aspects. In order to protect employees from bullying, management must reconsider those practices, which may foster directly or indirectly its occurrence, recognize the need to change the culture of the workplace and develop clear company policies against it. By investigating and confronting the phenomenon of bullying at the workplace, an organization can build a framework in which practices of open innovation may develop and flourish.