Workplace bullying victims often blamed, research says

VICTIMS OF workplace bullying are often blamed by colleagues for bringing it upon themselves, new research has found.

The research by Torunn Dahl, business psychologist at consultancy firm Pearn Kandola, analysed the responses of 108 young professionals when faced with a fictional bullying scenario.

She found that almost half of respondents blamed the victim's personality for the bullying. Ms Dahl said people were inclined to use phrases such as "she's over-sensitive" or "she's very ambitious" or "she's trying to change things too much".

She said people frequently described bullying as "just a personality conflict". However, academic research had "rarely found" that the victim's personality was to blame in a bullying situation.

"Hence employees may not get involved in supporting a colleague when they believe the situation is the colleague's fault for 'being difficult'," she said.

More than 70 per cent laid some of the blame on weak management for allowing the conflict to escalate. Only one respondent suggested the employees had allowed the situation to escalate by not intervening.

Some 59 per cent of people said they had witnessed bullying scenarios at work and one-quarter did nothing about it. "Some because they were afraid of drawing attention to themselves, others because they felt it was not their responsibility. Several commented that they did not engage in the gossip."

Ms Dahl said organisations needed to develop a common understanding among employees as to what constituted bullying.

"If all colleagues shared the responsibility to challenge inappropriate behaviour, it would not be able to escalate into bullying."

She outlined her findings at the first day of the Psychological Society of Ireland's annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, yesterday. The meeting also heard from psychologist Claire Cullen that there was no significant difference in the quality and stability of the relationships of same-sex and heterosexual couples.

Ms Cullen and Cathy Kelleher reviewed about 40 pieces of international research on same-sex couples, stretching over 20 years.

The findings were "remarkably consistent," and showed no difference in the psychological well-being of same-sex and heterosexual couples. The research found that the children of same-sex couples were no more likely to be gay than the children of heterosexual couples.

Ms Cullen also highlighted the finding that same-sex couples had a better style of conflict resolution than heterosexual couples and said this could be explained by the fact they had a similar world view because of their shared gender.

Same-sex couples also tended to share household tasks in a more equitable way, she said, with both partners taking on the male and female tasks.