Mobbing among employees in Bursa, Turkey: A cross-sectional survey study

Abstract

Aim: To assess the frequency of reported mobbing and the association of mobbing with employees' sociodemographic variables and working environment factors in a sample of employees in city of Bursa, Turkey. Method: We conducted a questionnaire survey using a validated self-reported questionnaire. This survey involved 192 employees in three companies, operating in different economic sectors located in the city of Bursa, Turkey. Two questionnaires were administered to the workers. Firstly, a sernistructured questionnaire evaluated the employees' sociodemographic variables and working status. Secondly, the Negative Acts Question naire-Revised (NAQ-R) which is a standardized questionnaire evaluated mobbing and covered five major categories of mobbing behavior. Results: On the basis of the given definition of the workplace bullying, the overwhelming majority (88.7 %) of the employees participating in the research labeled themselves as victims of bullying at the workplace in the last 6 months. The most frequent types of mobbing behavior were intimidating behaviors such as finger-pointing, invasion of personal space, shoving, blocking/barring the way (84.5 %) and being the subject of excessive teasing and sarcasm (80.3 %). Reports of bullying did not vary by job status, educational status, marital status, occupational status, gender or age. Conclusion: This study showed that around 88 % of the population studied had been exposed to mobbing behavior within the last 6 months. This study also found that some economic activities would be at elevated risk for mobbing. We suggest that it is important to prevent the development of mobbing behaviors in the workplace in order to prevent the development of psychological problems that may lead to negative individual and organizational outcome.