In only 25% of cases was the target a member of a 'protected status' group and the bully was not. This is the minimal requirement for filing a harassment or discrimination claim based on civil rights violations. In 15% of cases, the bully is the one who was 'protected.'

What it could mean: Bullying or 'status-blind' harassment is three times more prevalent its illegal variety, which itself is a subset of the more general variety.

See this result-related graphic.

b.) Bullying -- unaddressed by state or federal civil rights protections:

Both women and men bully, but women are the primary targets.
Women bullies choose Women targets 87% of time; choose Men targets 13%.
Men bullies choose Women targets 71% of time; choose Men targets 29%.

See this result-related graphic

Woman-on-Woman bullying represents 50% of all workplace bullying
Man-on-Woman bullying = 30%
Man-on-Man = 12%
Woman-on-Man = 8%

See this result-related graphic

Probability for Women targets to be bullied by a Woman bully is 63%
Probability for Men targets to be bullied by a Man bully is 62%.

What it could mean: Bullying is same-sex harassment, most of the time, and therefore invisible when seen through the lens of anti-discrimination laws. Existing civil rights laws in the U.S., believed by the general public to prohibit harassment, do not apply to same-sex cases (except when unwanted sexual overtures are involved).

See this result-related graphic

2. Bully's Rank relative to the target:

Bully has higher rank than target: 71% (men bullies were more top-down, 76%, than were women bullies, 67%)
Bully is a co-worker, peer, colleague of the target: 17%
Bullies from the bottom-up: 12% (women targets experienced slightly more bottom-up and peer bullying than men, 36% vs., 23%, respectively)

See this result-related graphic

3. Spreading the misery among other targets:

Women bullies were more likely to torment more than a single target in the work unit (68%) than were men (63%).

4. Bullies enlist the help of others:

a.) Only 23% of bullies chose to do the bullying by themselves; 77% enlisted others to help -- by alternately bullying the target alone (32%) and at other times having help from others (45%).

The target's co-workers frequently became the bully's allies (48%). Women bullies recruited co-workers a bit more than did men bullies (53% and 42%, respectively).

The majority of bully backers came from the bully's peer group in 28% of cases. Remember that in 71% of cases this would be other managers, at least one level rank above the target. Higher level managers assist in the bullying of targets in 24% of cases. Men bullies tend to rely upon management (57%) supporters as frequently as women bullies enlist the help of the target's co-workers (53%).

What it could mean: Men bullies use the organization's hierarchy; women bullies use the social network of peers to accomplish the bullying.

See this result-related chart

b.) Size of the bullying group:

Targets report an average of 3.5 people eventually being involved with the bullying. Men bullies and their allies number 3.9 on the average; women bullies and cohorts, 3.2.

What it could mean: The survey results validate WBI's definition of bullying. The phenomenon begins with a single person who then orchestrates the campaign of hate with the help of allies. Thus, the semantic difference between workplace bullying (UK origin & adopted by The Workplace Bullying Institute, and in Australia and New Zealand) vs. "mobbing "(the Scandinavian & EU term) disappears. They are identical phenomena.

© 2003 Gary M. Namie, All rights reserved.