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The Contribution of Research to the Anti-Bullying Movement
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WBI is seeking Spouses or Partners of individuals bullied at work. As a couple, you and the bullied target must have lived together for at least one year. Ý We seek only U.S. and Canadian participants. The research will be conducted by phone; investigators will call. We will call individuals who best fit our research profile. Go here to volunteer April 11 - May 11 |
Benefits of Research:
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- it connotes seriousness to academics who determine what topics are worthy of research
- it provides impersonal information about bullying which is charged with emotions (because it is about emotional injuries)
- it conveys great information, when the size of the study is large enough and representative of a large group -- like the WBI-Zogby Survey that reflects trends in the entire country!
- courts insist that expertise is limited to publications in academic peer-review journals
- validation by research encourages lawmakers to consider legislation when the prevalence is high. In most countries that have anti-bullying laws, research preceded them.
- employers should be persuaded by evidence-based solution strategies, it's not fiction
- when research findings are coupled with informed activism, societal change can result
- it legitimizes the topic in the eyes of the media
Limitations of Research:
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- quantitative empirical surveys provide only numbers. The nuances of individuals' experiences are not captured (breadth but shallow)
- qualitative studies that focus on a small number of people using interviews yield rich data but may not be representative of the larger group (deep but narrow)
- academics risk asking and answering profound questions about bullying, often settling instead for the easier irrelevant (to everyone but themselves) questions in order to get published in journals (an unfortunate fact of academic life)
- the topic of workplace bullying can be career threatening to a non-tenured faculty member, who could be perceived as anti-corporate in a business school or anti-establishment in a psychology department
So with worts and all, WBI is very proud to post the ever-growing Research section. There are two sub-sections:
RESEARCH BY WBI, including the 2007 WBI-Zogby U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey
RESEARCH BY OTHERS, including Leymann's seminal study linking bullying (mobbing) to PTSD and new work by the leading U.S. researcher Lutgen-Sandvik
You can jump between sections or return to the sub-section index pages by using the menu buttons on the left.
Happy learning.
Dr. Gary Namie
Director, Workplace Bullying Institute