Mobbing: Identifying and tackling psychoterror in the workplace

By Tiffany Lauder

Psychoterror in the workplace is increasingly common nowadays. The current working environment, which is extremely competitive and violent, favors the emergence of toxic and psychopathic leaders. Figures indicate that this problem is becoming more frequent, usually achieving its ultimate aim: to force the victims to quit their jobs or cause their dismissal. Discover the major aspects of workplace harassment, its possible consequences, and learn how to avoid the most perverse psychological mechanisms taking place in companies nowadays.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MB Cooltura
• Release date: Mar 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9789877440225

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Working Together is Living Together

Workplace bullying, also known as mobbing, is a phenomenon which has existed for many years, but has recently become relevant. Research on this issue began in 1980 and has increased rapidly, but the concept of mobbing is yet not clearly defined.

French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Christophe Dejours, specialist in occupational medicine, reported an increase in the number of suicides in the workplace due to the fact that employees are defeated by the current world of work. For him, good relationships between workers and cooperation are essential. But in recent years, the situation has changed and solidarity is overshadowed by a type of market which prioritizes the individual over the collective. According to this expert, the most affected persons are those who are more engaged in the company where they work. For Dejours, working is not only producing; it’s also coexisting.

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What is Mobbing?

Although there is not a unique definition for mobbing or workplace bullying, it is considered physical or psychological harassment which systematically targets a single person, or a group of people (rarely), and is intended to force the person out of the workplace. Swedish sociologist Heinz Leymann defines it more thoroughly as a set of actions involving hostile communication by one or more individuals towards one individual which occur at a very frequent basis and over a long period of time, in which the relationship between the stressor and the victim is evident. Leymann explains that the victims of this type of harassment are unable to control the situation and solve the problem.

According to author Marie Hirigoyen, workplace bullying can be defined as any manifestation of an abusive conduct and, specially, the behavior, words, acts, gestures or written communication which may threaten the individual’s dignity, physical and psychological integrity, or may endanger his workplace or deteriorate the working environment.

Iñaki Piñuel, researcher and professor at University of Alcalá, considers mobbing "the frequent, deliberate and humiliating oral aggression towards a worker by a colleague or a group of colleagues, either subordinate or superiors, which behave cruelly in order to cause his psychological destruction and force him