Understanding workplace bullying in the Pakistani public sector: An ecological systems perspective

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Workplace bullying is a pervasive and complex phenomenon, influenced by various individual, interpersonal, organisational, and societal factors. The literature underscores the diverse contextual understanding of bullying behaviours across organisations operating within different societies. However, prevalent perspectives, tools, and theoretical frameworks used to comprehend workplace bullying predominantly stem from a Western-centric viewpoint. Moreover, most existing research adopts a positivist approach, focusing narrowly on specific theoretical lensesto explore limited factors at individual, interpersonal, or organisational levels, neglecting the role of the broader societal context. While the contribution of this research has advanced the field, studies have complicated the overall conceptualisation and contextual understanding of workplace bullying, and how the various factors at different levels interact with each other in influencing workplace bullying. The present study explored how workplace bullying is understood and conceptualised by the employees in one of the largest Pakistani public sector organisations. Furthermore, building on the work environment hypothesis using the ecological systems approach, the study explored how ecological systems–level factors at the macro (societal), exo (organisational), meso (interpersonal) and micro (individual) levels interact to influence bullying behaviours and examined the consequences on individuals, organisations, and society. Data were collected in two phases. In the first phase, the study employed semi-structured interviews with 38 targets and witnesses of bullying behaviours using the critical incident technique (CIT) approach as a framework to guide interview questions and analysis. The CIT enabled the participants to share their personal experiences of bullying or experiences of bearing witness to workplace bullying events in the form of a sequential narrative – including the bullying incidents along with pre and post-incident events. Additionally, ten executives were interviewed to obtain their understanding of the bullying phenomenon and gain further knowledge about the broader contextual factors that influence workplace bullying in the organisation. In the second phase, nine key informant interviews were conducted based on themes derived from the first-phase interviews. The findings of the study demonstrate that employees in the Pakistani public sector organisation conceptualised bullying as exposure to additional work, being pushed to perform unreasonable tasks or being forced to engage in corrupt practices. The study findings show that the broader contextual societal factors interact with the work environment and individual factors influencing workplace bullying. The study findings further highlight that the interaction between the influencing factors represents a complex web in which the broader societal factors appear to be the primary influence affecting the work environment. The study also indicates that an environment of fear within the organisation renders the targets unable to defend themselves, resulting in the reoccurrence of workplace bullying. Finally, the study findings demonstrate that workplace bullying affects employees’ mental and physical health, induces behavioural changes and has consequences for social life. As a pioneering ecologicalsystems study to understand bullying behaviours in the public sector, the findings of this study are valuable for academics, human resources managers, practitioners, and other stakeholders (such as policymakers). For academics, the study provides a framework (for future empirical testing) describing the interaction between the ecological subsystems influencing bullying behaviour. It offers practitioners a framework that systematically guides them to understand workplace bullying in the Pakistani public sector. Finally, the study offers implications for practice to assist policymakers in devising policies that lead to a healthy work environment and assist employees to understand the complexity of bullying behaviours.