Bullying behind bars: a preliminary study of human resources professionals and workplace bullying in corrections

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of workplace bullying reported to human resources (HR) professionals in corrections. It compared the prevalence of bullying reported to HR professionals to the prevalence of self-reported workplace bullying found in the study by Einarsen et al. (2009).

In total, 75 HR professionals completed the modified version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire – Revised (The Bergen Bullying Research Group, 2009) that consists of three subscales measuring work-related bullying, person-related bullying, and physically intimidating bullying. Participants indicated how often certain types of workplace bullying were reported to them. The prevalence of bullying reported to HR professionals was then compared to the prevalence of self-reported workplace bullying found in the comparison study.

The findings of the study were statistically significant and demonstrated that more workplace bullying was reported to HR professionals in corrections than was self-reported in the comparison study. The results show statistical significance in the scale as a whole, in the person-related bullying subscale, and in the physical intimidation subscale.

HR professionals might be more likely to accurately report workplace bullying behavior that has been reported to them, as opposed to employees who directly experienced bullying. Organizations might benefit from having designated HR professionals or some other types of independent services for reporting of workplace bullying

A significant amount of workplace bullying research has focussed on causes, symptoms, and consequences of the phenomenon that can be generalized across a variety of occupations. This general research has advanced understanding of the topic. However, there are limitations to this approach. Generalized literature should also be complemented by research considering factors, issues, and concerns specific to particular working environments to develop more meaningful knowledge. To this end, this research focussed on workplace bullying in corrections organizations.