Toll on Mind and Body: Health Impacts of Workplace Bullying
摘要
This chapter explores the significant mental and physical effects that workplace bullying has on employees in a wide range of jobs, creating a major occupational, as well as public health issue. Through the lens of models such as the Job Demand-Control (JDC), Job Demands-Resources (JD-R), and the Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS), this chapter illustrates the myriad ways in which consistent workplace hostility is detrimental to both employee health and the organization as a whole. Through the introduction of real-life case studies and empirical studies, attention is drawn to how common bullying is and ways in which this practice can be pervasive in many settings, including healthcare, academia, business, government, and the skilled trades. There is also discussion of the institutional failings that often allow bullying to continue. Intervention options and legal frameworks that can mitigate these consequences and create a workplace culture that promotes mental health are discussed in detail with relevant organizational examples. This chapter concludes by calling for a multi-tiered, trauma-informed intervention approach to prevention and recovery.