[Mobbing--a work related risk factor of service-based society?]

About a decade the background of the both public and scientific increasing interest in the topic "mobbing". But unfortunately the term "mobbing" is often applied in dubious and inflationary way as synonym for each professional disagreement. The reason for this may among others be that until today no internationally acknowledged standard definition on mobbing exists. According to the in German operational and judicial practice contemporarily most frequent and favourite paraphrases mobbing includes: intended chicanery/hostility (systematics) towards a person (purpose, asymmetry of power) in certain frequency/continuity (at least once a week for six months) with the intention to ostracize a person from his/her employment. In the European states prevalence varies between 2% and 15%, in Germany a national report supports with representative data about 3%, here women are more affected than man. The highest prevalence rates are found in services sector and in public health, social services and education. Aetiology places mobbing mainly as a multi-factor process with complex reciprocity between individual and professional/social factors conditioned in many cases by unresolved conflicts or occupational changes. In first place mobbing is no medical diagnosis, but health injuries resulting from mobbing makes this phenomenon more and more important for social and professional medicine. In view of diagnostic safeguarding with respect to differential diagnostic clarification of a mobbing case good interdisciplinary cooperation of both internal and external protagonists is recommended. Mobbing interventions include individual (for instance social support) as well as operational measures (for instance role of top executives, calling in of a mediation committee). Prevention against occupational mobbing must given high attention. An essential part is regarded the introduction of occupational conventions against mobbing. Within the scope of juridical examination of mobbing results (for example regarding potential impairments of health) in individual case aspects of criminal, civil, social, industrial or occupational law have checked. Mobbing and by means of mobbing caused or conditioned impairments of health are due to present valid juridical regulations neither regarded as occupational disease according to section sign 9 paragraph 1 or 2 SGB II nor as industrial accident. From aspect of prevention ( section sign 14 SGB VII/ section sign 20 SGB V) mobbing has to be considered as a serious psychosocial health hazard conditioned by work.