'Gender' in workplace bullying: A phenomenological study on nurses

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Organizational Psychology
• Gender Studies

Background:

• Workplace bullying research has largely ignored gender dynamics.
• This study addresses the gap in understanding gender and workplace bullying.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze how gender role socialization influences bullying techniques.
• To examine the gendered nature of workplace bullying in nursing.

Main Methods:

• Integration of dialectical phenomenology.
• In-depth interviews with nine nurses.

Main Results:

• Societal conditioning of women normalizes passive aggression, contributing to workplace bullying.
• This normalization hinders effective management of bullying in healthcare.

Conclusions:

• Bullying in nursing shares traits with female passive aggression, embedding it in the profession.
• Gendered bullying presents ethical challenges for healthcare systems, making eradication difficult.