Mobbing: development phases and its prevention

In a simplified sense, mobbing is the phenomenon when a group or part of it takes up arms against one or more of its members in order to expel them. Both a young specialist and an experienced professional can become a victim of mobbing. At the same time, mobbing in an organization is possible both vertically (boss — subordinate) and horizontally (employees of the same rank).

 The word mobbing comes from English “to mob” — to be rude, to attack in a flock, to poison. In a simplified sense, mobbing is the phenomenon when a team or part of it takes up arms against one or more of its members in order to expel them.

Mobbing has a genetic basis and is widespread in the animal world. In biology, mobbing refers to the demonstrative action of animals or birds against a possible enemy of a predominantly different species. An example is the behavior of a flock of monkeys in trees towards a lion on the ground. Sitting in trees, monkeys actively show their hostility, gallop along the branches, shout and throw everything they can get their hands on at the predator: fruits, broken branches. If monkeys take refuge on a cliff, they throw more serious objects — stones — at the enemy. Crows raving at a passerby who dared to walk too close to their nests is also an example of mobbing.

The first significant studies of the phenomenon of mobbing were conducted by ethologist Conrad Lorenz. Based on an analysis of the results of extensive research, he determined that the purpose of mobbing in the animal world is twofold.

1. First, the enemy receives a preemptive strike and has a reduced desire to attack. In the future, a predator that has been mobbed will hunt other species more often.
2. The second and no less important goal of mobbing is to teach young offspring how to face the enemy through joint collective action.

Unlike animals in humans, mobbing is not an element of interspecific, but of intraspecific warfare. The manifestation of mobbing in human society is largely based on contrasting “friends” and “foes” in the struggle for various kinds of resources.

Now many researchers recognize the fact that mobbing is inherent in humanity as a species and for centuries has been one of the important ethno-psychological mechanisms that ensure the aggression of some peoples against others in order to increase their place in the general hierarchy of peoples. This phenomenon can be observed both at the state level and in labor collectives.

In labor collectives, the manifestations of mobbing began to be studied and actively discussed in the 1980s. Mobbing as a social phenomenon in work teams can significantly reduce the efficiency of any organization.

Under mobbing in the service team means collective psychological terror, harassment of an employee by his colleagues, subordinates or superiors, carried out in order to force an employee to leave his place of work or to weaken his social or professional influence in the team.

To date, there are many theoretical and empirical results of studying this phenomenon. In particular, it has been found that mobbing is controlled by hierarchical structures in a social group and, in particular, by an authoritative group leader.

A young specialist, an experienced professional, and a woman of pre-retirement age can become a victim of mobbing. At the same time, mobbing in an organization is possible both vertically (boss — subordinate) and horizontally (employees of the same rank).

If a subordinate is terrorized by a boss, this manifestation of mobbing is often called bossing. About a third of mobbing cases are bossing aimed at isolating, removing and, ultimately, surviving the employee. However, sometimes you can also observe mobbing by your supervisor's subordinates. This usually happens when the manager is obviously less competent in professional matters and is not a leader for his employees.

Often, a professional, a responsible, proactive and talented employee can also be persecuted if such a person poses a danger as a potential competitor to another reputable employee. It should also be noted that sometimes the “victim” is mobbed in response to her own behavior.

The phases of development and prevention of mobbing in labor collectives

Typical phases in the development of mobbing in the workforce are as follows:

1. Establishing prerequisites. The prerequisites for mobbing may be an unresolved conflict at the workplace or high emotional tension due to an unfavorable psychological climate.
2. The initial phase of mobbing. As a means of relaxing and relieving emotional stress, a search for the “culprit” takes place, and this employee is attacked aggressively by colleagues or management in the form of discontent or ridicule. As a result, at this phase, the victim begins to experience the first emotional disorders (emotional breakdowns), which only “adds fuel to the fire” and increases psychoterror.
3. The active phase of mobbing. In this phase, aggressive attacks and ridicule become systematic, tied to the mobbing object and no longer depend on his real actions and performance results. There are only negative aspects in everything. As a result, the victim has a persistent feeling of bullying, shows signs of health problems, and chronic diseases increase.
4. Social isolation of a mobbing victim. In this phase, the employee is completely or partially isolated from participation in collective and joint corporate events, as well as in the joint work process. He is not invited to corporate events, colleagues' birthdays, joint tea parties, etc. When an employee finds himself in social isolation and an information vacuum, he does not receive positive assessments of his actions, loses his bearings and becomes more and more helpless and insecure about his professional activities. In addition, he is beginning to develop serious physical and mental illnesses, which leads to a large number of sick leave.
5. Job loss. More often, in order to maintain mental and physical health, an employee who has been mobbed finds another place of work himself, or is urged to leave at his own request, or his professional competence is seriously problematic.

In Europe, service teams attach great importance to the problem of mobbing. Thus, in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, mobbing is stipulated in employment contracts, and if it actually took place, the employer pays a considerable amount of financial compensation to the object of psychological terror. Psychologists are dealing with this problem; there are clinics specializing in the treatment of victims of mobbing, counseling centers that help people get out of crisis conditions. Victims of mobbing are asked to seek protection from trade unions, collective councils, lawyers, etc.

According to studies conducted in the West, in countries with a high unemployment rate, up to 17% of the population is exposed to psychoterror at the workplace. One of the biggest trade unions in Germany IG Metall found that in 33% of mobbing cases at metallurgical enterprises, the boss is the attacker. At the same time, it has been established that the more prestigious an employee's position, the more likely they are to be subjected to psychoterror.

Medical studies have shown that mobbing at work leads to severe physical and mental injuries. The employee is plagued by doubts and increasing fear. As a result, people very soon become psychologically unstable; they spend all their energy constantly proving their professional and social worth to the workforce. Further, if psychoterror increases, a person develops psychosomatic symptoms associated with stress — migraines, colds, concentration disorders, insomnia, circulatory disorders, etc. The mobbing victim begins to get sick often.

The first to sound the alarm were the European so-called “health insurance funds”, which have experienced serious financial costs in connection with payments related to the consequences of mobbing. In 1994-1995, with the support of several large federal health funds, trade unions, banks and insurance companies, four counseling centers were opened in Germany, involving psychiatrists, neurologists and therapists.

At the same time, mobbing is harmful not only for employees who are being attacked by the team or management. The firm itself is also suffering. German mobbing researcher B. Meshkustat notes that two-thirds of terrorized workers are less motivated to work, half are blocked from creative thinking, and more than 50% miss work due to various diseases. As a result, a third of employees change jobs within their enterprise, 20% quit themselves, 5% demote, 15% fire.

Thus, mobbing becomes a brake for the enterprise. A decrease in working capacity, an unhealthy climate in the team, staff turnover, and a high probability of wrong decisions have a negative impact on the economic balance of the enterprise.

As organizational and managerial mobbing prevention products the following are distinguished in service teams:

• creating a healthy organizational culture in the organization;
• maintaining a healthy socio-psychological climate in service teams;
• development of management skills among senior management;
• creating conditions that ensure feedback from employees;
• a rational and clear division of labor between departments, eliminating the possibility of duplicate or overlapping tasks between different departments;
• a clear definition of the duties of each employee, outlining the boundaries of their personal responsibility;
• the formation of a transparent mechanism for making management decisions, the rationalization and openness of information flows in the organization;
• creating a system of staff promotion and career opportunities;
• creating an intolerant attitude towards gossipers and lovers of intrigue at work;
• exclusion of intimate or family ties between subordinates and management.

Numerous studies also provide various tips and recommendations on how to behave in order to avoid mobbing in the workplace. In summary, these recommendations can be represented as follows:

• Be friendly to all employees. Charming mobbing is not aimed at charming people.
• Don't gossip, and when you hear gossip, don't tell it to others.
• Don't humiliate anyone. On the contrary, try to praise the person, to elevate them in their own eyes and in the eyes of others.
• Try to find a middle ground between saving your face and not standing out from the team.
• Don't let yourself be humiliated. Sometimes you have to “show your teeth”.
• Follow the team's traditions. Take part in corporate events.
• If one of the employees is trying to “get hold of” you, don't be nervous, talk to him calmly and find out what he is trying to achieve. Try not to respond to hurtful words. Remember that they offend those who are offended.
• Don't be familiar with your boss. Even if you are friends with him, don't advertise it, but rather be friends outside the organization.
• Perform your duties faithfully. In the event of a conflict, your boss will be by your side, as he won't want to lose a valuable employee.

Author: Oleg Bladimirovich Evtixov, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Developmental Psychology at the Institute of Pedagogy, Psychology and Sociology, Siberian Federal University (SFU).

http://www.elitarium.ru/2010/11/24/mobbing_profilaktika.html