Keyword

Moral harassment; bullying; organizational culture

Abstract

In labor organizations, moral harassment has been worsening in the last few years and it has called the attention of professionals of a wide range of areas, such as medicine, law and psychology, because this phenomenon involves repeated incidents or a pattern of behavior that intends to intimidate, offend, degrade or humiliate a particular person or group of people. The aim of this work is to evaluate how the organizational culture can enhance moral harassment at work. The sample was composed of a hundred and fifty bank workers and a hundred and fifty private practice workers, with ages between eighteen and forty-nine years old and an average social class. The instrument used consists on the application of a questionnaire to measure the incidence level of moral harassment at work in terms of auto perception. It was used the NAQ-R and to analyze the kind of organizational culture we used FOCUS-93. In order to evaluate the relationship existent between organizational culture and moral harassment we followed two lines of orientation, one based on the Quinn’s competing values model and the other one based on the theory of moral harassment of Hirigoyen. The obtained results showed that the organizational culture enhances moral harassment and the goals’ culture is the predominant one. According to Heinz Leymann (1996) this type of culture valorizes stability and control, as orientation to competitiveness in the organization. This culture has an explanative variation of 90% of t


Full Text : PDF

References
  1. Bilhim, J. A. F. (2009). Gestão Estratégica de Recursos Humanos. (4ª ed.). Lisboa: Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas. 
  2. Cameron, K. S. (1986). Effectiveness as paradox: Consensus and conflict in conceptions of organizational effectiveness. Management Science, 32(5): 539–553.
  3. Dejours, C. (1998). La Souffrance en france. La banalisationa de l´injustice social. Paris: Seuil.
  4. Denison, D. R. (1990). Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  5. Denison, D. R. (2000). Organizational culture: Can it be a key lever for driving organizational change. In S. Cartwright and C. Cooper (Eds.), The handbook of organizational culture. London: John Wiley & Sons.
  6. Einarsen, S. (2000). Harassment and bullying at work: A review of the Scandinavian approach. Aggression and Violent Behaviour. 5: 379-401.
  7. Einarsen, S. ; Hoel, H. ; Zapf, D. and Cooper, C. L. (2003). Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice. London: Taylor & Francis.
  8. Grebot, E. (2007). Harcélement au travail: identifier, prevenir, désarmorcer. Paris: Eyrolles Éditions d´Organisation
  9. Hirigoyen, M. F. (1999). Assédio, Coacção e Violência no Quotidiano. Lisboa: Pergaminho.
  10. Hirigoyen, M. F. (2002). Assédio no Trabalho: como distinguir a Verdade. Lisboa: Pergaminho. 
  11. Yilmaz, C. and Ergun, E. (2008). Organizational culture and firm effectiveness: An examination of relative effects of culture traits and the balanced culture hypothesis in an emerging economy. Journal of World Business, 43: 290–306.
  12. Lee, D. (2000). An analysis of workplace bullying in the United Kingdom. Personnel review, 29 (5), 593-612.
  13. Leymann, H. (1996). Mobbing: La persécution au travail. Paris: Seuil. 
  14. Neves, J. G. and Jesuíno, J. C. (1994). Cultura Organizacional: estudo empírico com base no modelo dos valores contrastantes. Psicologia, 3 (9), 327-346.
  15. Pacheco, M. G. R. (2007). O Assédio Moral no Trabalho: O Elo Mais Fraco. Coimbra: Editions Almedina.
  16. Parent-Thirion, A.; Macías, E. F.; Hurley, J. and Vermeylen, G. (2007). Fourth European Working Conditions. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Available at www.eurofound.europa.eu, accessed on April 22nd 2011.
  17. Pestana, D. and Velosa, S. (2002). Introdução à Probabilidade e à Estatística (Vol.1). Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
  18. Pettigrew, A. M. (1979) - On studying organizational cultures. Administrative Science Quartely, 24, 570-581.
  19. Quinn, R. E. (1988). Beyond rational management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  20. Quinn, R. E. (1996). Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 
  21. Quinn, R. E. and Mcgrath, F. R. (1985). The Transformation of Organizational Cultures: A Competing values Perspective. In P. J. Frost; L. F. Moore; M. R. Louis; C. C. Lundberg and J. martin (Eds.). Reframing Organizational Culture. London: Sage Publications. 
  22. Rezende, L. O. (2006). A deteriorização das relações de poder dentro do organismo empresarial: Uma análise do assédio moral no contrato de trabalho. Brasil: Curitiba.
  23. Robbins, S. P. (2004). Fundamentos do Comportamento Organizacional. São Paulo: Prentice Hall. 
  24. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
  25. Seigne, E., (1998) Bullying at work in Ireland. Conference Proceedings Bullying at Work Research update Conference, Staffordshire University.
  26. Soares, A. (2008). Assédio moral: o stresse das vítimas e das testemunhas. Revista Segurança, 184 (2008) 27-29. Lisboa: Inovergo
  27. Tehrani, N. (2005) Bullying at work: beyond policies to a culture of respect. London: CIPD. 
  28. Verdasca, A. T. M. (2010). Assédio Moral no Trabalho - Uma aplicação ao sector bancário português. Tese de doutoramento em Sociologia Económicas e das Organizações, available online at ISEG’s repository, available at www.repository.utl.pt, accessed on January 22nd 2011.