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Degree Name
EdD (Doctor of Education)
Program
Educational Leadership
Date of Award
5-2013
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Dr. Catherine Glascock
Committee Members
Bethany Flora, Don Good, Amy Govett
Abstract
The purpose of this autoethnography was to examine my personal experiences with workplace bullying through the lens of existing research and theory and original inquiry into how other faculty members characterize workplace bullying, their related experiences, and the behaviors and tactics involved.
The study involved 2 phases. Phase I employed the use of 2 dyadic interviews garnering an additional tier of qualitative information where descriptors of additional analytical memos emerged, such as the regional and organizational cultural dynamics involved in workplace bullying. Phase II used my own personal experiences with bullying in higher education. Four indepth vignettes were provided chronologically: graduate student-experience, entry-career, midcareer, and doctoral dissertation research. Each vignette was analyzed using constant comparative method between the literature and interviews to confirm and disconfirm my own experience with bullying in higher education.
Several themes emerged from this research: (1) The nature of my personal workplace bullying experiences highlighted themes involving: bullying behaviors (both victim and bully), position and power (both victim and bully), organizational structure and cultural constructs, and the impact on the victim. The commonalities between my experiences, the literature, and the bullying experiences of other faculty who provided information in this study were: (1) Organizational culture works to support and protect workplace bullies; (2) Organizations with multi-layered hierarchies support workplace bullying behaviors; (3) Workplace bullying results in reports of significant psychological impact (e.g., feelings of anxiety, embarrassment, humiliation, fear, etc.); (4) Workplace bullying involves overt attacks (e.g., intimidation, recruitment of others, threats, etc.); (5) The context of regional culture may influence workplace bullying (i.e. perceptions, tactics, reactions, etc.); and (6) Power (i.e. positional, legitimate, coercive, reward, referent) is a central element in bullying behaviors.
Document Type
Dissertation - restricted
Recommended Citation
Finck, Luke R., "Workplace Bullying: Cultures, Roles, and Lived Experiences" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1154. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1154
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.