Background: Bullying is deliberate and negatively impacts the victim. Exposure to bullying is associated with both health and job-related problems, to include mental and physical health problems, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, burnout, turnover, reduced job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Fink-Samnick, 2017). Resilience is the process of adapting when experiencing adversity, threats, or significant sources of stress and bouncing back after these challenging experiences (Aburn, Gott, & Hoare, 2016; Cline, 2015). Resilience encompasses factors that promote personal strengths and protect individuals from the negative impact of stressors (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). Resilience includes a combination of characteristics and abilities that interact in a dynamic manner to allow individuals to bounce back, cope successfully, and function even in the face of adversity. Individuals with high levels of resilience may be better able to cope with workplace challenges, such as horizontal violence and bullying. Alternatively, as people obtain experience coping with negative experiences they may develop higher levels of resilience. Resilience can be a protection factor against distress and the negative effects of bullying (Moore and Woodcock, 2017). Sauer (2013) focused on resilience as a mediator of the negative impact of bullying on health and intent to leave one’s position. She found that as severity of bullying increased, intent to leave increased in a linear fashion.
Methods: This study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional design through the use of an anonymous online survey. Participants included nurse managers, directors, and executives from a United States national nursing leadership organization that has approximately 9,700 members. Bullying behaviors were measured by the Revised 22 item Negative Acts Questionnaire [NAQ-R focused on work-related (7 items), person-related (12 items), or physically intimidating (3 items) bullying (Nielsen, Notelaers, & Einarsen, 2011)]. Experience of bullying was measured by a one-item self-labeling method; for this item participants were given a definition of bullying at work and asked if and how frequently they have been bullied at work (Nielsen, Notelaers, & Einarsen, 2011. Resilience was measured by the Brief Coping Scale, a four item scale that reflects adaptability and creative responses to stress. The Brief Coping Scale reflects tenacity, optimism, creativity, problem solving, and a commitment to make the best of difficult situations (Sinclair & Wallston, 2004). Intent to Leave was measured by a three item instrument that addresses questions about “thinking about leaving my job”, “actively looking for a new job”, and intend to leave my job in the next year (McGuire, Houser, Jarrar, Moy, & Wall, 2003). This scale was used by Warshawsky, Wiggins, and Rayens (2016) and had a Cronbach’s alpha of .86.
Results:
Participants for this study included 175 nurses (95% female and 5% male) that were in either Chief Executive Officer/Chief Administrative Officer (n=5, 3%), CNO (n=58, 33%), Director (n=65, 38%), or Nurse Manager (n=45; 26%) roles; (n=2, no position designation. Mean NAQ-R was 39.3 (range 22-110). Approximately 60% of participants experienced behaviors than can be categorized as bullying behaviors and 26% experienced severe workplace bullying. Mean resilience was 17 (possible range 5-20) and mean intent to leave was 5.4 (3-9 range). Resilience was not significantly associated with bullying as measured by the NAQ-R or with intent to leave. However, intent to leave was significantly associated with bullying as measured by the NAQ-R (total bullying: r = .56; work-related: r = .57; person-related: r = .52; physical intimidation: r = .37; all @ p < .0001) and the one item bullying self-reporting item (r = .35; p < .0001)
Conclusion: Bullying is a significant workplace stressor for leaders at the manager, director and executive levels and does cause leaders to leave their positions. Resilience was not significantly related to bullying and intent to leave in this study, which could indicate that bullying led to a reduction in the development of leader resiliency.
Implication for Nursing Management: Bullying is “inappropriate, unacceptable behavior”. Nursing leaders must identify and manage bullying behaviors and work together with applicable stakeholders to find and implement solutions. Managing bullying can lead to reduced leader turnover which will have a positive impact on organizational outcomes.