'In the Family Way': Unacknowledged Family Dynamics Commingled in Victim Accounts of their Workplace Bullying Communications

Purpose:

It is widely recognized in academic circles that relatively more-senior faculty express opinions and decisions with which less-senior faculty may disagree.  Typically, however, even well-informed less-senior faculty fear countering their more-senior counterparts.  Often they perceive potentially negative consequences, despite written policies and procedures outlining faculty rights and prescribing processes for faculty engagement.  A theme emerging from our program of research suggests that unacknowedged interpersonal conditions--those learned in the family of origin--influence workplace interactions later in life. This study overviews our analysis of bullying literature for evidence of communications that reflect patterns mimicing dynamics learned in individuals' families of origin.

Methods:

We used pragmatic utility, a criterion-based meta-analytic approach for concept analysis, to scrutinize published descriptions of workplace bullies' communications.  We looked for evidence of the sorts of communications one would expect to see in families, using items from the Family Relationships Index (Moos & Moos, 1986) as a guide for defining those communications. Steps in the pragmatic utility process included review of literature, identification of relevant descriptions, development of analytical questions, and synthesis of results.

Results:

Our findings suggest that communications like those initially learned in the family significantly shape and direct both workplace communications and the contexts within which those communications occur.

Conclusion:

Communication patterns learned in the family contribute to shaping the workplace milieu and to shaping the occurrence and outcomes of workplace bullying acts.