Abstract
Workplace cyberbullying and online harassment are ongoing problems requiring organizational intervention. This chapter utilizes cultural-historical activity theory as a lens to examine organizational activities. Organizational activities establish the productive norms of the workplace which produce and reproduce objects that serve the needs of an organization. By examining the framework of the workplace, organizational leaders and policymakers can more effectively create prevention policies. Activities are broken down into six interrelated parts: tools, subjects, objects, rules, communities of practice, and divisions of labor. The author argues the motivations of individual actors and the motivations of the organization as key pressure points requiring further analysis in order to foster proactive, preventative workplace bullying policy and the development of positive organizational communicative norms.
TopIntroduction
Cyberbullying is an ongoing problem within organizations, leaving a lasting legacy as a negative stressor in the lives of many workers. Bullying occurs when a person is exposed to negative behaviors or actions repeatedly over time in a relationship in which a power imbalance is present (Olweus, 1993). Willard (2007) suggests cyberbullying is similar to bullying but involves unwanted online harassment, denigration, insults, and hacking that occurs over time and which may denote a difference in technological skill that leads to a power imbalance. Escaping cyberbullying is challenging because the ubiquity of digital technologies makes it difficult to leave online spaces and choosing to do so can leave people who experience cyberbullying further isolated from their work and social networks. One might suggest turning off the screen, but it is not always possible to walk away when one experiences cyberbullying, especially in the workplace (Palfrey & Gasser, 2010). Work obligations, forced team formations, and other organizational features may make it impossible to avoid one’s cyberbully. It is not realistic to suggest that one should completely cease electronic communication to end their torment. (Wong-lo & Bullock, 2011). Instead, cyberbullying prevention efforts must recognize cyberbullying as an element included in the everyday activities of organizations to better understand how corporate policy and culture can shape the (negative) behaviors of workers.
Digital abuse has many links to negative health outcomes for workers. Though there are nuanced differences between face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying, they share many similar results. Face-to-face bullying has been linked to negative consequences for the physical, mental, and social health of perpetrators and victims (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2004). Workplace bullying has been linked to increases in cardiovascular disease in overweight populations (Kivimaki et al., 2003); awakening, restlessness, and other sleep issues (Hansen et al., 2016; Lallukka, Rahkonen, & Lahelma, 2011); headaches and joint pain/stiffness (Takaki, Taniguchi, & Hirokawa, 2013); and general work-induced sickness absences (Nielsen, Idregard, & Øverland, 2016). Employees experiencing bullying, report lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of job-induced stress, depression, anxiety, and intention to leave their current position (Quine, 1999; Gladstone, Parker, & Mahli, 2006). Cyberbullying has been linked to increased rates of depression and suicidal ideation across age groups and various contexts, although it is not entirely clear if those who experience cyberbullying become depressed or if those who are depressed represent ideal targets for cyberbullying perpetration (Bonde et al., 2016; Hinduja, 2013; Hinduja & Patchin, 2010; Kowalski & Limber, 2013). What is clear is that cyberbullying causes a great deal of distress for those who experience it (Finne, Knardahl, & Lau, 2011). The nature of that distress is ongoing and cyclical (Nielsen, Hetland, Mathhiesen, & Einarsen, 2012). Cyberbullying may also produce other, more invisible outcomes, such as but not limited to: A person being unable to complete their work, a person being less able to form and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships with coworkers, and/or a person being unable to recover from their experience with cyberbullying, all of which may negatively affect the organization.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Object: The artifacts that are produced by organizational activities. Objects may include items such as documents or products, but also include workplace communication artifacts, such as verbal conversations or emails.
Community Of Practice: An amalgamation of the relationships between subjects, systemic rules that drive behavior, and the division of labor within a system that shape objects produced in an activity system.
Tools: The mediating artifacts that allow and assist systemic activities to occur (e.g., computers, tablets, PDAs, language systems, cell phones).
Organizational Change: Shifts or alterations in the homeostatic norms of an organizational system. Change is produced when subjects participate in behaviors that transgress against socio-cultural norms of an organization.
Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: A systems theory that examines subjects, objects, rules, communities of practice, and divisions of labor to describe the meaningful activities that occur within the system.
Rules: The implicit and explicit regulations, expectations, norms, and behavioral models that shape a subject’s actions within an activity system.
Subject: Individual actors within an activity system. Subjects’ behaviors are typically reflective and protective of the socio-cultural norms of an activity system.
Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying occurs when a person is repeatedly exposed to negative behaviors or actions. It may involve unwanted online harassment, denigration, insults, and hacking that occur over time and which may denote a difference in technological skill that leads to a power imbalance.