January 21, 2019
Workplace bullying in schools
This dissertation was written by Ginna
Meyers, director of Curriculum, Instruction,
Professional Development and Student
Assessment at Eureka Union School District,
toward her PhD in Psychology from
Northcentral University.
Bullying in the workplace is a well-
investigated phenomenon. According to the
Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI. 2017),
adults commit negative bullying acts at
high prevalence rates, ranging from 19-38
percent. Employee victimization results in
negative consequences, not only for indi-
viduals and work teams, but also negatively
impact organizations, which consequently
may have to deal with increased absentee-
ism, higher turnover rates, decreased pro-
ductivity, and potential litigation. The Irish
Times called workplace bullying one of
the most “toxic social phenomenon” of our
times (Harold, 2015).
Surprisingly, even though the phenome-
non is workplace-agnostic, the highest prev-
alence rates have been recorded in organiza-
tions representing the caring professions, i.e.
nursing/healthcare and higher education
institutions. In a study by Chatziioannidis
(2018), 53.6 percent of nurses reported
being subjected to workplace bullying, with
44.9 percent self-identifying as victims and
the rest as bystanders. Identified perpetra-
tors were hospital administrators and fellow
nurses. Workplace bullying (WB) has also
been reported as rampant in colleges and
universities. Hollis (2017), in a study of
U.S. and Canadian universities, found WB
manifesting at alarming rates: 62 percent
for self-reported victims and/or witnesses.
Numerous studies postulated that certain
mitigating and precipitating structures
within these institutions promote a climate
conducive to the commission of the nega-
tive acts associated with bullying. One such
variable implicated is the rigid hierarchical
organization of these academic institutions.
Definition of workplace bullying
Scholarly literature revealed a plethora
of definitions for the phenomenon of adult
victimization by workplace bullies. Despite
a lack of universal consensus, universal
themes emerged that describe the phenom-
enon. Critical themes include repetition,
escalation, systematicity, and persistency of
the negative acts. Some definitions employ
the presence of a power imbalance between
the victim and the perpetrator. However,
WBI surveys reveal that the phenomenon
could be multi-directional, as perpetra-
tors may be colleagues, supervisors, and
even subordinates. The NAQ-R (Negative
BUDGET
Continued from page 6
the state. These bills are a work in progress
and will be amended to include details in
the near future.
Unlike its Assembly counterparts, the
Senate has not released highlights of poten-
tial budget proposals. In the 2018-19 bud-
get, the Senate was successful in negotiating
one-time Prop. 98 funds be used to fund
their priorities for professional develop-
ment for classified school employees and
the Classified School Employee Summer
Assistance Program.
For ACSA and other key education
stakeholders, one of the chief outstanding
questions to respond to is where should
increased Prop. 98 funding be allocated now
that the LCFF funding targets were fully
reached. Co-sponsored by ACSA and other
education groups, Assembly member Al
Muratsuchi introduced AB 39 to establish
new LCFF funding targets with the goal
of reaching the national average. Questions
also remain on where home-to-school
transportation fall in the list of priorities for
both the Legislature and LEAs since this
categorical program remained outside of
LCFF and never received increased funding
during Gov. Brown’s Administration.
In regards to Special Education fund-
Acts Questionnaire-Revised) is a popular,
frequency-focused scale for measuring bul-
lying in the workplace, and recommended
practice suggests employing a scale and pro-
viding participants a definition of the phe-
nomenon for self-identification. The fol-
lowing definition, from Samnani & Singh
(2012) is an example of how the aforemen-
tioned themes are incorporat-
ed in WB description:
“Bullying at work means
harassing, offending, socially
excluding someone or nega-
tively affecting someone’s
work tasks. In order for the
Myers
label bullying (or mobbing)
to be applied to a particular
activity, interaction or process it has to
occur repeatedly and regularly (e.g. weekly)
and over a period of time (e.g. about six
months). Bullying is an escalated process in
the course of which the person confronted
ends up in an inferior position and becomes
the target of systematic negative social acts.”
Workplace bullying in K-12 schools
It is highly lamentable that scholarly lit-
erature is scarce exploring adult bullying in
schools. Of the few studies that exist, adult
bullying in primary and secondary schools
appear to be as prevalent, pernicious, and
damaging as the phenomenon observed and
documented in higher education institu-
tions. Principals as bullies appear to be a
recurring theme in WB research involving
schools. DeVos and Kirsten (2015) reported
that principals constituted the majority of
the bullying acts targeting teachers in South
African schools. These bully principals
often used colleagues as accomplices and
promoted a dysfunctional school culture via
ineffective leadership. However, not all bul-
ly-victim relationships involve administra-
tors as perpetrators and teachers as victims.
Riley et al. (2011), documenting the WB in
primary and secondary schools, revealed a
diverse range of participants, administrators,
co-teachers, and parents.
Current study
This study was conducted to explore
teacher victimization in U.S. public and
private K-12 schools, with the objective of
identifying job strain factors that influence
WB rates as well as teacher/victim percep-
tions of the perpetrators’ personality traits
(narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psy-
chopathy, called the Dark Triad Traits). The
author conducted a mixed methods study,
sequential explanatory design, which incor-
porated a quantitative phase followed by a
qualitative phase. Teachers were recruited
ing, it is expected that Assembly member
Patrick O’Donnell will re-introduce AB
3136, a legislative proposal in 2018 that
sought to increase funding for special edu-
cation via the existing AB 602 formula and
dedicate funding for preschool-aged chil-
dren with exceptional needs.
There are members of the Legislature
who would also like to push for an addi-
tional $150 million to expand the funding
committed in the 2018-19 Budget Act for
the CTE Incentive Grant Program. Last
year, the Legislature successfully leveraged
bipartisan support in both houses to secure
$150 million of ongoing Prop. 98 funds
each for the CTE Incentive Grant Program
and for the Strong Workforce Program
administered by the California Community
Colleges.
As a major education stakeholder, ACSA
will be actively engaged in the budget discus-
sions with the administration to ensure stu-
dents’ best interests are upheld. Throughout
this legislative season, ACSA will keep you
apprised of all budget negotiation discus-
sions until the budget is completed by the
June 15 constitutional deadline.
For questions or comments, contact Martha
Alvarez, ACSA Legislative Advocate, at mal-
[email protected]. The full budget can be found
at www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.
pdf.
via emails and social media to participate
in Phase 1 (online survey) and Phase 2
(interviews for only those who self-iden-
tified as victims and/or bystanders). Phase
2 involved semi-structured interviews, to
examine more deeply the personal narra-
tives of the victims and/or WB witnesses.
The interviews explored the identities of
the perpetrators, the school culture that
may have enabled the commission of nega-
tive acts, the leadership styles of the site
administrators when the bullying occurred,
response and coping strategies employed
by the participants, and the victims’ and
bystanders’ perceptions of the personality
traits of the school bullies.
Results
Of the variables investigated, teach-
er perceptions of levels of support from
administrators and colleagues influenced
variance in WB rates most significantly, fol-
lowed by perceived psychological demands
and decision latitude. Of the Dark Triad
personality traits, narcissism was implicated
as most highly correlated with commis-
sion of negative acts. Manifestations of
grandiose narcissism from the bullies were
recounted by victims, exemplified by callous
arrogance, lack of empathy, and persistent
desire for admiration. A four-variable model
consisting of all of the job strain variables
identified above, and narcissism emerged as
accounting for 42 percent of the variance
observed in NAQ-R scores.
Phase 2 findings revealed the following:
• A severity-focused tool for measuring
teacher victimization may be more appro-
priate.
• Dictatorial and laissez-faire styles
of leadership appeared to describe places
where WB occur. School cultures that were
described as “chaotic” and “dysfunctional”
were associated with bullying.
• The impact on teachers are grave (poor
sleep quality, depression, anxiety, PTSD-
like symptoms) and most teachers isolated
EDCAL 7
themselves or left their schools.
• Teacher victims identified adminis-
trators, colleagues, and parents as bullies.
Parents as bullies were found in schools
located in highly-affluent areas.
• The most popular teacher response to
WB was to report the incidents to adminis-
trators. Most interview participants revealed
that this action did not lead to favorable
resolution.
Recommendations
It is recommended that a different tool
that is severity-focused be developed and
utilized in further studies of WB in schools
and that research should expand to incor-
porate all school employee victimization.
As levels of job support mitigate job strain
variables that increase bullying risks, admin-
istrators are advised to emphasize the pro-
motion of an inclusive and cooperative
culture in the workplace. The author also
recommends further study exploring narcis-
sism as a trait that could potentially serve as
a warning flag for human resources, when it
comes to hiring, re-election and promotion.
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ture of EdCal that provides an opportuni-
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two-to-three page summary (750-1,200
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to Cary Rodda, EdCal editor, crodda@
acsa.org.
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