HR departments fail to address workplace bullying

Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Bishop Grosseteste University carried out an analysis of people’s online reporting of their experiences of workplace bullying.

Among the responses, no participant had anything positive to write about how their organisation’s human resources departments had dealt with their bullying problem.

Bullied employees reported being ignored, victimised even further, and said HR routinely sided with “management bullies”.

The study is the first to apply a netnographic analysis, where the researcher watches and analyses a string of online discussions and commentary as it emerges, to the problem of workplace bullying.

It reveals human resources fail to deal with workplace bullying to the satisfaction of workers and suggests systemic failures due to several factors.