Mobbing, Suppression of Dissent/Discontent, Whistleblowing, and Social Medicine

EDITORIAL

Brian Martin, Florencia Peña Saint Martin

Humans can be ruthless in attacking each other – extremely difficult, often with serious health conse- even without any physical violence. Individuals can quences, emotional, physical and mental. Most re- be targets, sometimes inside organizations, some- search on mobbing deals with these sorts of attacks times in domestic or public arenas. In workplaces, within workplaces, but mobbing can also occur in for example, individuals can be singled out for at- other arenas. Some researchers call this “workplace tack because they are different or because they are a bullying”: this is like bullying between children, threat to or unwanted by those with power. Those except it involves adults. However, “bullying” often who are attacked often suffer enormously, with se- implies that one person, the bully, is harassing an- vere effects on their health and well-being. Society other person, the target or victim, often with the im- is also damaged through loss of conscientious work- plication that this is a psychological or interpersonal ers and citizens and squelching of ideas that deserve matter. The term mobbing implies that the harass- attention. To understand these sorts of dynamics, ment is by a group: it is a phenomenon of collective there are several concepts that are helpful, including behavior. mobbing, reprisals against whistleblowers, and sup- There is a general consensus that mobbing in- pression of dissent/discontent. cludes: 1. A group of people in an organization that tar- Mobbing get colleagues, subordinates or authorities Mobbing is when a group of people act against (usually one at the time) to degrade them us- an individual of the same workplace or organization. ing negative communication as the main Techniques include criticisms of performance, os- “weapon.” tracism, harassment, verbal abuse, spreading ru- 2. Regular and systematic attacks to carry out a mors, and official penalties. The target’s life is made process of degradation (at least once a week). 3. Repeated attacks over a long period of time (around six months). Brian Martin, PhD (Physics); Professor of Social Sci- 4. Use of some or all of behaviors listed in the ences, University of Wollongong, Australia. He is the table. author of many books and articles on dissent, nonviolent action, scientific controversies, democracy and other top- Reprisals against whistleblowers ics. He has studied tactics against justice and injustice for many years. A whistleblower is a person who speaks out in Website: http://www.bmartin.cc the public interest. Whistleblowing, as a concept, Email: [email protected] most commonly refers to employees in the workplace speaking out about corruption or dangers to Florencia Peña Saint Martin, PhD (Anthropology), the public. For example, a company might be dump- Visiting professorial fellow, University of Wollongong, ing hazardous waste in a waterway; one employee Australia; Professor, Graduate Program in Physical An- thropology, National School of Anthropology and Histo- complains about this to the boss or to an outside ry, Mexico. She has studied the relationships between body like an environmental protection agency. An- human biology and social organization/stratification for other example: government planners are accepting many years. Since 2004, she has dealt with mobbing in bribes from businesses for favorable decisions about organizations. development applications, and a government em- Website: http://www.antropologiafisica.net ployee reports this to top management, to an outside Email: [email protected] agency, or to the media.

Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info) - 205 - Volume 6, Number 4, May 2012 Classification of mobbing/bullying behaviors used to attack targets Task-related Personal Physical Task load Task process Evaluation Indirect Direct

overloading shifting monitoring isolating attacking verbally/ physical

removing instructions and excessively ignoring harassing openly violence is

responsibilities opinions judging excluding belittling rarely involved

delegating overruling outcomes remarks not responding to menial tasks decisions wrongly yelling communications

refusing fair flaunting criticizing not answering interrupting

and legal status/power unfairly calls criticizing

leaves/rights attacking blocking persistently gossiping

asking for professional promotions lying demeaning unrealistic goals status minimizing intentionally

making false setting up for controlling achievements accusations humiliating

failure resources minimizing undermining making personal withholding contributions jokes information ostracizing making negative eye contact/staring

intimidating

manipulating

contradicting systematically

refusing to talk

threatening

Adapted from Bartlett and Bartlett (2011).

Outside of their workplaces, many people speak Suppression of dissent/discontent out about social problems such as poverty, exploita- Dissent is disagreement with or a challenge to a tion, war and discrimination. Such people are not dominant viewpoint. A scientist might criticize the usually called whistleblowers, but instead activists standard ways of treating cancer and propose a dif- or campaigners or concerned citizens. The term ferent approach: this is dissent. A theologian might whistleblower could be applied more generally, but criticize church doctrine: this is dissent. Social med- is usually restricted to those who speak out about icine challenges the view of health problems as the problems within their organizations. This includes result of personal behaviors and risk factors, disen- members of churches who expose pedophilia by tangled from the organization of society; this is dis- priests, members of trade unions who expose brib- sent. So is questioning political orthodoxy in repres- ery of or by trade union officials, and members of sive political regimes or economic orthodoxy in environmental organizations who expose corrupt market systems. Dissent usually implies challenge dealings by senior figures. to a powerful, dominant viewpoint, backed by polit- Whistleblowing can be a health hazard for whis- ical, economic, scientific, or other elites. tleblowers: they very commonly suffer reprisals, Suppression of dissent refers to actions taken including ostracism, harassment, spreading of ru- against dissent or dissenters. A dissident scientist mors, onerous duties, reprimands, demotions, mob- might have high quality articles rejected by journals; bing, dismissal, and blacklisting. The consequences a dissident theologian might be refused usual oppor- for health, relationships, finances, and mental state tunities at churches; a dissident political figure are often severe. might be censored or arrested. Whistleblowing is usually beneficial to society: Dissent is not quite the same as whistleblowing, it exposes problems that need to be fixed when few but there is considerable overlap. Whistleblowing is people are willing to do anything about it. Groups usually about a specific problem, whereas dissent is with power see whistleblowers as a danger, which is a challenge to a viewpoint. Whistleblowing involves the reason for the reprisals. someone speaking out; dissent can occur simply by doing research or expressing viewpoints.

Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info) - 206 - Volume 6, Number 4, May 2012 Suppression of dissent is very similar to reprisals several members of Whistleblowers Australia, an against whistleblowers; many of the same tech- organization created to support and advise whistle- niques are used. However, sometimes dissent is blowers. squashed without open attacks on dissenters. Exam- In the Classics in Social Medicine section we ples include: when dissident scientific views are recommend three papers on the three main topics. routinely rejected by journals; scientists with unor- 1) Mobbing: Heinz Leymann, “Mobbing and thodox views are never appointed to positions; and Psychological Terror at Workplaces” (1990). This awards and promotions are given to supporters of paper was a pioneering treatment of mobbing, still orthodoxy but not to dissidents. Mobbing, whistle- highly relevant today. We do not reproduce it here; blowing, and suppression of dissent have the poten- it is available for free at: tial to create serious health problems for targets. www.mobbingportal.com/leymannmain.html (English) They also block democracy and the human right of www.scribd.com/doc/20872144/Mobbing-y-Terror- speaking out. However, research about these topics Psicologico (Spanish). and their relationships and interactions is still mar- 2) Whistleblowing: Jean Lennane, “What Hap- ginal. pens to Whistleblowers, and Why” (1996). Of the many early treatments of whistleblowing, this is one Papers in this issue of the most informative, especially for whistleblow- In the Original Research Section, we are publish- ers themselves. Unlike most other treatments, it em- ing four papers. phasizes the health consequences of whistleblowing. In our paper, “Mobbing and Suppression,” we 3) Suppression of dissent: Brian Martin, “Sup- describe these two phenomena, including both how pression of Dissent: What It Is and What to Do they overlap and their differences. It is useful to be About It” (1993). This is a practical introduction, able to understand which one is occurring (some- aimed at helping dissidents and their allies under- times both) in order to be more effective in oppos- stand suppression. ing them. The Theme and Debates section explores how Margarida Barreto’s “The Social Context of scientific ideas can be suppressed by not treating Workplace Bullying and Its Link to the Health of them seriously and by not researching them. Re- Workers in Brazil” examines how work is orga- search that could be done on a topic but is not is nized, how workers address the changes imposed by called “undone science.” Tom Cleary analyzes un- neoliberalism, and how the intensification of labor done science in research on the treatment of macular creates new risks, among which mobbing can be degeneration. explained. Finally, in News and Events, we include infor- “Mobbing and Fibromyalgia,” contributed by mation about the Ibero-American Network for Dig- Rocio Fuentes Valdivieso and Eleazar Lara Padilla, nity in Workplaces Organizations, a brief report on is a result of a field study of women diagnosed with the First Ibero-American Congress on Workplace this disease. Through interviews, they were able to and Institutional Mobbing in Mexico City; the crea- determine that there is an association between hav- tion of a Basque Mobbing Watch (Spain); and a re- ing been mobbed and suffering from this condition. view of the book Mobbing Testimonies: Workplace Eduardo Mario Bustos Villar, Marcelo Carlos Bullying in Mexico. Caputo, Silvia Elizabeth Aranda Coria and Nadia Messoulam’s paper “Psychological/Moral Work- Rethinking the problem place Harassment: Development of an Inventory in The concepts of mobbing, whistleblowing, and Argentina” deals with the development of an in- suppression are three ways of making sense of the strument to survey mobbing in the Argentinian con- exercise of power in organizations and beyond. In text. Because of copyright issues, the complete re- many cases, these phenomena are mixed together, sults cannot be presented at this time, but will be often with other dynamics such as discrimination, published in this journal at a later date. racism, and exploitation. In any given circumstance, The Social Medicine in Practice section includes it may be helpful to focus at least on mobbing, whis- a contribution by Rosemary Greaves and John tleblowing, and suppression. There is one important McGlone. They are whistleblowers who suffered limitation to all these concepts: they can detract at- reprisals. They then decided to study the psycholog- tention from the original problem. ical consequences of whistleblowing, interviewing

Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info) - 207 - Volume 6, Number 4, May 2012 In quite a few countries and organizations, for- households, and public spaces. During their lives, mal procedures have been set up to deal with whis- they face important events such as education, new tleblowing. For example, most English-speaking relationships, illness, and disasters in a dynamic countries have national and provincial whistleblow- way. Therefore, these ways of living are not only er laws. In some places, there are laws and policies conditioned by the circumstances of their biological to deal with mobbing. This sounds worthwhile, but upbringing and achieved “biological state” at any unfortunately, many of the laws and policies are not given moment, or are they the only variables that very helpful. Formal procedures operate slowly, relate to specific health problems. In a dialogic way, involve many technicalities, and may not provide the historic and social contexts, this is, the “natural much help. They give only an illusion of protection environment” of human communities, become their (Martin, 2003). human biology through a process that Nancy Krieg- Formal procedures to deal with mobbing and er (2011) calls embodiment. Karel Kosik (1976), whistleblowing have a deeper problem: they do not among others, stated that because of the above, the address the driving forces behind these phenomena. human condition is unique in the biota. He called it Procedures to deal with particular cases of mobbing human-social nature, conformed by biology and so- seldom change the power dynamics that allow or ciety at the same time, in non-stop interactions. stimulate mobbing; procedures designed to protect A simple example of the nature of the ongoing whistleblowers can distract attention from the issues social and biological interactions that constitute the that the whistleblower was speaking out about, such socio-human nature through embodiment and their as corruption and dangers to the public. Laws and peculiar outcomes is language. Almost every human policies mostly deal with symptoms of a sick sys- has the capacity to hear and speak, but a set of cir- tem, and may leave social illness untouched. This is cumstances will determine what language or lan- why these topics need to be addressed from a social guages they are exposed to during their develop- medicine perspective, in which the broader context ment. This language will shape the way they per- within which they occur is part of the analysis of the ceive and think about the world, with neurological problem. consequences, as well as the development of their phonetic and hearing apparatus to make it possible The social medicine context to pronounce and recognize the sounds of that lan- From our perspective, Latin American Social guage or languages, indeed, becoming part of their Medicine has moved from addressing only the so- biology. Adults have difficulties pronouncing cer- cial determination of health, based on living condi- tain sounds and identifying them properly because tions, to grasp the dialogic relationships between the their biological development is finished and, there- dynamics of society, the ways of living of social fore, not fit to them. Hence, society becomes biolo- groups, their everyday social and cultural interac- gy, not only shapes it. tions, the capacity of humans to think and take deci- In our current globalized capitalist society, social sions towards building their own lives, and the bio- medicine has emphasized that the private ownership logical existence of every person as a singular be- of the means of international production by a very ing. The interplay of these non-stop lifespan interac- few powerful corporations as well as the private tions is, after all, the human existence and has eve- appropriation of the goods and services that are cre- rything to do with the “biological conditions” and ated socially, that afterwards are distributed in an well-being of individuals, families, social groups, unequal way too, a process rooted in the capitalist and nations at any given time. Social medicine has a system, is the main origin of social inequality. clear political position demanding social systems Today, 10% of the population owns 70% of the based on an economy that can provide social justice. wealth, excluding the majority from decent jobs, Thus, for this arena of research-action, a better and fringe benefits, proper housing, health services, etc. fairer distribution of the goods that are produced by (Boron, 2010). When the social conditions that are the current economic system, which excludes mass- part of human-social nature deteriorate, the biologi- es from a good life, is just the beginning. cal component deteriorates too. Hence, this process Humans are biological individuals as well as of social exclusion expresses itself in biological members of groups residing in diverse geographical events, condemning people to live with restricted locations, belonging to different nations, cultures, growth and development, serious preventable dis- genders, linguistic groups, families, working spaces, eases and premature death.

Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info) - 208 - Volume 6, Number 4, May 2012 Since the crisis of the end of the 1970s, interna- tige, and money, has deteriorated the quality of hu- tional agencies such as the World Bank and the In- man interactions at a high rate. On the other hand, ternational Monetary Fund have imposed worldwide powerful corporations and other enterprises, as well structural adjustment policies as the proper econom- as neoliberal governments and their employees, de- ic approach to development (creating what is known fend their vested interests fiercely, repressing in var- as the neoliberal economic system). These policies ious ways those who challenge them, including mi- have created deep problems for the economies of nor protests and huge social movements. many countries, impoverishing the majority of the The struggle for power to control processes, oc- world’s population. Citizens in many different coun- cupy key positions to achieve and/or handle eco- tries and circumstances have protested against them. nomic, symbolic and cultural capital, battles for However, because neoliberal policies continue to be prestige, and resources, etc., are now widespread in able to produce profits for the powerful corporations various types of institutions such as unions, civil that dominate the media and the world today, they associations, non-governmental organizations, are still presented as the best remedy to be applied workplaces, neighborhoods, etc. These negative in- to deal with the problems they provoked. A paradox, teractions are not new in the institutions that human no wonder. societies have created and in which they interacted, From this general perspective, Latin American but the neoliberal exacerbation of individualism and Social Medicine has analyzed mainly the pathologi- competition in a scenario of concentration of the cal conditions of diverse social groups. Doing so, it available resources in very few hands have made has dealt with a number of different emphases and them prevalent. Aggression, deviance, retaliation, perspectives along the more than 35 years of re- sexual harassment, revenge, favoritism, ostracism, search, teaching, and social action around this para- suppression, reprisals, reprimands, ganging up digm (López, Arellano & Peña, 2006). The out- against someone, etc., are now the “normal” every comes in health for socially vulnerable people due day environment for many individuals. to the effects of social class, working processes, en- Research about these new negative scenarios and vironmental deterioration, survival strategies, ways their consequences for the well-being of targets and of living, the role of the state, the analysis of public organizations has recently started, but is still mainly and private health services, gender differences, pri- focused only on workplaces. Besides, although these vatization of public services, changes in public poli- negative behaviors interact with each other and cies, and the creation of vulnerable groups, have overlap, they have been dealt with separately, one been demonstrated over and over again. These re- by one, with few exceptions (Campos, Abarca & sults have shown that the logic of maximum profit Prado, 2005). This special issue is an attempt to call in the least possible time, the main characteristic of attention to the interactions of three of these nega- the capitalist system, is the ultimate origin of the tive outcomes: mobbing, suppression of dissent, and main current health problems and the destruction of reprisals against whistleblowers, as well as their the planet. negative impacts on life, health and emotional well- being. It is an invitation to deal with them from a Aggressive behaviors in diverse social organiza- social medicine perspective. tions The changes that society has experienced in the References last 30 years of neoliberal economic policies im- Barttlet, J.E. & M.E. Barttlet (2011). Workplace bullying: An inte- grative literature review. Advances in Human Resources. 13(1): posed worldwide has been expressed in subtle nega- 69-84. tive interactions and outcomes that only recently Boron, A. Sepa lo que es el capitalism. [Know what capitalism is]. have been addressed as research problems and so- Available at: http://www.atilioboron.com.ar/2010/05/sepa-lo- que-es-el-capitalismo.html. Accessed October 15, 2011. cial phenomena. The consequences of neoliberal Campos, P., C. Abarca, & G. Prado. (2005). Acoso moral y acoso policies include predominance of urban settings, sexual en el lugar de trabajo [Moral and sexual harassment at the flexibilization of labor, the diminishing number de- work place]. Medicina Legal de Costa Rica. 22(2): 17–54. López, O. & F. Peña (2006). Salud y Sociedad. Aportaciones del cent jobs, general loss of fringe benefits, privatiza- pensamiento Latinoamericano [Health and society. Latin Ameri- tion of former public services (health and education, can perspectives]. Medicina Social. 1(3):82-102. for instance), rural-urban migrations within coun- Martin, B. (2003). Illusions of whistleblower protection. UTS Law tries, and international migrations. The social drive Review. 5:119-13. to be successful, in terms of achieving power, pres-

Social Medicine (www.socialmedicine.info) - 209 - Volume 6, Number 4, May 2012