Cyberbullying in the Workplace- an Invisible Fist “Hits” the Hardest
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CYBERBULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE- AN INVISIBLE FIST “HITS” THE HARDEST Anri Durr Supervisor: Me. M. De Wet Department of Industrial Psychology Faculty of Economics and Management Science December 2019 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za I PLAGIARISM DECLARATION I herewith declare this work to be my own, that I have acknowledged all the sources I have consulted in the research proposal itself and not only in the bibliography, that all wording unaccompanied by a reference is my own, and that no part of this research proposal has been directly sourced from the internet without providing the necessary recognition. I acknowledge that if any part of this declaration is found to be false I shall receive no marks for this Master’s thesis, shall not be allowed to complete this module, and that charges can be laid against me for plagiarism before the Central Disciplinary Committee of the University Signed: ………A. Durr……………. Date: ………December 2019……………. Copyright © 2019 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a few people in my life, without whom I would not have been able to finish this thesis: First of all, I would like to thank My Heavenly Father for giving me the strength and courage to complete this thesis. Next, I would like to thank my parents (Issie and Fritz Venter) who have always supported me in my educational endeavours. I would also like to thank my husband (Aldrich Durr), who pushed me and supported me to drive this thesis to completion by providing love and care and never saying no to the extra chores in the house. I would like to thank all my other friends and family who understood when I had to stay home and work instead of engaging in social events. I would like to thank my supervisor (Ms. M De Wet) and Prof Martin Kidd (statistical analysis advisor), who were very patient with me, when life got in the way and guiding me through the process. Lastly, I would also like to thank each participant that took part, and I hope that this research can start to make a dent towards starting to take action against the injustices that both bullying and cyberbullying brings. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za III ABSTRACT Cyberbullying is a very serious and pressing recent phenomenon, however very little research covers the scope of cyberbullying amongst employees. The purpose of this study has been to determine the extent to which workplace cyberbullying is prevalent in South-African organisations, some risk factor associated with it, whether it has a negative psychological effect and performance effect on employees, and whether coping mechanisms help to alleviate the negative effects. A descriptive, diagnostic and quantitative research design was followed and a sample of employees (N = 152) was drawn from a big public utility provider, where they completed an online survey. It was found cyberbullying is prevalent, where it co-occurs with traditional bullying. This study found that there were differences in the psychological characteristics of (a) perceived stress, (b) ICT demands, and (c) the extent of behavioural experiences of bullying when considering the psychological effects of cyberbullying on the individual. Additional emotional reactions to cyberbullying were lowered trust levels, anger, humiliation and emotional exhaustion. In terms of the effects on performance, the overall experience of bullying, rather than specific cyberbullying events, was found to likely to decrease an individual's performance, whereas no support for the effects on organisational outcomes was found. Possible coping mechanisms were found to have varying degrees of effectiveness for alleviating the effects of bullying on perceived stress. Interestingly, coping mechanisms used specifically for cyberbullying increased the adverse effects on ICT demands. This finding indicates that additional coping mechanisms to deal with ICT demands should also be considered. From these results, one can see that cyberbullying is prevalent in the workplace and that it poses a problem in addition to that of traditional bullying. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za IV TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM DECLARATION ........................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... II ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... III TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. IV LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ VIII LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................ XII CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Purpose of this study ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1.2 Cyberbullying and what it is ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.3 Reasons for considering cyberbullying in the workplace ............................................................ 2 1.1.4 Comparing traditional workplace and cyberbullying and their effects ......................................... 5 1.1.5 Workplace cyberbullying in South-Africa ..................................................................................... 6 1.2 Research question ......................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research objectives ....................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Overview of the study .................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................................................. 10 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................ 10 2.1 Defining cyberbullying ..................................................................................................10 2.1.1 Understanding protective and aggravating factors of cyberbullying perpetration and victimisation ........................................................................................................................................ 18 2.1.2 Cyberbullying in the South-African context ............................................................................... 23 2.2 Descriptive cyberbullying hypothesis .........................................................................27 2.2.1 The role of technology (ICT’s) and competitive advantage in the workplace ........................... 28 2.2.2. Where workplace bullying and technology meet ...................................................................... 31 2.2.3. Increase in youth into the workplace ........................................................................................ 32 2.3 Determining the effects of cyberbullying ....................................................................34 2.3.1 Effects of cyberbullying on the individual employee.................................................................. 35 2.3.2 Effect of cyberbullying for organisational outcomes .................................................................. 38 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za V 2.3.3. Coping mechanisms that might affect the individual and organisational performance ............ 39 2.4 Diagnostic Cyberbullying Hypotheses and Conclusion .............................................41 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................. 44 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 44 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................44 3.2 Research Design ...........................................................................................................44 3.3 Population and sample .................................................................................................45 3.3.1 Population .................................................................................................................................. 46 3.3.2 Sampling design ........................................................................................................................ 47 3.3.3 Sample ...................................................................................................................................... 49 3.4 Data collection ...............................................................................................................49 3.5 Research instrument .....................................................................................................49