Act Now : You have control over workplace bullying Austin Aloysius Tay Chye Thiam This thesis is submitted to Birkbeck, University of London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Submitted October 2018 This is to confirm that the entire work presented in this thesis is the result of my own work. Austin Aloysius Tay Chye Thiam October 2018 2 Abstract This thesis research aims to identify and test the efficacy of a self-administered intervention that victims of workplace bullying can use to help themselves if they have fallen into a state of psychological inflexibility. Some such individuals will resort to using an active or passive approach to confront a bully. While these approaches can be useful to temporarily alleviate the negative experiences arising from workplace bullying, they do not help to address the negative thoughts and emotions, such as self-blame and shame, that can manifest themselves because of bullying. Individuals dwelling in their negative experiences are essentially allowing themselves to get stuck in their thinking, which can eventually lead to depression and stress. There is currently no self-administered intervention that deals with this. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was chosen to be examined as a possible solution for this problem in this thesis research. ACT has been found to be useful in helping individuals who suffer from depression, stress and anxiety disorders, all of which are symptoms suffered by victims of workplace bullying. In the ACT model, there are six inter-related processes (acceptance, defusion, being present, self-as-context, committed action and values) and the culmination of all these processes helps individuals to become psychologically flexible. Three studies were conducted in this thesis research and the participants were from Asia, specifically from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Study 1 involved a total of 50 participants using a questionnaire, sent using Qualtrics, an online software. It was conducted to identify whether those who have been exposed to workplace bullying are indeed low in psychological flexibility. This was found to be the case in this research. In Study 2, ten participants from those 3 who had participated in the questionnaire were identified to have been bullied and to have scored low in their psychological flexibility score. The ten participants were randomly allocated into either an intervention group or a control group. Those who were in the intervention group received three sessions of skills training, and, apart from two participants, the remaining participants were found to have shown some change in their psychological flexibility. Using a qualitative approach in Study 3, thematic analysis was conducted and revealed that the participants did show a change in their mindset and were able to apply what they had learned to attain psychological flexibility. This thesis research reveals preliminary evidence of the efficacy of ACT for individuals who have been exposed to workplace bullying. This thesis should pave the way for further research in the area of workplace bullying, to explore and focus on intervention that bullied targets can use to help themselves to navigate through the residual psychological thoughts and emotions they carry as a result of their bullying experiences. 4 Acknowledgements To my supervisor Dr Andreas Liefooghe, thank you for trusting me to venture into an area of research that is new and for providing me support and guidance over the past three years. I am grateful to the Department of Organizational Psychology, Birbeck, University of London for supporting me in the course of my thesis by allowing me to be based in Hong Kong to collect my data for my research. I would also like to thank my colleagues and peers in the International Association of Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH), who have allowed me to present my ideas and then my research in three of the conferences I have attended. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be embraced by this community and the invaluable advice that I have received from it. I would also like to thank my peers in the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS), for their advice, especially Dr Steven Hayes, Dr Russ Harris, Dr Kirk Stroshal and Mr Benjamin Schoendorff. I would also like to say a special thank you to a few people who believed in me when I decided to pursue my research and have given me great advice throughout my PhD journey: Sharon Ren, thank you for your constant encouragement and friendship. Eddie Shoesmith, thank you for your invaluable advice on all matters relating to statistics. Gintare Viscokaite, thank you for the repeated assurance that we will eventually get there and of course your advice and friendship. Personally, I would like to thank Nigel Collett for believing in me. You have been a great pillar of strength and support for me throughout the past three years and allowed me to indulge in the pursuit of my further education. Thank you for your love and patience. 5 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Figures 15 List of Tables 15 Chapter 1 : Workplace Bullying 17 1.1 What is workplace bullying 17 1.2 Categorization of workplace bullying behaviours 18 1.3 Labelling of workplace bullying 19 1.4 Retracing the origin of the definitions of workplace bullying 20 1.4.1 Mobbing and bullying 20 1.4.2 Risen interest in the phenomenon 20 1.4.3 Objective or subjective perspective? 22 1.5 Antecedents and causes of workplace bullying 23 1.5.1 Individual or organizational factors that caused workplace bullying 23 1.5.2 Workplace bullying research 24 1.6 Definitions 25 1.6.1 International Labour Organization (ILO) 25 1.6.2 Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) 26 1.6.3 Research Definition – Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf & Cooper 27 1.6.4 Criticisms on workplace bullying definitions 27 1.6.5 Similarities and Differences 29 1.7 Culture – Workplace Bullying in the East and West 32 1.7.1 Perception of workplace bullying in the East and West 32 1.7.2 Research in workplace bullying in the East and West 33 1.8 Research Tool in the East 34 1.8.1 Chinese Tool – The Chinese Workplace Bullying Scale (CWBS) 34 1.8.2 Asian Values 35 1.8.3 Is CWBS too China-centric? 36 6 1.8.4 Malaysian Tool – Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI) 36 1.9 Confucianism and Taoism 38 1.10 Culture Research 39 1.11 Causes and Antecedents 42 1.11.1 Individual Factors 43 1.11.2 Impact of workplace bullying on an individual 45 1.11.3 Organizational Factors 46 1.11.4 Job Demands-Resources Model 47 1.11.5 Psychosocial Safety Climate 54 1.12 Enforcement of Anti-Bullying policies 57 1.13 Overall Summary 59 Chapter 2 : The cost of workplace bullying 60 2.1 What is The cost of workplace bullying 60 2.1.1 What are negative thoughts? 61 2.2 Workplace bullying – Impact on individuals 63 2.2.1 Psychological impact 64 2.2.1.1 Mental Well-being and Health 64 2.2.2 Physical impact 68 2.2.2.1 Coping strategies used by bullied individuals that affect their well-being 68 2.2.2.2 The physical attributes of individuals that exacerbate their feelings of being bullied 71 2.2.3 Professional impact 73 2.2.3.1 Social Standing 73 2.2.3.2 Face Loss 74 2.2.3.3 The impact of misbehaving in organizations as a consequence of being bullied 77 2.2.3.4 The impact of leaving organizations 78 2.2.3.5 The impact of litigation on individuals 80 2.3 Witness to bullying 83 2.3.1 Impact of workplace bullying to witnesses 83 7 2.3.1.1 Passive witnesses – Fear of taking a stand 84 2.3.1.2 Active witnesses – Fearless to take a stand 85 2.4 Workplace Bullying – Impact to Organizations 86 2.4.1 Sickness absenteeism 87 2.4.2 Loss of productivity 88 2.4.3 Turnover 89 2.4.4 Estimated costs of workplace bullying to organizations 92 2.5 Overall Summary 95 Chapter 3 : The Focus of this Research 98 3.1 What is the focus of this research 98 3.2 Psychological Flexibility and Bullying 99 3.3 Application of ACT 100 3.3.1 ACT research 100 3.3.2 Relational Aggression 101 3.2.3 Psychological Disorders 103 3.2.4 Eating Disorders 106 3.4 ACT in Workplace Bullying 107 3.4.1 ACT as an intervention in workplace bullying 107 3.4.2 Reasons 107 3.5 Overall Summary 109 Chapter 4 : The Intervention and Methodology 108 4.1 Psychopathologies in Workplace Bullying 108 4.2 What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? 110 4.2.1 Behavioural Therapy 111 4.2.2 First Wave of Behavioural Therapy 112 4.2.3 Second Wave of Behavioural Therapy – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy 113 4.2.4 Theoretical perspective of CBT 114 4.2.4.1 CBT in Practice 115 4.2.4.2 The Cognitive Model 117 8 4.2.4.3 Automatic Thoughts 117 4.2.4.4 Beliefs 118 4.2.5 Third Wave of Behavioural Therapy 121 4.2.6 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 123 4.2.6.1 The Philosophical Perspective of ACT – Functional Contextualism 124 4.2.6.2 Theoretical Perspective of ACT – Relational Frame Theory 126 4.2.6.3 The ACT Psychological Flexibility Model 128 4.2.6.4 Experiential Avoidance 129 4.2.6.5 Cognitive Fusion 130 4.2.6.6 Dominance of the Conceptualized Past and Future; Limited Self-Knowledge 130 4.2.6.7 Attachment to the Conceptualised Self 131 4.2.6.8 Lack of Values Clarity or Contact 131 4.2.6.9 Inaction, Impulsivity or Avoidant Persistence 132 4.2.6.10 Psychological Inflexibility 132 4.2.6.11 Acceptance 133 4.2.6.12 Cognitive Defusion 134 4.2.6.13 Being Present 134 4.2.6.14 Self-As-Context 135 4.2.6.15 Defining Valued Directions 136 4.2.6.16 Committed Action 136 4.2.6.17 Psychological Flexibility 137 4.3 Why is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy chosen for this research? 137 4.3.1