University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1-1-2012 Mobbing, suppression of dissent/discontent, whistleblowing, and social medicine Brian Martin University of Wollongong, [email protected] Florencia Pena Sanit Martin University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Brian and Pena Sanit Martin, Florencia, Mobbing, suppression of dissent/discontent, whistleblowing, and social medicine 2012, 205-209. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/1569 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] EDITORIAL Mobbing, Suppression of Dissent/Discontent, Whistleblowing, and Social Medicine 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 work- place 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