Abstract
Kathryn Brohl’s Social Service Workplace Bullying: A Betrayal of Good Intentions provides a comprehensive analysis of factors within social service organizations that contribute to inappropriate behaviors in these workplaces. Guided by over 35 years of professional experience in social services, Brohl argues that workplace bullying is an increasingly troubling trend in helping professions that creates discord among coworkers, foments a disconnect between workers and their ideals, and limits the capacity of social service organizations to realize professional objectives. This book is intended as a tool for redressing such challenges by not only exposing the reality of bullying in social services but also providing a practical field guide for students and practitioners, so that they might better identify and address bullying within this context.
Brohl deconstructs the complexities of social service workplace bullying, using each chapter to delve into a different aspect of this phenomenon. The book begins by defining and situating workplace bullying within social service organizations and exploring how social structures, such as management structures or funding constraints, contribute to bullying behavior. Brohl presents workplace bullying as a paradox within social services, challenging the reader to recognize how it can and does exist, even in organizations dedicated to altruistic purposes. Her analysis refutes the misconception that bullying is not a problem in helping professions, citing recent shifts in the landscape of social services to demonstrate how factors like vertically structured organizations, financial instability, and overemphasis of organizational operations all have contributed to a rise in workplace bullying in recent years. The book then examines all the players, providing well-written and intriguing behavioral and psychological profiles of workplace bullies, their targets, leaders/administrators, and bystanders. Perhaps the strongest sections of this book are its last two chapters, both of which address points of change within social services, focusing first on targets of bullying, then on workplace environments. These two chapters contain the most practically useful information in the book and provide a guide to identifying and taking action against workplace bullying.
A great strength of this book is that it uses illustrative stories, often drawing from Brohl’s own professional experiences, to begin each chapter. This gives the book a “real-world” feel, placing the content of each chapter in familiar professional contexts that contribute to the readability of the work. Brohl also does a wonderful job of exploring the internal conflict that can arise within social service professionals who have a strong, often personal, desire to continue their work, even if it means enduring emotional hardships in the workplace. Furthermore, Brohl provides a thoughtful and kind examination of when a worker might choose to leave a harmful work environment, arguing such a choice does not signify a lack of commitment or strength. One limitation to this book is that though it alludes to bullying perpetrated on an individual due, for example, to their gender or race/ethnicity, it does not explore the intersections of bullying and unique populations in any depth. Granted, the specified focus of this book is on universal aspects of workplace bullying that are not illegal. Nevertheless, the book could be improved by adding content on how specific populations might experience bullying uniquely.
Though workplace bullying may at first glance seem antithetical to social service organizations, this book offers a well-written and convincing argument to the contrary. Brohl does well to break down this phenomenon into its many parts in a way that is intellectually intriguing and practically useful. In so doing, Brohl presents a complete picture of social service workplace bullying and provides strategies for creating safe and productive workplaces so as to overcome this problem.