This article analyses the impact of harassment on job burnout and turnover intentions among a large sample of hospital nurses in Britain. It compares the effects of insider-initiated harassment from managers and colleagues with outsider-initiated harassment from patients and their relatives. The article also examines the effect of ethnicity and the impact of effective anti-harassment policies on job burnout and quit intentions. Results suggest firstly, that the insider or outsider characteristics of the perpetrator do help to shape the consequences of harassment for nurses and secondly, that effective anti-harassment policies do reduce turnover intentions, particularly for minority ethnic nurses.
AshforthBE (1994) Petty tyranny in organizations. Human Relations47(7): 755–78.
2.
BachS (2004) Employment Relations and the Health Service. London: Routledge.
3.
BerdahlJLMooreC (2006) Workplace harassment: double jeopardy for minority women. Journal of Applied Psychology91(2): 426–36.
4.
BergmanMEPalmieriPADrasgowFOrmerodAJ (2007) Racial and ethnic harassment and discrimination: in the eye of the beholder?Journal of Occupational Health Psychology12(2): 144–60.
5.
BevanGHoodC (2006) What’s measured is what matters: targets and gaming in the English public health care system. Public Administration84(3): 517–38.
6.
BowlingNABeehrTA (2006) Workplace harassment from the victim’s perspective: a theoretical model and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology91(5): 998–1012.
7.
BrodskyCM (1976) The Harassed Worker. Toronto: Lexington Books.
8.
ChamberlainLJCrowleyMTopeDHodsonR (2008) Sexual harassment in organizational context. Work and Occupations35(3): 262–95.
9.
CordesCLDoughertyTW (1993) A review and an integration of research on job burnout. Academy of Management Review18(4): 621–56.
10.
CortinaLMWastiSA (2005) Profiles in coping: responses to sexual harassment across persons, organizations and cultures. Journal of Applied Psychology90(1): 182–92.
11.
CreeganCColganFCharlesworthRRobinsonG (2003) Race equality policies at work. Work, Employment and Society17(4): 617–40.
12.
CronbachLJ (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika16(3): 297–334.
13.
DobbinFKellyEL (2007) How to stop harassment: professional construction of legal compliance in organizations. American Journal of Sociology112(4): 1203–43.
14.
FoxSStallworthLE (2005) Racial/ethnic bullying: exploring links between bullying and racism in the US workplace. Journal of Vocational Behavior66(3): 438–56.
15.
FraserJA (2001) White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America. New York, NY: Norton.
16.
FrostPJ (2003) Toxic Emotions at Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
17.
GlombTMLiaoH (2003) Interpersonal aggression in work groups: social influence, reciprocal and individual effects. Academy of Management Journal46(4): 486–96.
18.
GrandeyAAKernJFroneM (2007) Verbal abuse from outsiders versus insiders: comparing frequency, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology12(1): 63–79.
19.
GuerrierYAdibAS (2000) ‘No, we don’t provide that service’: the harassment of hotel employees by customers. Work, Employment and Society14(4): 689–705.
HirschmanAO (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
22.
HochschildA (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
23.
HoelHBealeD (2006) Workplace bullying, psychological perspectives and industrial relations: towards a contextualized and interdisciplinary approach. British Journal of Industrial Relations44(2): 239–62.
IganskiPMasonD (2002) Ethnicity, Equality of Opportunity and the British National Health Service. Aldershot: Ashgate.
26.
IronsideMSeifertR (2003) Tackling bullying in the workplace: the collective dimension. In: EinarsenS. (eds) Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice. London: Taylor and Francis, 383–98.
27.
KeashlyLJagaticK (2003) By any other name: American perspectives on workplace bullying. In: EinarsenS. (eds) Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice. London: Taylor and Francis, 31–61.
28.
LamertzKAquinoK (2004) Social power, social status and perceptual similarity of workplace victimization: a social network analysis of stratification. Human Relations57(7): 795–822.
29.
LapierreLMSpectorPELeckJD (2005) Sexual versus nonsexual workplace aggression and victims’ overall job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology10(2): 155–69.
30.
LeBlancMMBarlingJ (2004) Workplace aggression. Current Directions in Psychological Science13(1): 9–12.
31.
LopezSHHodsonRRoscignoVJ (2009) Power, status, and abuse at work: general and sexual harassment compared. Sociological Quarterly50(1): 3–27.
32.
ManderinoMABerkeyN (1997) Verbal abuse of staff nurses by physicians. Journal of Professional Nursing13(1): 48–55.
33.
Miner-RubinoKCortinaLM (2004) Working in a context of hostility toward women: implications for employees’ wellbeing. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology9(2): 107–22.
NeumanJHBaronRA (1998) Workplace violence and workplace aggression: evidence concerning specific forms, potential causes, and preferred targets. Journal of Management24(3): 391–419.
37.
Observer (2008) Culture of bullying sweeps NHS. The Observer, 27January, p. 26.
38.
RogersK-AKellowayEK (1997) Violence at work: personal and organizational outcomes. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology2(1): 63–71.
39.
RoscignoVJHodsonRLopezSH (2009) Workplace incivilities: the role of interest conflicts, social closure and organizational chaos. Work, Employment and Society23(4): 747–73.
40.
Royal College of Nursing (2005a) At Breaking Point? A Survey of the Wellbeing and Working Lives of Nurses in 2005. London: RCN.
41.
Royal College of Nursing (2005b) Dealing with Bullying and Harassment at Work: A Guide for RCN Members. London: RCN.
42.
Royal College of Nursing (2005c) Bullying and Harassment at Work: A Good Practice Guide for RCN Negotiators and Health Care Managers. London: RCN.
43.
RuggieroKMMajorBN (1998) Group status and attributions to discrimination: are low- or high-status group members more likely to blame their failure on discrimination?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin24(8): 821–37.
44.
SchneiderKTHitlanRTRadhakrishnanP (2000) An examination of the nature and correlates of ethnic harassment experiences in multiple contexts. Journal of Applied Psychology83(1): 3–12.
45.
ShieldsMAWheatley PriceS (2002) The determinants of racial harassment at the workplace: evidence from the British nursing profession. British Journal of Industrial Relations40(1): 1–21.
46.
SkarlickiDPFolgerR (1997) Retaliation in the workplace: the roles of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Journal of Applied Psychology82(3): 434–43.
47.
TepperBJ (2000) Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal43(2): 178–90.
48.
WhartonAS (1993) The affective consequences of service work. Work and Occupations, 20(2): 205–32.
