Ethical Infrastructure and Successful Handling of Workplace Bullying

Abstract

Antecedents and consequences of workplace bullying are well documented. However, the measures taken against workplace bullying, and the effectiveness of such measures, have received less attention. This study addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the role of ethical infrastructure in perceived successful handling of reported workplace bullying. Ethical infrastructure refers to formal and informal systems that enable ethical behavior and disable unethical behavior in organizations. A survey was sent to HR managers and elected head safety representatives (HSRs) in all Norwegian municipality organizations. Overall, 216 organizations responded (response rate = 50.2 percent). The ethical infrastructure accounted for 39.4% of the variance in perceived successful handling of workplace bullying. Formal sanctions were the only unique and significant contributor to the perceived successful handling of workplace bullying. The results substantiate the argument that organizations’ ethical infrastructure relate to the HR managers and HSRs’ perceptions regarding their organizations’ handling of workplace bullying.