Since the first years of humanity's existence, it has been characterized by being susceptible to changes in its environment, that is, those that happen around it can cause problems.
During their growth, people go through different stages that leave their mark on their being and this is reflected over time. One of those factors that marks people's lives is violence, which occurs in different ways, and whose phenomenon is becoming more frequent in society every day; although this has always been present in the life of the human being.
Within organizations, violence in its different variants is not described and can be present in any of the areas that comprise it. It is well known that within companies there are quarrels, envies and bad relationships between employees; and that these have always existed.
Currently, violence has unfortunately come to have fatalities, which have been very popular news. Violence takes different contexts depending on the environment where it takes place.
To conceptualize violence and harassment within organizations, the term “mobbing” has recently been developed, which has gained importance because it is beginning to be considered an occupational risk for employees.
Basic concepts.
The concept of mobbing is varied and depends on the approach given by each author, the definitions are as follows:
- Mobbing: from the English "to mob" (to bother, harass), refers to harassment and harassment in the workplace and which describes the situations in which a subject becomes the victim, the target or target of a group to whom belongs, being submitted by the same group or one of its members (Vidal Casero, 2008).
Another concept of mobbing can be the following:
- Mobbing: mobbing is a form of violence at work. It comes from the English term to mob (to harass, run over, bother, attack a person). Mobbing is defined as the situation in which a person or group of people exert psychological and sometimes physical violence, for an indeterminate time, against another person in the workplace (Direccion del Trabajo, 2007.)
A final definition of mobbing is the following:
- Mobbing: according to Baron Duque cited by (Trujillo Flores, Valderrabano Almegua, & Hernández Mendoza, 2007), mobbing is considered when a person is exposed to at least one action against him by another person in the same work environment.
Following these terms, mobbing is the concept coined to actions that aim to disturb and psychologically harass a person by another or others, within the workplace and whose effects on the affected person can complicate the organization's performance, as well as also their quality of life.
Characters involved in mobbing.
Within organizations, there are many personnel who can be involved in the application of mobbing to others. For a mobbing situation to develop, two agents are necessary, who fulfill the following roles:
The stalker.
The entity that causes the mobbing is usually a person or a group of them. The harasser may try to achieve an organizational objective and want to adjust the harassed's work behavior to the culture and rules of the company, or on the other hand, merely satisfy personal needs.
In all cases, if he deliberately attacks his victim with treachery and advantage, it may be that they are due to behaviors that can only be classified as pathological, of a psychotic nature, which can pigeonhole them into unhealthy profiles.
It is well known that the feelings and emotions that humans have, greatly influence the behavior of people. From the point of view of ethics and morals, emotions can be both negative and positive.
Negative emotions such as envy, anger, fear and jealousy, can lead human beings to commit aggressive acts. Aggression is often interpreted as a reaction to fear, a way of imposing oneself on others, or a way of showing power and influence over other collaborators.
According to Vidal Casero (2008), the harasser is usually a boss with an intermediate level with a resentment against his collaborators, causing them long periods of sick leave and illness, having cases of permanent disability.
On the other hand, if it is about co-workers, the problem is given by the rivalry and competition that can be sustained with people who perform the same tasks in the organization. The stalker is usually a mediocre person, who persecutes those who can overshadow him in front of others. His profile is: "an organizational psychopath who uses subtle attack techniques, manipulates the environment to get allies among coworkers or their silence in the face of this situation, tries to" climb "quickly to better exercise his harassment from that position" (Piñuel, 2001).
The harassed or victim.
The people who sustain the character of the victim within mobbing are usually exceptional people with great work skills and a sense of responsibility. The high professional value is what ended up hurting them and getting them into trouble.
The mobbing affects the collaborators with the most skills and the best valued, the most creative, the most compliant, that is, mobbing always applies to the best existing personnel within the companies.
Gonzales Rivera cited by Vidal Casero (2008), establishes a classification of the possible subjects to suffer mobbing:
- Enviable: intelligent and attractive people, but who in the eyes of other (group leaders) workers are dangerous since they feel less. Vulnerable: people with peculiarities or defects, or because they are people with low self-esteem and who seem harmless, making it easier to attack them. Threatening: they are very active and effective collaborators, who show ingrained behaviors of another and that make the bullies uncomfortable.
Causes that originate Mobbing.
Many authors establish that one of the reasons why the bullied are the object of mobbing is due to the envy and jealousy that the bullies feel. Victims are usually envied for possessing some quality or trait that makes them stand out from others; for example: greater professional capacity, ease of relationship with and acceptance of their colleagues, positive evaluations or congratulations for good results in their work. These points are generators of envy and jealousy within organizations by personnel who feel inferior.
Mobbing can also develop when a collaborator does not allow himself to be manipulated by another or other members of a group or simply because he does not belong to the group with the highest status.
Some employees may also be harassed for enjoying benefits or personal and family situations that others do not have and that are desired by them. It usually happens in environments where corruption and the handling of third-party influences prevail.
Most people who suffer from mobbing have characteristics that make them stand out above others. This is how, for example: the difference in age, solvency and economic acquisition, work experience, educational level, among others, can be factors that trigger forms of violence against the person who is different from the other members of the group.
Many of the times differences are used to blame and defame the collaborator, who at some point will begin to take the blame for everything that goes wrong.
Another cause of mobbing is to demonstrate the power exercised by the bully as a means to intimidate others, in order to stay in power.
Mobbing stages.
Mobbing is a process that evolves and that goes through different levels or degrees of development. The stages of mobbing are as follows:
- Critical Incidents: are the specific actions that can generate harassment events. Not all coexistence problems in the workplace create harassment. Complicating and unresolved issues can lead to future harassment. Harassment and impregnation of it: at this stage, the victim or harassed begins to receive psychological attacks from the harasser. The victim's colleagues may also be amazed by this scenario and not pay the required attention, downplaying it and even denying what happened. Intervention of the authority (superiors): the management area or the heads of the organization begin to realize the seriousness of the situation, so it is necessary to intervene. Interventions can focus on solving the problem or on the other hand,they can ignore and hide the problem. Ignoring problems only increases the person's problem situation, as well as her discomfort.
- Exclusion or abandonment of work: due to the bad situation that continues, the victim can be classified as a difficult or problematic worker or with mental health problems. These prejudices against the victim, cause her to be expelled or to leave her job. It is usual for the worker to see the need to request leave from work due to the inability to continue performing the activities that he usually did, in other words, the deterioration of the mental health of the victim, leading to her starting to miss work.
Levels or degrees of mobbing.
Mobbing presents different degrees or levels, which are determined by the frequency, intensity and duration with which the harassment actions occur. The Directorate of Labor (2007), classifies the degrees of mobbing as follows:
- First grade: at this level, the harassed is able to cope with the attacks that come to him, as well as being able to stay in his job. Some people overlook and ignore humiliation, teasing, and even hitting; These people have the courage to confront their attackers. However, the harassed cannot avoid feeling anger, anxiety and irritability at what is happening; the personal relationships of the victim with the degree of mobbing are not affected.
- Second degree: at this level of mobbing, the victim can with difficulty evade attacks and humiliations. Consequently, keeping or re-entering your job becomes more difficult. Some of the problems that the victim begins to feel are: depression, gastrointestinal problems, consumption and abuse of harmful substances, insomnia and isolation. Third grade: the victim no longer thinks about returning to work, making re-entry difficult. The psychological damages that the victim faces require specialized treatment. Some of the symptoms are: panic attacks, aggressive behavior, severe depression and even suicide attempts. The victim's family and friends are already aware of the importance of the problem.
The objective of mobbing in organizations.
Mobbing, being a type of violence within the organization, aims to eliminate the resistance of the victim and therefore forcing her to leave work. The person in charge of harassing the victim usually plans for the victim to leave the company.
The objective of making the victim leave the organization is achieved with the decrease or deterioration of the performance of the affected employee, through cheating, creating infamies on the victim to use it against him and causing him psychological damage. This is how the worker is accused of having poor performance, productivity, negative behavior and absenteeism, which are the product of the destabilization to which the victim is subjected
The techniques for destroying the victim in a psychological way are very varied, cunning and ingenious; Sometimes they are very careful that the collaborators around the victim, who are witnesses of the mobbing, do not notice the aggression.
Types of Mobbing.
The types of mobbing, according to CuidatePlus (2015) are the following:
- Ascending mobbing (reverse mobbing): this type of mobbing is characterized by being carried out on a person of a higher level within the organizational hierarchy. This situation is usually generated when a new person with a higher level enters the company and the work methodology used by this is not accepted by the rest of the collaborators. On the other hand, it can also occur when a collaborator levels up and acquires more responsibility, so many of the others do not agree with this change. Horizontal mobbing: this classification of mobbing is applied between work colleagues of the same hierarchical level. Aggressions can be derived from different factors: envy, jealousy, competition or personal problems between them. Descending mobbing (bossing): within this type of mobbing,the harassing entity is a person who occupies a higher rank than the victim, for example: his boss. It is the most common type of mobbin, in this the bosses or superiors, who have power over others, carry out negative actions: contempt, false accusations and insult that affects the victim psychologically.
Madrid: Sal Terrae.
Trujillo Flores, MM, Valderrabano Almegua, MD, & Hernández Mendoza, R. (2007). Mobbing: history, causes, effects and proposal of a model for Mexican organizations. Innovate, 6-22.
Vidal Casero, MD (2008). Mobbing at work. Its problematic. Universiade of Valencia, 2-18.
Wikipedia. (September 28, 2017). Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Obtained from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoso_laboral#Consequencias_psicol.C3.B3gic as_y_laborales
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