Target experiences of workplace bullying on online labour markets. Uncovering the nuances of resilience
| Pages | 139-154 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2016-0171 |
| Published date | 02 January 2018 |
| Date | 02 January 2018 |
| Author | Premilla D’Cruz,Ernesto Noronha |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Target experiences of workplace
bullying on online labour markets
Uncovering the nuances of resilience
Premilla D’Cruz and Ernesto Noronha
Organizational Behaviour Area,
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to report a study of bullying on online labour markets (OLMs),
highlighting how abuse unfolds in digital workplaces and depicting the trajectory of target resilience.
Design/methodology/approach –Adopting van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology, targets’lived
experiences of bullying on OLMs was explored. Data gathered from Indian freelancers located on Upwork via
conversational telephonic interviews were subjected to sententious and selective thematic analyses.
Findings –The core theme of “pursuing long-term and holistic well-being”showed how targets tapped into
yet augmented their resilience while navigating the features of OLMs as they coped with their experiences of
bullying. The interface between targets’internal and external resources, including platform support, vis-à-vis
the concreteness and permanence of the site as targets asserted agency, sought control and realized positive
outcomes while preserving their reputation, relationality, success and continuity was captured. It may be
noted that bullying in digital workplaces is exclusively virtual in form.
Research limitations/implications –Alongside theoretical generalizability, statistical generalizability of
the findings should be established.
Practical implications –Recommendations for action for platforms and targets are forwarded.
In particular, the critical role of formal workplace support in influencing employee resilience is emphasized.
Originality/value –The paper makes several pioneering contributions. First, it reports the first empirical
inquiry examining bullying in digital workplaces. Moreover, OLM research on abuse and harassment has not
been undertaken so far. Second, it furthers theorization of resilience, especially with regard to workplace
antecedents. Apart from identifying the new organizational antecedent of formal workplace support,
it uncovers the complexities of resilience. Third, it extends knowledge on workplace cyberbullying, positive
outcomes of workplace bullying and OLMs in India.
Keywords Cyberbullying, Digital workplaces, Resilience,Quasi-perpetrators, Racism, Online labour markets,
Quasi-perpetrators, Crowdsourcing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Workplace bullying, also termed workplace emotional abuse and workplace harassment,
encompasses subtle and/or obvious negative behaviours embodying aggression, hostility,
intimidation and harm, generally characterized by persistence, displayed by an individual and/
or group to another individual and/or group at work, privately and/or publicly, in real and/or
virtual forms, in the context of an existing or evolving unequal power relationship
(D’Cruz, 2015). Person-related bullying comprises making insulting remarks, excessive teasing,
spreading gossip or rumours, persistent criticism, threats and intimidation. Work-related
bullying includes giving unreasonable deadlines or unmanageable workloads, excessive
monitoring of work and assigning meaningless tasks or even no tasks (Einarsen and
Hoel, 2001). Bullying, which sometimes co-exists with category-based harassment (D’Cruz and
Noronha, 2013) and could be predatory or conflict related (Einarsen et al., 2011), is described as
unethical behaviour that violates universal social rules of acceptability (Ramsay et al., 2011).
Insights into workplace bullying so far come from research situated in conventionalwork
settings, marked by material foundations. Yet, the rapid development of information and
communication technologies and devices (ICTDs) has led to the increasing dematerialization
of work, withcompletely virtual workplacesemerging (Websterand Randle, 2016). Workplace
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 1, 2018
pp. 139-154
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-09-2016-0171
Received 8 September 2016
Revised 10 March 2017
Accepted 4 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
139
Workplace
bullying on
OLMs
bullying research predominantly emphasizes adverse outcomes faced by targets. While
extreme distress is expected in response to the traumatic nature of the problem, recent
research highlights the relevanceof resilience (D’Cruz and Noronha,2012; Van Heugten, 2012).
How does bullying unfoldin digital workplaces? What is the trajectory of targets’resilience?
We address these questions through the firstempirical study of workplace bullyingin digital
workplaces, locating our inquiry on the Upwork platform. In addressing how targets
experience abuse on online labour markets (OLMs), we speak to a gap in the literature as
digital workplaces have not so far been examined as contexts of workplace bullying.
In adopting the frameworkof resilience, we show how targets engage this ability,navigating
the features of theplatform, to realize positive outcomes alongside theirstrain. In the process,
we capture the subtleties of resilience andcontribute to the further theorizationof the concept.
The paper begins by elucidating the relevance of resilience in workplace bullying. After
describing the context, the method and findings of the study are presented. The discussion
elaborates the trajectory of target resilience and highlights the features of workplace
bullying in digital workplaces, closing with practical implications.
Resilience and workplace bullying
Though literature on target outcomes in workplace bullying emphasizes adverse impact
(Hogh et al., 2011), there are a few emergent findings to the contrary, highlighting the
relevanceof resilience. Van Heugten (2012)found bullied targets reporting greater resiliencein
the aftermath of theirdifficult experiences. Acquiring control over the stressful situation and
accessing and receiving support from bystanders and managers enhanced target resilience.
D’Cruz and Noronha (2012) reported that bullied targets described how the experience had
contributed to their personal growth. Relying on their resilience, targets were able to find
various strategies such as better preparedness, versatile coping, social support, deep-seated
personal values, reaffirmed authenticity and long-term orientation to survive the bullying
experience and strive towards well-being. Targets reported emerging stronger from the
stressful experience. Is resilience also true of targets of workplace bullying on OLMs?
Resilience, a positive construct (Luthans et al., 2006), is the ability to withstand and
rebound from disruptive challenges, with good outcomes (Garmezy, 1993). It concomitantly
draws on and augments an individual’s strengths (Richardson, 2002), allowing him/her to
adjust to adversity, maintain equilibrium, retain some sense of control over the environment
and continue to move on constructively ( Jackson et al., 2007). Owing to resilience,
individuals exhibit resourcefulness (Pooley and Cohen, 2010) and adaptive capacities under
conditions of stress or uncertainty (Klohnen, 1996). Indeed, the concept is portrayed as a
continuum with vulnerability at one end and resilience at the other (Rutter, 1985), with
individual qualities, informal and formal social support and contextual factors serving as
critical influences (Ungar et al., 2008).
Resilience is valuable in dealing with stressors. Linked to emotional regulation and
associated with the ability to use internal and external resources in order to flexibly apply
various coping strategies and/or emotional expression to meet the needs of a stressful
situation (Nuttman-Shwartz, 2015), resilience is evidenced when individuals engage in
behaviours that help them navigate their way to the resources they need to flourish
(Ungar, 2013). Appraisal, problem-focused and emotion-focused coping and social support
are key features of resilience (Polk, 1997) which is not just coherent with Folkman and
Lazarus’s (1980) transactional model of stress but extends this through an emphasis on
favourable outcomes (Fletcher and Sarkar, 2013).
Resilience at work is only recently receiving attention (King et al., 2016) as part of
positive organizational scholarship where it forms a component of psychological capital
(Luthans et al., 2015). Even so, much of the focus here looks at antecedents of resilience at
the individual level of analysis (King et al., 2016; Luthans et al., 2015). Yet, what is the
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