Prevention of mobbing in service groups

Livak Nataliya Stepanovna PhD in Psychology Associate Professor; Department of Psychology, Pedagogy and Social Work; Siberian State University of Science and Technology named after Academician M.F. Reshetnev 31 Krasnoyarskiy Rabochy str., Krasnoyarsk, 660037, Russia livak.nata@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Savel'eva Tat'yana Gennad'evna PhD in Philosophy Associate Professor; Department of Modern Educational Technologies; Siberian Federal University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk region, ave. Free, 77A/79 saveleva_tatyana@mail.ru Portnyagina Anastasiya Mikhailovna Senior Lecturer; Department of Psychology, Pedagogy and Social Work; Siberian State University of Science and Technology named after Academician M.F. Reshetnev 660049, Russia, Krasnoyarsk region, ave. Mira, 82 anastasy08@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Desyatova Irina Sergeevna Graduate student; Department of Information Technologies of Training and Continuing Education; Siberian Federal University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk region, ave. Svobodny, 79 desyatova_1989@list.ru

Bolsunovskaya Ekaterina Evgen'evna Assistant Professor; Department of Sociology; Siberian Federal University 660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk region, ave. Svobodny, 79 bolsynovskaz@mail.ru

Introduction. Management psychology studies socio-psychological phenomena that can affect the personality and performance of an employee, the effectiveness of the functioning of the team and the organization as a whole. The subject of her research in a given context is the phenomenon of psychological violence in an organization, such as "mobbing".

The concept of "mobbing" is relatively young, and attention to it has become more focused and adapted to the field of labor psychology in the second half of the last century. Currently, mobbing is becoming the subject of a number of psychological studies (N. Agazade ^[1], S.G. Eremeev ^[6], A.A. Karavanov ^[7], A.V. Soloviev ^[17], etc.). These authors study the substantive characteristics of the concept, their types and forms of manifestation, the structure of interpersonal relationships, the phases of development, and also pay attention to the analysis of the destructive effect on the condition and performance of the victim and the labor collective.

It is recognized that the condition caused by a victim of mobbing (stress, tension, fear, guilt, etc.) affects how she copes with work responsibilities and what decisions she makes about development in the organization (for example, she may quit, which will increase staff turnover in the organization). There is also a negative impact that mobbing has on the team and the organization: the deterioration of the climate in the team, the consolidation of unethical behavior as norms, distraction from the work performed, etc., which also affects the reduction in the effectiveness of the team.

In this regard, it is advisable to explore the possibilities of preventing mobbing in the organization.

The purpose of the study: to study ways to prevent mobbing in service groups.

Subject of the study: prevention of mobbing as a socio-psychological phenomenon in service groups.

The degree of development of the topic. The term "mobbing" in its modern sense was first used by the Swedish psychologist H. A term used to describe an unfriendly attitude on the part of colleagues in the workplace. In later studies, the researcher defines mobbing as "a systematically recurring hostile and unethical attitude of one or more people directed against another person, mostly one" ^[7].

A.A. Karavanov and I.Y. Ustinov define mobbing as "group psychological terror, harassment of any employee by his colleagues, subordinates or superiors, carried out in order to force them to leave their place of work or weaken the degree of their social (professional) influence" ^[7].

V.M. Fedorov understands mobbing as "a complex of professional destructions and forms of irrational labor behavior, manifested in systematic, prolonged, negative communicative influences and psychological violence of an employee by his colleagues and employer" ^[22].

Mobbing, according to the point of view of European scientists, is a subspecies of bullying, which is described quite similarly: it is harassment, insult, social exclusion of someone or a negative impact on someone's work ^[10].

Currently, there are several areas of research on the phenomenon of mobbing in Russian science.

The first group of studies is related to the study of the general characteristics and features of mobbing in various social environments. These are studies by D.V. Gagarina, S.V. Kim, V.O. Butova, and others ^{[5, 6, 13]}.

The second group of studies is related to the problem of studying the effects of mobbing on personality. These are the studies of A.A.Bulasheva, S.S. Timofeeva, O.Y. Polikanova, M.N.Vrazhnova, V.V. Utyuganova. ^{[2, 15, 30, 23]}

The third and most numerous group of studies is devoted to methods, means, and mechanisms of mobbing prevention. These are the studies of A.S. Kogalovskaya, A.V. Tarakanov, A.V. Tyshkovsky, D.N. Mashkovskaya, and others. ^{[10, 13, 27, 29,]}.

Finally, the fourth group of studies includes those in which mobbing is considered in comparison with such concepts as "bullying" and "harassment". These are the studies of Butova V.O., Krivenko E.I., and others ^{[3, 18]}.

In the works of foreign scientists, the problems of mobbing processes are studied from the point of view of their essence, causes, and methods of prevention. These are the works of scientists Farman, A. Moayed, Daraiseh, N., Shell, R., Salem, S., Fevre R., Grainger H., Brewer R. and others ^{[24, 25]}.

Methodology and research methods. The main research methods were theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization of literature on the problem and prevention of mobbing in service groups). The method of theoretical modeling was used (development of a model for the prevention of mobbing in service groups).

We are close to the point of view of O.S. Evchenko, who believes that mobbing is characterized by active moral persecution of an individual employee by the organization's staff. Management may not participate in such harassment of an employee, but most often they are aware of the situation in the team, but do not take proper preventive and overcoming measures. O.S. Evchenko notes that management and its incorrect management decisions are most often the reason or even the reason for mobbing in the team. For example, when a manager actively supports competition, provokes denunciations of each other, or when he creates unequal working conditions and standards of behavior for his subordinates (among whom there may be those who have family ties with management) ^[10].

Study

Mobbing can occur due to the fact that the management of the organization pays little attention to the definition and consolidation in the normative document of the norms and rules of ethical behavior in the workforce. Interestingly, I. V. Koltsova writes about this: "Group terror occurs in the so–called "dead zone" - between permitted and prohibited actions: seemingly without violating any rules, others ignore the victim, compromise or ridicule her, systematically obstruct access to information" ^[11].

Employees themselves become the subject of harassment in the workforce, and it is important to understand their motives. The motives can be varied ^[7]:

- conscious or unconscious dislike;

- a clash of interests (within the team, within the department, the interests of the employee and the employer, etc.);

- the desire of the management to "teach" a new employee, "put in place" a recalcitrant employee, etc.

There are at least three groups of reasons for mobbing in the workforce (Table 1) ^[9]:

Table 1. Causes of mobbing

E. I. Krivenko also cites insufficient employment of employees as a common cause of mobbing, that is, the presence of mobbing presupposes that employees have time for it. "A social group devoid of an external goal turns all its energy inward, towards itself, which is often fraught with the most unpleasant consequences" ^[12].

The manifestation of mobbing can also be extremely diverse: isolating the victim from informal contacts, blocking access to official information, ignoring the victim's successes and achievements while paying close attention to her official mistakes, discussing and tracking them, exaggerating, attempts to ruin her reputation through the spread of rumors, gossip – these are examples of a hidden form of mobbing (latent mobbing), in addition to which there is an open form – contemptuous statements, insults, physical violence, damage to property (working documents, personal belongings). An example of a more serious manifestation of mobbing may be the reporting of false information about an employee to the boss, the special creation of situations in which the victim must make a mistake ^{[2; 5; 7]}.

Mobbing in its form can be unconscious, conscious and controlled. In the latter case, aggressive actions are carried out by a group and are the result of unspoken attitudes on the part of the leader (formal or informal). This type of mobbing is the most aggressive and difficult to overcome.

Mobbing as a systematic destructive influence on the personality of an employee has numerous negative consequences for the victim. An employee works in a constant state of tension, is under stress, which can lead to psychological discomfort, headaches, nightmares, panic attacks, nervous breakdowns, exhaustion of the body and activation of diseases, distraction and inability to function fully as an employee. The victim of mobbing may experience feelings of guilt, doubt, shame, and self-esteem may decrease. A victim of mobbing becomes irritable, nervous, and often brings this mood to the family, showing unmotivated aggression towards his loved ones ^{[5; 7]}.

Mobbing also has consequences for the productivity of the organization as a whole: the quality of work decreases not only for the victims of mobbing, but also for the aggressors, since their attention is focused not on doing the work, but on bullying. The socio-psychological climate in the team is deteriorating, its disunity is increasing; the values of the team are blurring, which has an unobvious but clearly negative impact on its productivity.

Thus, mobbing is a systematically repeated hostile and unethical attitude of members of a labor collective directed against another person, mostly one. Mobbing can be hidden and open, unconscious, conscious and controlled, manifest itself in various forms, while always having a negative impact on the condition and performance of the victim of mobbing, as well as on the climate in the team, its effectiveness.

Harassment is often considered in conjunction with mobbing. Harassment is harassment in the workplace, which is understood as "inconvenient or harmful behavior that violates the privacy of a person" ^[7]. N. Aghazade, referring to the official definition of the United Nations in 2008, gives the broadest interpretation of harassment, meaning inappropriate and undesirable behavior that can offend and humiliate another person. ^[1]. In the big legal dictionary, harassment is interpreted as "a crime that violates the inviolability of a person's private life by harassment (phone calls, letters, surveillance, etc.), annoying harassment, harassment, and usually committed with sexual motives" ^[3]. The participants in harassment are also the instigator (aggressor), the victim and the observers.

Harassment is similar to mobbing. These phenomena are often considered in conjunction as variants of moral and psychological pressure on an employee, patterns of behavior in a team, however, there are significant differences between them, primarily in the goals that the aggressor defines. S.G. Yeremeev notes that "harassment manifests itself in exerting influence directed at the victim, to whom the aggressor feels sympathy or interest, and aiming to incline her to a sexual relationship" ^[8], while in a mobbing situation, aggressors aim at the employee's survival from the team or reducing his professional influence.

The influence of mobbing and harassment on the work efficiency of individual employees and the team as a whole is negative, which determines the interest in the issue of preventing and combating these phenomena. M.V. Nevezhina ^[14] and other researchers draw attention to the fact that legal practice in relation to these socio-psychological phenomena observed in service groups has not yet been completed. perfect. These concepts have not been introduced into the regulatory field, there are no special regulations that define punishment for this type of behavior, and therefore it is advisable to study how mobbing and harassment can be prevented at the organizational and managerial level.

The problem of mobbing in service teams was analyzed in sufficient detail by A.V. Solovyov, who proposed such prevention and control measures ^[16]:

1. Development of a corporate code, which should include provisions on ethics of conduct, providing for prohibitions:

– the unethical behavior of management and other senior officials towards employees;

– actions that may offend, humiliate the human dignity of an employee, cause him moral or psychological trauma;

– to promote competition in promotion, which may include various forms of mobbing.

2. The formation of special control institutions (such as ethics committees) or a special position to manage and resolve the situation of mobbing or harassment.

3. Creating conditions for every employee to have the opportunity to appeal against the actions of officials in cases of moral persecution.

4. Monitoring the socio-psychological state of the team in the departments and the organization as a whole.

P.V. Teplyashin and Ya.V. Vologdina give the following recommendations on the prevention of mobbing and harassment in service groups ^[19]:

– development of a corporate culture based on mutual respect, when each employee will be aware of the consequences of rights violations and will be confident that his complaint will be considered and decisions will be made.;

– the approval of internal corporate policy, i.e. the consolidation of the rules of conduct at work in the codes of ethics and conduct, to prevent harassment from both management and colleagues;

– conducting corporate ethics training among employees in order to avoid situations that may arise due to employee ignorance (during the training, it is proposed to educate employees on harassment, familiarize them with procedures to protect against such a phenomenon and warn of the consequences);

– informing employees about the possibility of reporting relevant problems, determining the procedure for such reporting, explaining the importance of timely treatment (while the procedure for reporting should not be too burdensome and unclear in order to prevent non-reporting of this phenomenon in the workplace).

I.V. Koltsova and co-authors identify the following organizational and managerial means of preventing mobbing in labor collectives ^[11]:

– formation of a healthy organizational culture in the workforce;

– maintaining a healthy socio-psychological climate;

– development of mobbing process management skills among senior management;

– creating conditions that can ensure receiving feedback from employees;

– rational and clear division of labor between departments, eliminating the possibility of duplicated and overlapping tasks of different departments;

– a clear formulation of the official duties of each employee with a division of the boundaries of their individual responsibility;

– formation of a transparent mechanism for making managerial decisions, openness and rationalization in the organization of information flows;

– formation of a system of personnel promotion and career growth opportunities;

– the formation of a negative attitude towards gossips and lovers of intrigue in the workplace;

– exclusion of family or intimate relationships between management and subordinates.

A. G. Tertyshnikova notes the need for careful professional selection of new employees in the organization. It is necessary to strive to ensure that the interests of the hired employees correspond to the established corporate culture in the organization. Corporate culture should be based on the values of friendly relations, which are formed, for example, through the institution of mentoring, through the organization of teamwork ^[20].

Mobbing is often caused by the head's support of subordinates' competition. For preventive purposes, the head should not encourage subordinates to compete using unfair methods, and should not provoke conflicts based on a clear confrontation between subordinates. Such behavior of the head can be considered incompetent, and therefore the prevention of mobbing, as well as harassment, should include measures to improve the managerial skills of the head. This is stated, for example, by N.A. Pronina, suggesting such a preventive measure as improving the psychological competence of management and employees (taking advanced training courses on business communication, creating a favorable psychological climate in the team, stress relief, time management, prevention of mobbing, etc.) ^[16].

S.S. Timofeeva and S.S. Chernykh propose that measures to prevent and prevent mobbing and harassment include consideration of psychosocial risks, which are understood as "a systematic process through which hazards are identified, risk analysis and management are performed, and social protection of employees is carried out" ^[21]. It is necessary to assess the existing psychosocial risks in the organization, analyze their causes, plan and implement preventive measures.

The authors proposed the following measures to counteract mobbing in the organization:

– improvement of the administrative management system;

– development of local regulations to counteract mobbing;

– development of measures of social and psychological protection of employees;

– monitoring of measures to improve the effectiveness of anti-corruption;

– monitoring employee satisfaction with the work process;

– prevention of the use of psychoactive substances;

– legal education of employees;

– economic sanctions against Mobber;

– psychological assistance to employees of the "risk group", developing their ability to resist destructive external influences" ^{[20, p. 106]}.

However, as L.S. Kirillova notes, only a small part of organizations (about 7%) have developed and implemented formal procedures for the prevention and investigation of harassment cases ^[9].

It is necessary to systematize ideas about measures to prevent mobbing and harassment in service teams and develop an appropriate model that contains universal principles for the prevention of mobbing in an organization.

Results. The organization's management and human resources services, as well as the organization's psychologist, need to pay attention to the prevention of mobbing in the organization, however, surveys show that only a small part of organizations develop and implement formal procedures for the prevention and investigation of cases of mobbing ^[10]. Methodological assistance in this area can be provided by the developed model of prevention of mobbing in an organization, which unites and systematizes existing ideas about measures to prevent these forms of psychological violence.

The objectives of the organization's activities under this model may be as follows::

1. Implementation and consolidation of corporate ethics standards in the local regulatory documents of the organization.

2. Maintaining a favorable socio-psychological climate in the team.

3. Development of managerial skills and managerial culture of managers.

It is proposed to distinguish the specific measures of the mobbing prevention model in the organization into two stages (preparatory, basic). The absence of the final stage is due to the fact that preventive work must be carried out constantly. Within the framework of these stages, we propose three areas of preventive work with mobbing: regulatory, organizational and managerial, and socio-psychological.

The measures of the mobbing prevention model in the organization are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. The model of mobbing prevention in the organization

In the regulatory area, the main focus is on the development of a corporate code (regulations on corporate ethics), which should include provisions on ethics of conduct.

For example, such a code may include a chapter on "Ethical standards of corporate employee conduct," which sets out ethical principles, standards of corporate conduct, relations between management and employees, relationships between team members, relationships with business partners, etc. Employees must be friendly, competent and responsible, fair, unbiased, and not humiliate anyone. and not to destroy, not to appropriate the results of someone else's work, to maintain good relations with the entire team on the basis of mutual respect and mutual assistance, to defend their personal boundaries, to be able to respond to any manifestations of conflict, to be able to deal with stress, to be able to resolve conflicts, not to gossip and not to react to the attacks of conflict-prone individuals. Employees should be correct about the mistakes of their colleagues and objectively evaluate their professional competencies and constantly develop them. It is also recommended to emphasize the need to make public all the facts of harassment and conflicts in the organization, actively counteract the illegal actions of colleagues and management, and prevent discrimination based on gender, age, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, beliefs, social status, education, and work experience.

In the organizational and managerial area, the main focus is on creating special conditions that would counteract the occurrence of mobbing: preventing situations where employees' job responsibilities overlap, creating structures in the organization that would control the ethics of employee behavior, and conflicts that arise.

In the socio-psychological field, the main focus is on optimizing the psychological state of employees in the team and the relationships between them. These are various activities aimed at bringing together the workforce, activities aimed at improving the psychological competence of management and employees (taking advanced training courses on the development of managerial skills, business communication, creating a favorable psychological climate in the team, stress relief, time management). It is proposed to involve mediation services in this area.

A mandatory measure of the organization's mobbing prevention model is to identify psychosocial risks. It is proposed to carry out psychodiagnostics of socio-psychological characteristics of the workforce, socio-psychological well-being of employees through sociometry, identification of socio-psychological attitudes, job satisfaction, specially designed questionnaires and surveys. This kind of monitoring is proposed to be carried out once a year. It is also recommended to introduce the practice of conducting a "farewell interview" with an employee who has definitively severed relations with the organization (the purpose of this interview is to find out what caused him to leave the organization, whether there are any hidden reasons related to the functioning of the labor collective, relationships in it).

Discussion of the results

The results of the study show the importance of implementing preventive measures to prevent mobbing processes in an organization. This is also evidenced by the research results of V. M. Fedorov and V. V. Utyuganova ^{[22, 23]}.

The model developed by the authors can serve as a methodological tool in ensuring the prevention of mobbing in an organization. The identified three areas of work: normative, organizational and managerial, socio-psychological, correlate with the areas of prevention of mobbing processes, which are discussed by A.V. Tarakanov, A. Y. Mashkovskaya. The authors emphasize that only with an integrated, systematic approach is it possible to solve this problem in an organization ^{[13, 18]}.

According to the authors of this work, the main role in the prevention of mobbing processes in an organization belongs to the head, as evidenced by the works of M. V. Nevezhina, A.V. Solovyov and others ^{[14, 17]}.

Specific measures of the mobbing prevention model in accordance with the model proposed by the authors were proposed in the studies of V.O. Butova, E.I. Krivenko, et al. ^{[3, 12]}

Conclusions. Thus, we have constructed and presented a model for the prevention of mobbing in an organization that combines and systematizes the existing author's ideas about measures to prevent these forms of psychological violence.

In the conducted theoretical research, it was determined that the appearance of mobbing is often associated with the actions of the head (it can be conscious or unconscious actions, when, for example, the head encourages competition) or even controlled by him (when the task is to exclude an employee from the team). It is proposed to distinguish the specific measures of the mobbing prevention model in the organization into two stages: preparatory and basic. As part of these stages, we propose three areas of preventive work with mobbing: regulatory, organizational and managerial, and socio-psychological.

We have developed recommendations to the head on the prevention of mobbing in office teams:

1. The manager is recommended to be competent, create a high culture of behavior and interaction in the organization, and therefore he must constantly improve his managerial, communication, and organizational skills.

2. The head is recommended to be an example of ethical behavior, create and maintain ethical relationships in the team, and educate his subordinates in ethical communication standards. First of all, he must treat his employees with respect, benevolence, demonstrate fairness and openness, a high culture of behavior, and knowledge of business ethics.

3. It is recommended to maintain and develop feedback with each employee of the organization, distribute work responsibilities, and ensure that information is open and accessible to all employees.

4. It is recommended to be vigilant, not to ignore the manifestations of mobbing, not to treat these forms of behavior with tolerance, to stop gossip and intrigue, and generally to form a negative attitude towards the spread of gossip.

5. It is recommended not to create conditions for excessive, destructive competition, not to allow career advancement through personal connections and acquaintances. If correct and constructive criticism of an employee is necessary, then it should not be expressed in front of other employees, it should be done confidentially.

6. It is recommended not to encourage any special position of some employees as opposed to others.

7. It is recommended to develop and maintain a favorable socio-psychological climate in the team, prevent conflicts in the team, and form the corporate spirit in the organization.

8. It is recommended to be attentive to the motives of work and the needs of employees, to assist in career planning, as well as to celebrate the merits and achievements of each employee (including in the presence of everyone), to objectively evaluate the contribution of each employee, to reward for work achievements, to stimulate the development and professional growth of employees.

9. It is recommended to create an atmosphere of openness in business communication with subordinates, show respect for alternative opinions, and be able to hear constructive criticism.

10. The head should not allow any form of discrimination: on sexual, political, religious, national or other grounds (neither in the framework of his attitude towards subordinates, nor in relations between employees).

Conclusion.

The problem of psychological violence in an organization is actively being investigated, including from the point of view of what impact it has on the performance of employees and the team as a whole. Mobbing is a systematically repeated hostile and unethical attitude of members of a work collective directed against another person.

The influence of mobbing on the individual and the team as a whole is destructive, which is manifested in a deterioration in the functional, emotional, and mental state of the victim, when her performance decreases, the indicators of team cohesion decrease, and the level of its moral normality decreases.

The organization's management and HR services, as well as the organization's psychologist, should pay attention to the prevention of mobbing in the organization. The modern literature suggests various measures aimed at preventing such behaviors. However, surveys show that only a small number of organizations implement formal procedures to prevent and investigate cases of mobbing.

In this regard, we have attempted to develop a model for the prevention of mobbing in an organization that combines and systematizes existing ideas about measures to prevent this form of psychological violence. This model combines three areas of preventive work: regulatory, organizational and managerial, and socio-psychological. Within the framework of these areas, it is possible to comprehensively solve the tasks of regulatory regulation, administration, and socio-psychological management of mobbing processes in an organization. The authors emphasize that the role of a leader should be taken into account in the development of preventive measures, on whose timely actions the occurrence and spread of this type of violence depends.