TY - JOUR
T1 - Killing ourselves with laughter
T2 - Mapping the interplay of organizational teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life
AU - Mortensen, Mille
AU - Baarts, Charlotte Andreas
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay of organisational humorous teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life in order to investigate how workplace bullying can emerge from doctors and nurses experiences of what at first appears as ‘innocent’ humorous interactions. Design/methodology/approach - Based on an ethnographic field study among doctors and nurses at Rigshospitalet (University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark) field notes, transcriptions from two focus groups and six in-depth interviews were analysed using a crosssectional thematic analysis. Findings - This study demonstrates how bullying may emerge out of a distinctive joking practice, in which doctors and nurses continually relate to one another with a pronounced degree of derogatory teasing. The all-encompassing and omnipresent teasing entails that the positions of perpetrator and target persistently change, thereby excluding the position of bystander. Doctors and nurses report that they experience the humiliating teasing as detrimental, although they feel continuously forced to participate because of the fear of otherwise being socially excluded. Consequently, a concept of ‘fluctuate bullying’ is suggested wherein nurses and doctors feel trapped in a ‘double bind’ position, being constrained to bully in order to avoid being bullied themselves. Originality/value - The present study add to bullying research by exploring and demonstrating how workplace bullying can emerge from informal social power struggles embedded and performed within ubiquitous humorous teasing interactions.
AB - Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay of organisational humorous teasing and workplace bullying in hospital work life in order to investigate how workplace bullying can emerge from doctors and nurses experiences of what at first appears as ‘innocent’ humorous interactions. Design/methodology/approach - Based on an ethnographic field study among doctors and nurses at Rigshospitalet (University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark) field notes, transcriptions from two focus groups and six in-depth interviews were analysed using a crosssectional thematic analysis. Findings - This study demonstrates how bullying may emerge out of a distinctive joking practice, in which doctors and nurses continually relate to one another with a pronounced degree of derogatory teasing. The all-encompassing and omnipresent teasing entails that the positions of perpetrator and target persistently change, thereby excluding the position of bystander. Doctors and nurses report that they experience the humiliating teasing as detrimental, although they feel continuously forced to participate because of the fear of otherwise being socially excluded. Consequently, a concept of ‘fluctuate bullying’ is suggested wherein nurses and doctors feel trapped in a ‘double bind’ position, being constrained to bully in order to avoid being bullied themselves. Originality/value - The present study add to bullying research by exploring and demonstrating how workplace bullying can emerge from informal social power struggles embedded and performed within ubiquitous humorous teasing interactions.
U2 - 10.1108/QROM-10-2016-1429
DO - 10.1108/QROM-10-2016-1429
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1746-5648
VL - 13
SP - 10
EP - 31
JO - Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management
JF - Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management
IS - 1
ER -