Exploring the enablers, motivators, and triggers of upwards bullying

Abstract

Few studies have examined the dynamics involved in situations where managers are bullied by subordinates–a phenomenon known as upwards bullying. In this study, we combine interview data from targets and subject matter experts with data from case decision records to advance knowledge of the antecedents, grounded in Salin's model of enabling, motivating, and precipitating factors [Salin, D. (2003). Ways of explaining workplace bullying: A review of enabling, motivating and precipitating structures and processes in the work environment. Human Relations, 56(10), 1213–1232. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267035610003]. Our thematic analysis showed that enabling factors establish foundational conditions for upwards bullying by delegitimising a manager’s formal power and decreasing the costs to perpetrators; motivators reinforce upwards bullying by fostering desirable outcomes for the subordinates or undesirable outcomes for the target managers, or assisting subordinates to navigate a competitive environment; and precipitators trigger upwards bullying in response to organisational change. Combining these factors, upwards bullying can be viewed as a logical adaptation to stressful or ineffective work environments. Finally, guided by the interviews, our study extends knowledge of the personal impact of upwards bullying for targeted managers, highlighting the detrimental effects when implicit understandings of the self and the world are challenged. Overall, prevention efforts should recognise this form of bullying as a sign of deeper organisational issues, and tackle the unique and shared antecedents as a system of risk factors.