An Empirical Study of Workplace Bullying in Health Sector in India: A Diagnostic Gender-Specific Analysis

Workplace bullying is a global phenomenon, not restricted to a region, sector, society or country, having endless ramifications on organizational culture and environment at macro level. Not only this, it affects the employees at micro level too by having significant impact on their performance, competence, motivation, and retention. In the backdrop of these widely prevalent concerns, the objectives of the current research are focused to determine the pervasiveness of workplace bullying among nurses and to find the factors influencing different forms of bullying. Besides these, one more dimension pertaining to gender association has been explored. The major research objectives of the current paper are to identify various forms of the workplacebullying behaviour experienced by nurses (targets) and based on that to develop theoretical models on Workplace Bullying Behaviour (WPBB). Also, the impact of gender on workforce bullying has been analyzed.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The aim is to explore the prevalence and forms of bullying in health Sector in India. Psychosomatic model of workplace bullying has been used as the research model and accordingly various factors affecting the workplace bullying in Nurses in India in healthcare organisations have been defined. The study is based on primary data collected from the nurses from healthcare organisations in and around the National Capital Region of New Delhi. The questionnaire used for the sample survey is based on psychosomatic model of workplace bullying. Data analysis was done using SPSS software. The statistical analysis method employed was Factor analysis.

Findings: As bullying is one of the troublesome issues of employees in health organizations in India, it is important for the organisation to understand the different forms affecting the extent of bullying of employees. There were highly differentiated behavioural forms of bullying amongst males and females observed based on which theoretical models on Workplace Bullying Behaviour (WPBB) have been developed. The gender-specific disparity in the behaviour demands particular HR strategies for advanced effectiveness specifically in health organizations as per the current research, but the findings are generic in nature and can be applied to all types of organizations.