Workplace Bullying

Abstract

The scale associated with the research by Quine (1999, 2001) is a comprehensive psychometric instrument designed to measure the prevalence and dimensions of workplace bullying, particularly within the healthcare sector. This instrument operationalizes bullying behaviors into five distinct, empirically derived subscales: Threat to Professional Status, Threat to Personal Standing, Isolation, Overwork, and Destabilization. Developed initially for use with nurses and National Health Service (NHS) staff in the UK, the 20-item scale provides a structured method for quantifying various forms of psychological and physical aggression experienced in occupational settings, offering critical insights into the scope and impact of these detrimental behaviors.

Keywords

Workplace Bullying, Organizational Psychology, Nursing, Psychometrics, Harassment, Occupational Stress, Scale Development, Reliability, Destabilization

Authors

Loraine Quine

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Purpose

The primary purpose of this scale is to systematically identify and quantify specific behaviors that constitute workplace bullying. By segmenting bullying into five measurable dimensions, the instrument allows researchers and organizational practitioners to understand the differential impact and frequency of various types of aggressive actions, ranging from subtle professional undermining to overt physical violence.

The instrument was developed to provide robust empirical data essential for informing occupational health policies, developing intervention strategies, and establishing baseline measurements of hostile work environments, particularly within high-stress environments such as healthcare institutions.

Construct

The scale measures the multi-dimensional psychological construct of workplace bullying. Following established theoretical models, this construct is defined as repeated, negative actions directed toward one or more targets that create a hostile work environment. The scale operationalizes this construct through five specific domains of negative behaviors:

• Threat to Professional Status: Actions aimed at destroying the victim’s reputation and competence.
• Threat to Personal Standing: Behaviors that humiliate or attack the victim’s personal integrity.
• Isolation: Tactics used to socially and professionally exclude the victim.
• Overwork: Imposing unreasonable and stressful demands to cause failure.
• Destabilization: Undermining the victim’s security and ability to perform their role effectively.

Validity

The validity of the instrument is primarily supported by its clear theoretical framework and the empirical evidence derived from the factor analysis. The five factors demonstrate strong conceptual distinctiveness, suggesting good construct validity in differentiating various types of bullying behaviors. The original research involving NHS staff provided empirical support that these five subscales effectively capture the scope of negative workplace interactions experienced by the population studied.

Reliability

Internal consistency reliability, measured using Cronbach’s alpha, was reported for each subscale based on the original research sample. The majority of the subscales demonstrated strong to acceptable reliability:

• Threat to Professional Status: Alpha = .93 (Excellent)
• Isolation: Alpha = .94 (Excellent)
• Threat to Personal Standing: Alpha = .78 (Acceptable)
• Destabilization: Alpha = .77 (Acceptable)
• Overwork: Alpha = .26 (Poor)

It is important to note the significantly low Cronbach’s alpha (.26) reported for the Overwork scale, suggesting that the two items comprising this factor may not be measuring a single, cohesive construct, or the factor itself requires revision or expansion for future use.

Factor Analysis

The scale is structured around a five-factor model derived through empirical analysis of the responses from the initial population. This factor structure provides the basis for the five distinct subscales: Threat to Professional Status, Threat to Personal Standing, Isolation, Overwork, and Destabilization. This multi-factorial approach allows for a nuanced assessment, moving beyond a simple frequency count of negative acts to categorize the intent and domain of the bullying behavior.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: Likert-type scale (Implied, as mean and standard deviation values are provided, indicating scaled responses)

Language Available: English

Population Group: Employees in organizational settings, specifically validated in the healthcare sector (Nurses and NHS staff).

Age Group: Adult working population.

Population Details: The initial validation studies were conducted on staff working within the National Health Service (NHS) community trusts in the United Kingdom.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate the frequency or severity of their exposure to each of the 20 negative acts listed in the instrument over a specified period.

Keywords

NHS, Community Trust, Psychological Health, Occupational Behavior, Stress Measurement, Multidimensional Scale, Factor Model, Psychometrics

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source materials.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source materials.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source materials (Author affiliation in 2001 was likely associated with a UK university or health research body).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

This instrument was developed and published based on research conducted around 1999 and 2001. Permission for use should be sought from the author, Loraine Quine, and potentially from the journals where the original research was published (Journal of Health Psychology and BMJ). The full text of the instrument’s application in nurses can be reviewed online, providing access to the context and methodology.

Reference’s

The instrument details can be found on page 78 of the article “Workplace Bullying in Nurses,” available online at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC27703/

Quine, L. (2001). Workplace bullying in nurses. Journal of Health Psychology, 6(1), 73-84.

Quine, L. (1999). Workplace bullying in NHS community trust: Staff questionnaire survey. BMJ.com, 318, 228–232. Retrieved February 26, 2008.

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Items of the Workplace Bullying

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Threat to professional status scale (M = 1.91; SD = 1.20; alpha = .93)

1. Persistent attempts to belittle and undermine your work
2. Persistent and unjustified criticism and monitoring of your work
3. Persistent attempts to humiliate you in front of colleagues
4. Intimidatory use of discipline or competence procedures

Threat to personal standing scale (M = 1.82; SD = .91; alpha = .78)

5. Undermining your personal integrity
6. Destructive sarcasm with you
7. Verbal threats to you
8. Making inappropriate jokes about you
9. Persistently teasing you
10. Physical violence to you
11. Violence to your property

Isolation scale (M = 1.77; SD = 1.24; alpha = .94) items:

12. Withholding necessary information from you
13. Freezing out/ignoring/excluding
14. Unreasonable refusal of applications for leave/training/promotion

Overwork scale (M = 2.25; SD = 1.13; alpha = .26) items:

15. Undue pressure to produce work
16. Setting of impossible deadlines

Destabilization scale (M = 1.71; SD = 1.01; alpha = .77) items:

17. Shifting goalposts without consulting you
18. Constant undervaluing of your efforts
19. Persistent attempts to demoralize you
20. Removal of areas of responsibility without consultation