We are going to talk about psychological violence in the organizational context. First of all, it must be said that psychological violence, whatever its form and degree, is always generated in a restricted relational context. The actor of psychological violence is motivated to implement aggressive behavior to defend his own environment that he feels threatened by the victim...
Hello everyone, today we are going to talk about psychological violence in the organizational context.
First of all, it must be said that psychological violence, whatever its form and degree, is always generated in a restricted relational context.
The actor of psychological violence is motivated to implement aggressive behavior to defend his own environment that he feels threatened by the victim. The goal of these behaviors is always the exclusion or annihilation of the target of the violence.
A key element leading to the production of behaviors of psychological violence is the SHARING OF A PHYSICAL SPACE by the actors involved. For example, we speak of STALKING or HARASSMENT when violence occurs in private life. And we speak of MOBBING or HARASSMENT when psychological violence occurs in the work environment.
What does the word Mobbing mean? The term comes from ethology and defines the behavior of certain animal species consisting of surrounding a member of the group in a threatening manner in order to remove it from the group.
In an organizational context, we speak of Mobbing conditions when a person is tortured, harassed, injured and disempowered by his colleagues or his superiors.
Harassing behavior aims to produce clear harm and can be:
- DIRECT AGGRESSION (verbal or defamation)
- INDIRECT AGGRESSION (e.g. attacks on work tasks)
However, it should be emphasized that not all ordinary conflicts that occur in the workplace are necessarily “Mobbing/harassment”. The often fragile distinction between conflict and mobbing/harassment is not in “what is done or how is done”, but in the frequency or duration of the harassing behavior.
How to recognize a situation of mobbing or harassment? Recognizing and identifying it is very complicated.
There are three essential elements:
- The subjective element: this concerns intentionality. The co-worker or employer intentionally implements behaviors against the worker
- The temporal element: i.e. the reiteration of the behavior over an extended period of several months
- The Harmful Element: Harassing behavior is intended to harm the employee. This may lead to a resignation or, in general, any form of voluntary departure
The essential condition of Mobbing is the COMPLEMENTARY Relationship between the victim and his executioner.
The creation of this relationship depends on the two actors involved, there is a mutual influence, where the actions of one are influenced by the behavior of the other, creating a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape.
When we talk about psychological violence at work, we must distinguish between two types of Mobbing:
- Mobbing/horizontal harassment
- Mobbing/vertical harassment
In the case of Mobbing/HORIZONTAL HARASSMENT the people involved are located at the same hierarchical level, for example colleagues with the same tasks, often in coalition
Concretely, in this case, there is marginalization and stigmatization of the victim who becomes the scapegoat and bears the blame for possible disorganizations, inefficiencies and failures.
MOBBING/VERTICAL HARASSMENT is the most frequent typology. It is perpetrated by superiors. In this case, the employee is deprived of important missions, he is undervalued, marginalized, not involved in decisions concerning the work and ignored.
There are also cases where the mobbing is not emotional in nature, but is the result of a clear and well-defined organizational plan aimed at staff reduction. This condition is called “bossing”.
But how to recognize a situation of vertical mobbing?
* Thanks to a whole range of illicit behavior aimed, without necessarily pushing the victim to leave his job, but without any doubt to damage his health, his tranquility, his reputation and his professionalism.
For example :
- Excessive workload
- Verbal insult or aggression
- Continuous and humiliating criticism
- Misuse of control and isolation
To clarify the process of Mobbing or Harassment, we can take into consideration the Herald Ege model which consists of 6 successive phases:
- The 1st phase is that of CONDITION ZERO where there is presence of generalized conflictuality which is considered normal between people who work in the same organizational context
- The second phase is that of TARGETED CONFLICT: the conflict solidifies and the roles of Victim and Executioner are defined
- The third phase is that of the beginning of MOBBING: the Victim becomes aware of certain changes. For example: he is isolated or his work is attacked publicly
- Then there is the phase of the appearance of the first somatic symptoms: exposure to malaise at the professional and relational level leads the victim to experience psychosomatic problems such as insomnia, anxiety, a general feeling of malaise. ..
- Finally, there is the phase of worsening of the victim's mental and physical health, with possible feelings of despair and worthlessness that may lead the person to take medication or undergo psychotherapy.
- The victim can be put out of the world of work, because of prolonged sick leave, but also because of dismissal or repeated travel
Now that the process is clearer, I would like to introduce you to the story of C.
But first I have to make a clarification.
Since Mobbing is a legal category, as well as a condition of emotional abuse, from a clinical point of view it is important to distinguish between: -
FELT HARASSMENT associated with a paranoid type personality
- ACTUAL HARASSMENT when there are real situations of conflict within the organization
With a paranoid personality, the feeling of persecution and mistrust leads the person to negatively interpret the motivations and behaviors of others, generating relational problems that lead to aggression towards the victim, which confirms and increases his ideas of persecution and favors isolation.
But now let's see a concrete situation:
Thanks to his commitment and attachment to the company, shown over the years, the owners have always promoted him, with important professional advances, obtained through experience and competence and not on the basis of titles .
He arrives in therapy following the aggravation of psychological and psychosomatic symptoms. He tells us that the company has been taken over by a multinational.
In the process of reorganizing and redefining roles, he was given a role in the production as someone who was just hired. For the new owners, he is only a worker.
A long period of conflict and claims begins.
He is in a state of serious discomfort, he no longer leaves the house because he is ashamed, he has gastrointestinal problems, and he feels very angry.
His thinking about “the injustice suffered” becomes more and more constant and obsessive.
He also manifests episodes of alcohol abuse and aggression. He does not feel able to go to work and he begins to have many absences due to his illness.
How to intervene?
In general, the objective is to bring the VICTIM out of his defensive position in order to break the vicious circle between the Victim and Executioner.
To do this, she must be led to develop her experiences, through a channeling of her sensations/emotions of rage.
- A possible indication is that of writing “poisoned” letters addressed to one's executioner, in which all the anger converges, in order to gradually regain greater lucidity. (Without sending them, of course ☺)
- Another indication is to respond to Aggression with Kindness: the patient is suggested to say to his or her abuser something like: "You know, until now, I hadn't understood that everything you do is is to help me grow, and thank you very much. So please keep it up, because it helps me."
This statement has a significant impact, because if you thank the person who wants to hurt you, he will stop being aggressive.
The most interesting thing is that often people don't go so far as to make this statement. Just knowing that they have a "secret weapon" takes them out of the victim role and the defensive position and allows them to acquire a more open position by modifying the relationship with the superiors in question.
By doing this, one can capture and redirect the Energy of the violent action in order to destroy this action.
Very often, in cases of felt MOBBING/HARASSMENT, it is enough just to help the victim to get out of his position as a victim to manage to take a more open position and modify the relations within the organization.
In the case of C., once he got out of his position as a victim, he was led to recover his residual resources in order to succeed in turning the page and starting to define new professional projects.
