Iranian Researchers Study Ways to Deal with Bullying at Work

The importance of the human factor and its unique role as a strategic resource and implementer of organizational systems and processes has nowadays been paid attention more than in the past.

Iranian researchers have conducted a study that in advanced organizational thinking, human beings are referred to as the most important resource and asset for the organization, and the more desirable this capital is, the more likely the success, survival and promotion of the organization will be.

In this research, it is stated that although there is no specific list of bullying behaviors, in most definitions, bullying is considered to include behaviors like verbal warfare, teasing, bullying, and social exclusion.

This research points to the importance of investigating workplace bullying and the results indicate that in organizations where people feel more dissatisfied with the status quo, the phenomenon of workplace bullying may occur more, and its occurrence in organizations will decrease trust and mutual cooperation among the members of the organization and will shake and disintegrate the unity and integrity of the members of the organization.

The studies of this research show that transformational leadership is considered a strong management tool to deal with workplace bullying, and also the research indicates that leadership style can be an indirect predictor of workplace bullying in organizations.

In general, it can be concluded that the transformational leadership style has an impact on organizational health; also, there is an inverse relationship between organizational health and workplace bullying; therefore, as the level of organizational health increases, workplace bullying decreases; this in turn reduces negative factors like mental pressure, reduced sense of responsibility, dissatisfaction with work, absenteeism, change of workplace, leaving the service and reducing productivity.

The findings are in the form of a scientific research article entitled ‘the relationship between transformational leadership and workplace bullying with regard to the mediating role of organizational health among the employees of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences" written by Ahmad Rastegar (an Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Payam Noor University of Tehran), Mohammad Hassan Seif (an Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Payam Noor University of Tehran), Zahra Firouzi Ardakani (a Senior Expert in Educational Management, Faculty of Management, Islamic Azad University’s Shiraz branch), Marziyeh Tajvaran (a Senior Expert in Educational Management, Faculty of Management, Islamic Azad University’s Shiraz branch) and published in the bimonthly magazine ‘Peyavard Salamat’. The publication belongs to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

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