“My Core Is Cracked”—Bullying in Higher Education as a Traumatic Process

 

The higher prevalence in universities can be understood in terms of well-established institutional factors that predispose specific organizations to bullying and coalesce in HEIs. Large organizations, hierarchical organizations and public sector organizations are vulnerable to a higher prevalence of bullying. 

Crucially, all three features are present in higher education institutions (HEIs). The hierarchical nature of HEIs reaches beyond the institution itself as academics also work within networks of disciplines outside of their organisation, which can create ‘split loyalties and responsibilities’ and exacerbate power differentials. Male-dominated organisations are also subject to higher rates of bullying ; again, this is a well-established feature of HEIs, as universities are predominantly run and managed by men.

Early work on bullying observed that bullying is more likely in “total” organizations, where ‘dominance and power imbalances are strongly emphasized’ and where there is a strong emphasis on rank, authority, and conformity, or which are competitive and politicized. 

These conditions are typically associated with institutions such as the military or prisons. Still, a pervasive neoliberal ideology that inscribes corporatisation and managerialism throughout the higher education sector foregrounds these conditions within higher education, both nationally and internationally.

…despite evidence that bullying has a substantial negative impact, both at the level of individual health and organizational productivity and costs, organisations typically fail to prevent or ameliorate it. Barratt-Pugh and Krestelica refer to bullying in HEIs as culturally resilient, despite extensive policy regimes, due to hierarchical and bureaucratic structures that embed power inequalities, which are further intensified by the move towards a more competitive, individualistic, and managerialist model. They argue that, while anti-bullying policies are essential, they only represent the first stage in changing HEI cultures and are futile without ‘authentic’ management intent…

 

…Several situations involved perpetrators who were senior academics; however, there were also situations recounted that were better characterised as upward bullying or mobbing by a group of peers. Both academic departments, labs and specialised units provided contexts for bullying. However, regardless of the context and situation, as Fran stated—‘it’s all power dynamics’. Participants consistently identified issues of power and control as central to their experience of being bullied, repeatedly using words such as ‘belittling’, ‘undermining’, ‘excluding’, ‘undercutting’ and ‘blocking’. Both position[al] power and social or emotional power were evident.

What is striking is that once targets start to recognise bullying, they are in no doubt that the perpetration of bullying is an exercise of power and that they are being targeted to reduce or circumscribe their power, thus rendering them impotent. Bullying was interpreted primarily as a pernicious exercise of power as opposed to an escalating aggression or conflict…

Changing power dynamics in the HEI often result from professional envy on the part of the perpetrator when, for example, the target develops an independent research profile. This results in what may be seen as a challenge to their superior’s dominance and professional status. Anna’s comments were as follows: “… we were quite research-aligned and so… me coming into the department was a bit of a threat to him and he wanted me to act more like a senior postdoc in his group rather than pursuing my research interests”.

 

… A sense of organisational betrayal pervaded. A loss of trust was evident throughout the data. Participants were cynical and attributed this to their experience of having had faith in an organisational process that revealed itself to be unjust, unfair and, employing one participant’s word, dishonest. Cynicism was reflected in a shift in priorities and a greater focus on self-preservation, even at the expense of colleagues' workloads. There were references to disengagement, increased caution around others, and a decreased expectation of justice or fairness within the organisation, or even the sector…

 

Despite all the institutions having anti-bullying policies (all Irish universities, at the time of data collection, had anti-bullying or dignity at work policies in place), it is abundantly clear that they are not affording protection to all staff. The systems, processes and procedures in place to address bullying and provide redress are not nuanced enough to accommodate the complex behaviours and power plays involved in bullying in HEIs. They appear to assume a rationality behind behaviours, stripped of power dynamics, which the data here show is unrealistic, and which risks aggravating the damage already inflicted by bullying. Indeed, these findings suggest that the institutional response, or lack thereof, can sometimes be more [re]traumatising than the act itself, as it calls into question one’s worldview…

 

Hodgins, M., Fahie, D., MacCurtain, S., Kane, R., & McNamara, P. M. (2024). "My Core Is Cracked"-Bullying in Higher Education as a Traumatic Process. International journal of environmental research and public health, 21(11), 1462. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21111462