...To effectively address and resolve the pervasive issue of bullying in academic workplaces, stakeholders must take decisive action to dismantle the entrenched, albeit often implicit, culture of silence that surrounds it. This culture, which often protects the reputations of institutions and those in power, allows harmful behaviors to persist unchallenged, and undermines the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability that are essential to academic environments. Institutions must be held accountable by fostering open dialog, implementing transparent reporting mechanisms and ensuring that policies are enforced equitably to create safe and supportive environments for all members of the academic community.
Research indicates that bullying is rife in higher education and that members of underrepresented groups suffer most at the hands of bullies. Many contend that endemic features of higher education — hierarchy, hypercompetition, a cult of personality, ever-dwindling resources and increasing precarity — help to create a climate conducive to bullying or, as Wyn Evans of the University of Cambridge, UK, suggests, make bullies a “feature, not a bug”. In such a climate, bullying is not just an unfortunate byproduct; rather, it functions as a career tool used by mediocre academics to “remove their competition”...
...In addition to perpetuating the cycle of abuse within departments and universities, silencing those who allege abuse (for example, through isolation, exclusion, dismissal, legal threats and/or non-disclosure agreements) only serves to deepen the psychological wounds and breed mistrust among survivors. Dorothy Suskind describes the silencing and othering associated with workplace bullying as leaving targets in a “state of suspension” that may result in what therapist and researcher Pauline Boss terms ‘ambiguous loss’ — “a loss that remains unclear and without official verification or immediate resolution, which may never be achieved”. It is in this space that shame, despair and distrust set in. We have seen this firsthand in our advocacy work and in our own experiences of bullying: chronic exposure to abuse and unresolved trauma can leave emotional scars that distort perceptions and responses in targets. Even after the bullying has ceased, targets may be easily triggered, even by those organizations and people who are trying to help...
...the compulsion to silence and ‘disappear’ bullying claims is fundamentally inconsistent with universities’ missions as truth-seeking and truth-sharing organizations. Moreover, university administrators can no longer claim ignorance about the prevalence and consequences of academic bullying. The responsibility now lies with university leaders and those tasked with handling complaints to educate themselves about bullying and its associated traumas and to provide fair hearings for all community members...
Vogelaar, A.E., Mahmoudi, M. Chronic silencing is a critical barrier to breaking the cycle of bullying in academia and industry. Nat Biotechnol 43, 1577–1579 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02803-9
No comments:
Post a Comment