Exploring Workplace Bullying in Greece: Frequency of Occurrence and Handling of Measurement Issues, Under the Light of Previous Research Findings at the International Level

Abstract

This paper focuses on the occurrence of the workplace bullying phenomenon in Greece. Although a significant amount and level of research has been realised in Nordic countries and the UK, there is scarce research in other European countries (France and Germany), while there is no research evidence for southern Europe and countries like Greece, where the legal framework that governs the cases of workplace bullying is not clear. Based on a survey on 840 junior and middle managers from diverse sectors, we are trying to extract some conclusions on the incidents and characteristics of workplace bullying in a country with quite distinct cultural characteristics from those of northern countries (Papalexandris, 2006). In addition to that, we are attempting , based on our findings, to add some input to the ongoing and pertinent dialogue, on the measurement methodology which should be used in order to identify workplace bullying occurrences (Einarsen et al., 2009; Einarsen et al., 1994; Mikkelsen & Einarsen, 2001).

Keywords: Workplace bullying, mobbing, Greece, negative acts questionnaire, latent class cluster analysis, NAQ

JEL Classification: M12, M14, J28