Abstract

Whilst research on workplace bullying has substantially increased internationally, there appears to be a contention of whether individuals in hierarchical or individualistic societies are at higher risk of exposure to such behavior. This paper reports an investigation of relative exposure to workplace bullying between the two societies through a survey of Australians and Pakistanis. In so doing, this paper advances the cross-cultural workplace bullying literature in two main ways. First, by examining the methodological issue of equivalence, this paper shows that despite workplace bullying’s constant meaning across cultures, there are stark differences in employee exposure and tolerance toward it between the assessed cultures. Second, it provides evidence of relative risks of workplace bullying in cross-cultural contexts by revealing a higher risk of exposure to such behavior in a hierarchical rather than an individualistic society. The paper concludes with a detailed discussion of the theoretical and international management practice implications of the research findings.

摘要

尽管国际上有关工作场所欺凌的研究已大大增加，但似乎有一个论点是，等级制或个人主义社会中的个人是否有较高的暴露于此类行为的风险。本文通过对澳大利亚人和巴基斯坦人的调查报告，对两个社会之间相对的工作场所欺凌行为进行了调查。这样做，本文主要从两个方面推进了跨文化工作场所欺凌文学。首先，通过研究等效性的方法论问题，本文表明，尽管工作场所欺凌在各种文化中具有不变的含义，但在所评估的文化之间，员工的暴露程度和对其的容忍度却存在明显差异。第二，通过揭示在等级社会而不是个人主义社会中暴露于此类行为的较高风险，它提供了跨文化背景下工作场所欺凌的相对风险的证据。本文最后对研究结果的理论和国际管理实践意义进行了详细讨论。