WORKPLACE BULLYING? MOBBING? HARASSMENT? DISTRACTION BY A THOUSAND DEFINITIONS

Crawshaw, Laura

¹The Boss Whispering Institute, Portland, Oregon

Laura Crawshaw is founder and Executive Director of The Boss Whispering Institute, Portland, Oregon.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laura Crawshaw, The Executive Insight Development Group, One World Trade Center, Suite 1100, 121 SW Salmon Street, Portland, OR 97204. E-mail: [email protected]

Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 61(3):p 263-267, September 2009. | DOI: 10.1037/a0016590

The growing body of research on what is variously termed workplace bullying, mobbing, psychological abuse, and/or harassment reflects a growing problem of conflicting terms and definitions. This definition proliferation impedes our ability to conceptualize the phenomenon of workplace aggression in clear and consistent terms, and complicates effective collaboration among researchers and practitioners. The absence of a shared descriptive language for the phenomenon is doubly perplexing for employers, legislators, and other members of society who seek to address this source of psychological pain in the workplace. This article calls for the development of a standard nomenclature to facilitate research and support the development of best practices and proposes a descriptive nomenclature of workplace psychological harassment.