Vulnerable selves, organizing others: New approaches to understanding bullying and conflict
Lead Research Organisation:
Birkbeck, University of London
Department Name: Organisational Psychology
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
Andreas Liefooghe (Principal Investigator) |
Title | Seminar recordings and website |
Description | A repository where recordings of all seminars are placed - links to YouTube in place. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Impact | Dissemination resulted in multiple requests for information, including two international PhD students. |
URL | http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bullying |
Description | The Seminars investigated bullying from outside the confines of measurement, operational definition and incidence. Ego Psychology from 1950s America influences most work on the self and the individual, and holds that the human subject is unitary. This has produced a rather unsatisfactory state of play, because the way the self is conceptualised and researched is seen as unproblematic. An alternative perspective views the conscious ego and unconscious desire as radically divided. Lacan, for example, considered this perpetual and unconscious fragmentation of the self as Freud's most important contribution. Applied to bullying, this approach divides the human subject into two parts: the self and the Other, the Other exerting a disciplinary (un)conscious force on the self. Bullying is located in the space between the self and the Other, rather than between two individuals who more or less neatly fit the descriptions 'victim' and 'bully'. One half of ourselves bullies the other half. So when the Other places a demand on us, we may dislike it, but we also gain some pleasures from fulfilling what the Other demands of us, even if this pleasure is suppressed and unconscious. In other words, bullying can be a transaction which serves both sides, and although the idea of complicity is heretical to some, it may shed useful light on fundamental questions which remain unanswered, like how the same act can be experienced as bullying one minute, and harmless the next. |
Exploitation Route | The awareness that has been raised by these alternative views on a series of complex phenomena can be applied to all organizational groups and contexts. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Communities and Social Services/Policy Construction Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Electronics Energy Environment Financial Services and Management Consultancy Healthcare Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Government Democracy and Justice Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Pharmace |
URL | http://www.bbk.ac.uk/bullying |
Description | The main outcome of the series is that it has been used in a previously under-expolred context. Vulnerable Selves, Discipling Others led directly to the launch of a new research initiative in South-East Asia to understand workplace bullying. For the first time, ASEAN workplaces have participates in a potentially groundbreaking study investigating antecedents and prevalence rates of bullying. |
First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
Sector | Education,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Other |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | Vulnerable Selves, Disciplining Others leads to South-East Asia Collaboration |
Organisation | Chulalongkorn University |
Department | SASIN, Graduate Institute of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok |
Country | Thailand |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Vulnerable Selves, Discipling Others set up a new research initiative in South-East Asia to understand workplace bullying. For the first time, ASEAN workplaces have participates in a potentially groundbreaking study investigating antecedents and prevalence rates of bullying. We conibuted by designing the survey and briefing on theoretical dimensions. |
Collaborator Contribution | Fieldwork in South-East Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and The Philippines. |
Impact | Conference Paper at IAWBH Conference in Milan, Italy, 2014 |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Staff Seminars Anti-Bullying Week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A popular group that due to it's success is no taking place yearly - raises a lot of questions and stimulates learning of self and other More use of anti-bullying policies and advisors |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014 |
URL | http://blogs.bbk.ac.uk/bbkcomments/tag/bullying/ |