European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

ISSN: 1359-432X (Print) 1464-0643 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/pewo20

The content and development of mobbing at work

Heinz Leymann

To cite this article: Heinz Leymann (1996) The content and development of mobbing
at work, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 5:2, 165-184, DOI:
10.1080/13594329608414853

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853

Published online: 14 Jan 2008.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 1047

View related articles

Citing articles: 421 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=pewo20

Download by: [The UC San Diego Library] Date: 05 May 2017, At: 07:21
 EUROPEANJOURNALOF WORK AND ORGANIZATIONALPSYCHOLOGY,19%.5(2). 165-184

The Content and Development of Mobbing at Work

Heinz Leymann
University of Umed, Sweden

In this article the concept of mobbing is introduced. Mc--Ning means harass-

ing, ganging up on someone, or psychologically terrorizing others at work.
Although mobbing is a very old phenomenon, it was not described and system-
atically researched until the early 1980s. The article begins with a case
example, some historical notes, and a definition of mobbing, and then regards
mobbing in the context of medical and psychological stress research. Several
stages in the development of mobbing are described, based on about 800 case
studies. Some epidemiological findings from a representative sample of the
Swedish work population are reported. Causes and consequences of mobbing
are discussed, and conclusions for prevention and intervention are drawn.

INTRODUCTIO
N
Through their national work environmental legislation, Sweden, Finland,
and Norway support the rights of workers to remain both physically and
mentally healthy at work. Yet, in recent years, a workplace-related psycho-
logical problem has been discovered, the existence and extent of which was
not known earlier. This phenomenon has been referred to as “mobbing”,
“ganging up on someone”, “bullying”, or “psychological terror”. In this
type of conflict, the victim is subjected to a systematic, stigmatizing process
and encroachment of his or her civil rights. If it lasts for years, it may ulti-
mately lead to expulsion from the labour market when the individual in
question is unable to find employment due to the psychological damage
incurred.
In this article, I will introduce this phenomenon, which certainly is very
old, and is well known in every culture. Nevertheless, it was not systematic-
ally described until our research in 1982,which led to a small scientific report
written in the autumn of 1983 and published in early 1984 by the National
Board of Occupational Safety and Health in Stockholm, Sweden (Leymann
& Gustavsson, 1984). The present article begins with a case description,
followed by some historical notes, a definition of this workplace-related
Requests for reprints should be addressed to H. Leymann, Bastionsgatan 23, S-371
32 Karlskrona, Sweden.
~~ ~~ ~~~

0 1996 Psychology Press, an imprint of Erlbaum (UK) Taylor & Francis Ltd
 166 LEYMANN

problem, its aetiology and epidemiology. A further section will focus on

both the consequences and sources of this destructive communicative
behaviour. After this is a discussion of the different measures that are
required during the disastrous dourse of the process. The article ends with
some references to ongoing research around the world.

A CASE EXAMPLE
The case of Eve: A canteen supervisor at a large prison retired and a
successor was needed. The employer and the personnel department were
of the same opinion, that the opportunity should be used to bring about
certain changes. The canteen needed to economize and at the same time
offer healthier food. An individual with suitable training was found. She
was employed and assigned to the kitchen where six female cooks-who all
knew how to prepare a thick cream sauce but knew nothing about the
impending changes-were standing in front of their ovens.
An inevitable c o a c t soon broke out. How was the new manager in the
kitchen going to pursue the desired changes without the support of her
employer? Nobody had informed the cooks of any planned change. The
new methods for preparing food were totally alien to them. The idea of
making provision for a relevant training course had never dawned on the
employer. The cooks believed that all these new ideas came personally from
Eve, their new supervisor. This caused them to turn against her. They
started to gossip and counteract her instructions. Even the fact that she had
a mentally handicapped child was held against her, as if her own character
were responsible for this. There were continuous heated discussions. The
I
cooks did not Iisten to Eve and ignored her delegation of tasks, regularly
doing things that led to differences of opinion. It was maintained that Eve
went far beyond the scope of herresponsibility, which in fact was not true.
On a number of occasions, Eve tried to obtain descriptions of her respon-
sibilitiesfrom the prison authorities.Top management refused her requests.
Her continual requests were interpreted as insubordination. Here we should
bear in mind that such job descriptions are in fact a method through which
top management can express its leadership at all levels; by defining institu-
tional hierarchy at a central level, and defining various areas of competence,
an employer is provided with an indispensable control mechanism through
which the various areas of responsibility can be effected. In Eve’s case, the
only thing that happened was that top management felt attacked by her
requests and defended themselves. This legitimized the cooks’ harassment
of Eve as they interpreted the situation as if the top management were “on
their side”. The harassment continued and developed into a mobbing pro-
cess, through which Eve eventually lost her authority completely. Harsh
arguments took place on a daily basis. One of the top managers who acci-
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 167

dentally overheard such an argument summoned Eve for a report. She

noticed, as she entered the meeting room, that she was standing in front of
some kind of court, she was given no chance to explain the situation but
was heavily criticized. Top management ordered (!!) her to take sick leave,
which the prison’s own physician validated (!!). After having been on sick
leave for more than two years (!!), Eve eventually lost her job. She never
found another job again.
Analyses of this case will be given following a more formal presentation
of the mobbing phenomenon.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH AND THE TERM

M0BBI N G
” ”

Mobbing is a word not previously used in this context in the English lan-
guage. It was used by the late Konrad Lorenz, an ethologist, in describing
animal group behaviour. He called the attacks from a group of smaller
animals threatening a single larger animal “mobbing” (Lorenz, 1991).
Later, a Swedish physician who happened to become interested in what
children could do to each other between their class hours, borrowed this
terminology from Lorenz and called the very destructive behaviour of small
groups of children directed against (most often) a single child, “mobbing”
(Heinemann, 1972). The present research on this type of child behaviour
has been carried out over the past 20 years, one of the most prominent
researchers being the Norwegian Dan Olweus (e.g. 1993).
Following this tradition, I borrowed the word mobbing in the early 198Os,
when I found a similar kind of behaviour in work places. I deliberately did
not choose the English term “bullying”, used by English and Australian
researchers (in the USA, the term “mobbing” is also used), as very much
of this disastrous communication certainly does not have the characteristics
of “bullying”, but quite often is done in a very sensitive manner, though
still with highly stigmatizing effects. The connotation of “bullying” is
physical aggression and threat. In fact, bullying at school is strongly charac-
terized by such physically aggressive acts. In contrast, physical violence is
very seldom found in mobbing behaviour at work. Rather, mobbing is char-
acterized by much more sophisticated behaviours such as, for example,
socially isolating the victim. I suggest keeping the word “bullying” for
activities between children and teenagers at school and reserving the word
mobbing for adult behaviour. Other expressions found in the literature are
“harassment” or “psychological terror”.
Regarding mobbing at places of work, a publication in 1976 referred to
“the harassed worker” (Brodsky, 1976). In that book, for the first time,
typical cases of mobbing can be studied. Nevertheless, Brodsky was not
directly interested in analysing these cases, as they were presented alongside
168 LEYMANN

Cases of workplace accidents, physiological stress, and exhaustion caused

by long work hours, monotonous work tasks, etc. This book focused on the
hard life of the simple worker and his situation, nowadays investigated by
stress research.
Because of its socio-medical involvement and a poor discrimination
between different stress situations at work, the book, written under the
influence of the social and political climate of the late 1960sand early 197Os,
hardly had any influence. The Swedish research in the early 1980s came
about without knowledge of Brodsky’s work. The reason was instead a new
work environment law in Sweden in 1976, and a national research fund
offering great possibilities to enter into new research areas regarding work
psychology.

DEFINITION OF MOBBING IN THE

WORK PLACE
An Operational Definition
Psychological terror or mobbing in working life involves hostile and
unethical communication, which is directed in a systematic way by one or
a few individuals mainly towards one individual who, due to mobbing, is
pushed into a helpless and defenceless position, being held there by means
of continuing mobbing activities. These actions occur on a very frequent
basis (statistical definition: at least once a week) and over a long period of
time (statistical definition: at least six months of duration). Because of the
high frequency and long duration of hostile behaviour, this maltreatment
results in considerablepsychological, psychosomatic, and social misery. The
definition excludes temporary conflicts and focuses on a point in time where
the psychosocial situation begins to result in psychiatrically or psycho-
somatically pathologic conditions. In other words, the distinction between
“conflict” and “mobbing” does not focus on what is done or how it is done,
but on the frequency and duration of what is done. This also underlines the
fact that basic research carried out in Sweden (Leymann, 1990b, 1992a,
19Eb; Leymann & Tallgren, 1989) has medical research concepts to lean
on. Basically, it is a line of research focusing on somatic or psychological
stress: how intense does mobbing have to be in order to result in psycho-
logical or psychosomatic illness? The research has mainly focused on the
psychological and physical stress. The reader must keep in mind that the
present article does not deal with psychological behavioural research but
rather with research concerningpsychological conditions, and resulting sick
leaves. The scientific definition meant by the term “mobbing” thus refers
to a social interaction through which one individual (seldom more) is
attacked by one or more (seldom more than four) individuals almost on a
daily basis and for periods of many months, bringing the person into an
almost helpless position with potentially high risk of expulsion.
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 169

The Relationship of Mobbing to Stress

In regard to German psychologically oriented stress research in particular,
it may be argued that mobbing can be seen as a certain extensive and
dangerous kind of social stress (Knon& Zapf, 1996; Zapf, Knon,& Kulla,
this issue). The different use of terminology in different countries is a theor-
etical problem. Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian research has more intens-
ively focused on the biological character of the stress phenomenon (e.g.
Karasek & Theorell, 1990) due to the fact that this research was mainly
carried out in the field of stress medicine in the USA and Sweden. Stress
research in Gemany was often camed out by focusing on, in part, different
stress items. Still another direction in the use of the term “stress” can be
observed in Australia, where the term is influenced by its clinical usage as
a medical diagnosis (e.g. Toohey, 1991). These circumstances cause some
confusion when comparing the results from stress research within these
different research areas. Thus, discussions can arise concerning the differ-
ence between stress and mobbing (Leymann, 1993c) as the confusion about
the content of the terminology does not make it clear whether mobbing is
the source of stress or the result of it. We must await further results to
determine what should be understood as “stress”. In Scandinavian research,
as in the present article, mobbing is seen as an extreme social phenomenon,
triggered by extreme social stressors, causing a range of negative effects,
e.g. biological and psychological stress reactions. Thus, my use of the ter-
minology implies that stress is the term always used for the reaction to a
stimulus, referred to as a stressor. The reaction is seen as always being of
biological nature with psychological effects which may be responsible for
changes in behaviour (how situations are appraised, how they are dealt with,
etc.; see also Lazarus, 1996). Within this theory, the logical conclusion is
that, for example, very poor psychosocial conditions at workplaces may
result in biological stress reactions, measurable by the adrenaline produc-
tion in the body. This in turn can stimulate feelings of frustration. Through
psychological processes (especially if employees lack knowledge of how to
analyse social stressors at work), frustrated persons can, instead, blame each
other, thus becoming each other’s social stressors, and triggering a mobbing
situation for a single person. Mobbing is thus an extreme social stressor,
bringing about stress reactions, which in their turn can become social
stressors for others.

The Relationship of Mobbing to Conflict

As originally understood in the Swedish research camed out since 1982,
mobbing should be viewed as an exaggerated conflict. Mobbing evolves
from a conflict after a certain time, sometimes very quickly, sometimes after
weeks or months, leading to the described characteristics. In social psycho-
logy, research on aggression and conflict is voluminous. Nevertheless, this
170 LEYMANN

phenomenon has not been detected, the reason probably being that the social
context in which it develops and is carried out changes (see the section on
the course of mobbing). Another probable reason is that conflict researchers
have investigated many things but have never focused on the health out-
comes of the persons involved in the conflict. Therefore, experiences from
“conflict solving” may not necessarily be helpful (Zapf et al., this issue).

IDENTIFICAT10N 0F M0BBING ACTlVlTlES

Identification of hostile activity variables resulted in the possibility of under-
standing the structure of the mobbing process. It then became apparent that
these activities, although they were negatively used in such cases, in them-
selves did not always have a purely negative character. They consisted to a
great extent of quite normal interactive behaviours. However, used highly
frequently and over a long period of time in order to harass, their content
and meaning changed, consequently turning into dangerous, communi-
cative weapons (see for example case studies in Leymann, 1992b and
1993b). Their systematic use in this type of interaction triggers the develop-
ment of the very stereotypical course of the mobbing process.
Due to this conceptualization, a typology of activities could be developed
and subdivided into five categories depending on the effects they have on
the victim. The following results are from informal interviews and heuristic
analyses:

1. Effects on the victims’ possibilities to communicate adequately (manage-

ment gives you no possibility to communicate; you are silenced; verbal
attack against you regarding work tasks; verbal threats; verbal activities
in order to reject you; etc.).
2. Effects on the victims’possibilitiesto maintain social contacts (colleagues
do not talk with you any longer or you are even forbidden to do so by
management; you are isolated in a room far away from others; you are
“sent to Coventry”; etc.).
3. Effects on the victims’ possibilities to maintain their personal reputation
(gossiping about you; others ridicule you; others make fun about your
handicap, your ethnical heritage, or the way you move or talk; etc.).
4. Effects on the victims’ occupational situation (you are not given any work
tasks at all; you are given meaningless work tasks; etc.).
5 . Effects on the victims’ physical health (you are given dangerous work
tasks; others threaten you physically or you are attacked physically; you
are sexually harassed in an active way; etc.).

In all, 45 different activities used during a mobbing process were identified

(see the item lists in Leymann, 1992b and 1993b). The item list has been
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 171

statistically analysed using factor analyses (Niedl, 1995; Zapf et al., this
issue) leading to similar categories. It must, nevertheless, be emphasized
that these activities mainly describe hostile interactions as carried out in
northern European countries (Leymann, 1992a). Studies carried out in
Austria (Niedl, 1995) support an earlier hypothesis that further behaviours
may be used in other cultures, while some of these from the northern Euro-
pean culture may not be used at all. Knorz and Zapf (1996) published a
number of other behaviours found in the southern part of Germany using
qualitative interviews.
Eventually a questionnaire was developed and tested (LIFT-question-
naire: Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror;Leymann, 1990a). It has
been employed in all studies mentioned previously, with the exception of
the Norwegian studies which used a different investigative method.

STEREOTYPIC COURSE OVER TIME

The course of mobbing changes its character over time as the social setting
changes. Scandinavian, Austrian, and Finnish research thus far reveals very
stereotypical courses (Leymann, e.g. 1990b).

1. Critical incidents. The triggering situation is most often a conflict.

Mobbing can, therefore, be seen as an escalated conflict. Not much is known
about what leads the development of a conflict into a mobbing situation.
Hypothetically, the first mobbing phase (which, to be exact, is not yet
mobbing!) may be very short, while the next phase reveals stigmatizing
actions by colleagues or shopfloor management.
2. Mobbing and stigmatizing. Mobbing activities may contain quite a
number of behaviours which, in normal interaction, are not necessarily
indicative of aggression or expulsion. However, being subjected to these
behaviours almost on a daily basis and for a very long time can change their
context and they may be used in stigmatizingthe person in question. In fact,
all of the observed behaviours, regardless of their normal meaning in normal
daily communication, have the common denominator of being based on the
intent to “get at a person” or punish him or her. Thus, aggressive manip-
ulation is the main characteristic of these events.
3. Personnel management. When management steps in, the case
becomes officially “a case”. Due to previous stigmatization, it is very easy
to misjudge the situation as being the fault of the subjected person. Manage-
ment tends to accept and take over the prejudices produced during the
previous stages. This very often seems to bring about the desire to do some-
thing in order to “get rid of the evil“, i.e. the victim. This most often results
in serious violations of rights, as personnel management is governed by work
legislation. In this phase, the victim ultimately becomes markedstigmatized
172 LEYMANN

(Jones, 1984). Because of fundamental attribution errors, colleagues and

management tend to create explanations based on personal characteristics
rather than on environmental factors (Jones, 1984). This may be the case
particularly when management is responsible for the psychological work
environment and may refuse to accept responsibility for the situation.
4. Expulsion. As far as the mobbing scenario at the workplace is con-
cerned, the social effects of expelling people from working life long before
retirement are well known. This situation is probably responsible for the
development of serious illnesses (Groeblinghoff & Becker, this issue;
Leymann, 1995c, Leymann & Gustavsson, this issue) that cause the victim
to seek medical or psychological help. However, as has been argued, the
victim very easily can be incorrectly diagnosed by professionals, whether by
disbelief of the person’s story or by not bothering to look into the triggering
social events. The most incorrect diagnoses so far are paranoia, manic
depression, or character disturbance.

Comments on Eve’s Case

The case clearly shows the course of a mobbing process: (1) Initially, con-
flicts arise, which management, despite its responsibility, does not manage
to resolve. (2) As the conflict extends over time and no solution is offered,
the process develops, and the harassed person is almost daily forced to
experience hostilities. (3) Eventually (and this may take many months or
even years), management is forced to take action. At this point, manage-
ment very often accepts the gossip and the complaints from (very often just
a few) colleagues without questioning their truthfulness, thus condemning
the harassed person to some kind of administrativepunishment. Comparing
case after case, this course of events is very stereotypical. (4) Due to
administrative activities, individuals in question develop such a poor reputa-
tion that it is extremely difficult to remain in the labour market; if they do
so, then it is only at the loss of their earlier status as they receive only very
poor work tasks in the future (Leymann, 1986,1992b).
It must be emphasized here that it is futile to discuss who caused the
conflict or who is right, even if this is of practical interest. However, there
is another point at stake: We are discussing a type of social and psychological
assault at the workplace, which can lead to profound legal, social, economic,
and psychologicalconsequences for the individual. These consequencesare
so grave and out of balance that it should be made very clear that this
phenomenon, despite any other areas of interest, should be seen mainly as
an encroachment of civil rights. These cases show tragic fates, including loss
of civil rights, that were long ago forbidden in most societies. In the highly
industrialized western world, the workplace is the only remaining “battle
field” where people can “kill” each other without running the risk of being
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 173

taken to court. In Sweden, it has been found that approximately 10-20%

of annual suicides have mobbing processes at work in the background
(Leymann, 1987).
There is a further question of exceeding importance: Should conflicts at
work be allowed to get out of control and escalate into a mobbing process?
Such a process should be evaluated the same way as events that lead to
physical injuries. After all, these arepsychalogical occupational injuries with
profound consequences which can lead to life-long damage. Moreover, they
are also extremely expensive for the employer.

CONSEQUENCES OF MOBBING
Effects on Society
Toohey (1991) calculated some of the costs for these and other cases of
stress-related illness. Australia’s costs for leave due to employees being
maltreated at work are dramatic. Toohey’s main criticism is focused on the
fact that these employees, following long periods of being subjected to very
poor psychosocial work environments, eventually consulted their physicians
who diagnosed “stress” (as this is usually used in this country). Toohey’s
criticism is that the “health industry”, by using this procedure, produces a
focus on “being ill’, “not being well”, or “not being able to take the strain
of working life”, instead of forcing management, as Toohey claims should
be done, to carry out enquiries into the working environments which pro-
duced the illnesses. As Toohey points out, the result of this type of policy
does not give management any incentive to reorganize the working pro-
cedures of their companies.
Such highly abused employees also show a tendency towards early retire-
ment, as has been shown by Swedish public statistics. The figures for 1992
show that as much as approximately 25% of the workforce over the age of
55 retired early. Estimates made by the Social Insurance Office reached high
numbers in respect to the proportion of individuals having developed
illnesses from poor psychological working environments, e.g. mobbing
experiences. They varied between 20% and 40% of the yearly number of
early retirements caused by poor psychosocial environments. In other
words, approximately every third to fifth early retiree in this age group had
suffered from extensive mobbing (personal discussions with officials from
the Swedish National Board of Social Insurance, 1993).
It is not surprising that the Swedish government wanted to protect their
national budget from these heavy financial burdens. At the turn of the year
1993/94, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act came into effect. This law states
that employers are obligated to present a vocational rehabilitation plan to
the Social Insurance Office as soon as an employee has been on sick leave
174 LEYMANN

for one modth, or six times within a 1Zmonth period. The purpose of this
enactment is to transfer costs for rehabilitation to the origin: where poor
environmental conditions trigger costly consequences (AFS,1994).

Effects on the Organization

Johanson (1987), a Swedish business economist, developed item lists in
order to calculate company costs for repetitive or long-term sick leave. He
found methods to compute different kinds of costs for the company and
their large sums. He could also demonstrate that it was less costly for a
company to offer these employees an expensive, professional vocational
rehabilitation and to reorganize working environments than to deal with
employees in the way that Eve was.
Extended conflicts of this kind cause further negative development,
worsening the psychosocial workplace environment. As the concept of
mobbing is new, research results on these effects are not yet available.
Hypothetically one can imagine its consequences in the form of higher pro-
duction costs, higher personnel turnover, lack of personnel motivation, and
so on.

Effects on the Victim

For the individual, mobbing is highly destructive. A common question is
why does the person not leave the organization. However, as a person
becomes older, his or her ability to find a new job diminishes. This is prob-
ably responsible for another fact, namely that those who have developed
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) because of mobbing are rarely
younger than 40 years of age (Leymann, 199%; Leymann & Gustafsson,
this issue). The risk that the victim’s occupational position will stagnate or
even worsen is elevated (this is well demonstrated in the study of Knorz &
Zapf, 1996). Expulsion from employment may easily turn into a situation
in which the individual in question is unable to find any job at all, which
means that he or she is essentially expelled from the labour market (e.g.
Grund, 1995). Seen from these perspectives, further negative effects will
most likely be detected in future research.

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL FINDINGS
Thus far, the most extensive research project on mobbing has been carried
out in Sweden. As results of this study have not been published in English
until now, I will very shortly describe the study and present some of the
important findings. A sample of about 2400 employees, representing the
entire Swedish working population, were interviewed (Leymann, 1992a,
1992c, 1992d).
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 175

Frequencies
The epidemiological statistics revealed that 3.5% (+0.7%;P < 0.5) of the
collective fit into the definition of mobbing as stated preiously. This preval-
ence means that 154,000 of the working population of 4.4 million male and
female employees were subjected to mobbing. An epidemiological calcula-
tion based on this study revealed an incidence rate of 120,000 individuals as
“newcomers” per year. Presuming a mean duration of 30 years in the labour
market, the individual risk of being subjected to mobbing is 25%, i.e. one
out of every four employees entering the labour market will risk being
subjected to at least one period of mobbing of at least half a year duration
during his or her working career.

Gender
Men (45%) and women (55%) are subjected in roughly equal proportions,
the difference not being significant. As to the question “who is mobbing
whom?”, the study shows that 76% of the subjected men got mobbed by
other men, whereas only 3% were attacked by women; 21% of the men
were subjected by both sexes. On the other hand, 40% of the subjected
women were mobbed by other women, 30% were attacked by men, and
another 30% by both. This should not be interpreted according to gender.
The explanation as to why men mainly get mobbed by other men and women
by other women should be interpreted as a structural consequence of work
life, at least in Sweden, which is still divided: men mostly work together
with men and women with women. Of interest is, of course, the fact that
there is quite a difference in the proportion of mobbing between the sexes.
Even results of other studies confirm this tendency. It could be reasoned
that men do attack women in a smaller proportion, but that the males who
mobbed women are those women’s superiors (both men and women more
often still have a male as their superior).

The observed differences are not significant. The age groups 21-30 years
and 31-40 years are over-represented, compared to the three groups 41-50,
5 1 4 , and more than 60. Niedl (1995) found other proportions in an
Austrian collective.

The Number of Mobbers

About one-third of the victims were attacked by only one other person.
Slightly more than 40% were subjected to attacks by two to four persons.
That a whole work team should harass a single person is very rare. Future
research should focus on those persons who are very well aware of the
176 LEYMANN

ongoing mobbing but who choose not to intervene. These persons may be
seen as those who hypothetically could stop the process. The results of the
Swedish study shows that there may be quite a number of “bystanders”.

Occupations
Even here, the results are not significant due to the fact that the number of
2400 was still not large enough for studies of subgroups. Nevertheless,
tendencies show that some branches may be over-represented (in the follow-
ing, the proportion of the entire workforce in a given branch is shown in
brackets): 14.1% (6.5%) of the subjected persons in the study work in
schools, universities, and other educational settings. A study of patients in
the Swedish so-called “mobbing clinic” (Leymann, 1995c) shows an over-
proportion of patients who worked in schools, universities, hospitals, child
care centres, and religious organizations. About three-quarters of the
patients at this hospital were women. Also these findings should not be
interpreted genderwise. The explanation may be that just these work places
have larger shortcomings regarding organization, work task content, and
management. The reason for this, in its turn, may be organizational diffid-
ties as these work places are controlled by more than one hierarchy, e.g. by
politically chosen groups and so on. So far, this has not been studied in
detail. The overproportion of women in the patient group may be caused
by the fact that these work places employ women in a larger proportion than
men.

Long-term Effects
A greater proportion of these subjected employees (the study points roughly
towards 10-20%) seem to contract serious illnesses or commit suicide.
Leyman (1987) points out that about every sixth to 15th officially noted
suicide in the Swedish statistics (in all about 1800every year) may be caused
by this kind of workplace problem.

Early International Comparisons

Direct comparisons can not, so far, be done as studies from different
countries are still so few. Nevertheless, a number of studies camed out at
different kinds of workplace show minor differences in regard to countries
and branches (Leymann, 1992e, 19922; Leymann & Lindroth, 1993; Niedl,
1995; Paanen & Vartia, 1991). In Sweden, companies within the private
sector show a slightly lower mobbing frequency compared with public
service organizations where the frequency is higher. In Finland and Austria,
the general frequency was higher than in Sweden. Studies pertaining to the
prevalence of mobbing at Norwegian workplaces are impossible to compare
due to the fact that quite a different study method was used.
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 177

WHY DOES MOBBING TAKE PLACE?

The question is, then, why mobbing processes develop in the first place.
Widely spread prejudices maintain that the problem arises once an
employee with character difficulties enters the workforce. The research thus
far has not been able in any way to validate this hypothesis, neither with
respect to mobbed employees at workplaces, nor mobbed children at
schools (see the literature mentioned earlier in this article). What then does
research, so far, show as its probable causes?

The Work Organization a s a Factor

Analyses of approximately 800 case studies show an almost stereotypic
pattern (Becker, 1995; Kihle, 1990; Leymann, 1992b; Niedl, 1995). In all
these cases, extremely poorly organized production and/or working
methods and an almost helpless or uninterested management were found.
This is not surprising keeping in mind the mostly poor organizational con-
ditions that Leymann (1992b, 199%) found for mobbed employees from
hospitals, schools, and religious organizations, which were over-represented
in these studies.
Let us take the work organization at a hospital as observed in some of
these cases as an example. Quite a few nurses whom we interviewed did not
really know who their boss was. A hospital has at least two parallel hier-
archies: one represented by doctors responsible for diagnosing and deter-
mining treatments, and one represented by a hierarchy of nurses responsible
for carrying out the treatment. Both hierarchies have their management
that gives orders and supplies bosses for the nurse, both kinds of boss have
the authority to tell her what to do or what not to do. Commonly extensive
workloads arise either because of a shortage in the workforce or due to poor
work organization on a daily basis. Often, the unofficial institution of spon-
taneous leadership (marked as dangerous in the literature on management
and organization) is a necessity to get things accomplished at all. This results
in a situation where a nurse can occasionally take over the command within
a group of nurses without having the authority to do so in order to
accomplish the work. Clear-cut rules for this unofficial procedure, or know-
ledge of whether or not fellow colleagues will accept this, do not exist. All
of these are in fact high-risk situations and can very easily result in conflicts.
When this happens, whether the conflict will be prolonged or easily settled
depends very often on the existing type of group dynamics and not on (as
it should be) whether management has the training and motivation to solve
conflicts. Especially in a working world where almost only women are
employed, conflicts tend to become harsher as women are more dependent
on social, supportive group dynamics (Bjorkqvist, &terman, & Hjelt-Blck,
1994).
178 LEYMANN

Poor Conflict Management as a Second Source

The situation gets far more dangerous if the manager of one of these hier-
archies wants to be part of the social setting. If the supervisor, instead of
sorting out the problem, is actively taking part, group dynamically, in the
harassment, he or she also has to choose sides. As we have seen in very
many cases, this stirs up the situation and makes it worse (Leymann, 1992b).
In addition to this management reaction, it has been found to a high degree
that when a manager simply neglects the “quarrel”, the conflict is thereby
given time to deepen and escalate. Poor managerial performance thus
entails either (1) getting involved in the group dynamics on an equal basis
and thereby heating it up further (which we have seen more often with
female managers) or (2) denying that a conflict exists (which we have seen
more often with male managers). Both types of behaviour are quite
dangerous and are, together with poor work organization, the main causes
for the development of a mobbing process at the workplace (Adams, 1992;
Kihle, 1990).
Again, it must be underlined that research concerning causes of mobbing
behaviour is so far still in its infancy, and in particular the difference in
behaviour between male and female management is still poorly understood.
Research in this area has been carried out in Finland, demonstrating that
women choose mobbing activities that affect the victim more indirectly
(gossip, slander, activating other individuals to carry out mobbing activities,
etc.). Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, and Kaukianinen (1992) state that female
aggressiveness has been widely overlooked in earlier research as variables
in data collecting were oriented mainly towards male standards. According
to this, Bjiirkqvist et aI. argue that this might be the reason behind the false
impression that women score milder on questionnaires measuring aggres-
siveness. Even here, future research will eventually focus on more causes
in detail.

What About the Personality of the Victim?

As mentioned earlier, research so far has not revealed any importance of
personality traits either with respect to adults at workplaces or children at
school. We regard statements about character problems of single individuals
by logic, as a false statement. It must not be forgotten, that the workplace
should not be confused with other situations in life. A workplace is always
regdated by behavioural rules. One of these rules deals with effective co-
operation, controlled by the supervisor. Conflicts can always arise, but
must, according to these behavioural rules, be settled. One of the super-
visor’s obligations is to manage this kind of situation. By neglecting this
obligation (and supervisors as we11 as top management often do so as a
consequence of shortcomings in conflict management), a supervisor pro-
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 179

motes the escalation of the conflict in the direction of a mobbing process.

Mobbing, in its early stages, is most often a sign that a conflict around the
organization of work tasks has taken on a private touch. When a conflict is
“privatized” or, in other words, if the power behind its further development
begins to become grounded in a deeper dislike between two individuals,
then the conflict concerning work tasks has become a situation that an
employer has the obligation to stop. Once a conflict has reached this stage
in its escalation, it is meaningless to blame someone’s “personality” for
it-even if (which is quite unlikely) future research should reveal personality
as a source of conflicts of this kind. If a conflict has developed into a mobbing
process, the responsibility lies in the first instance with the management,
either due to deficient conflict management in the single situation, or due
to a lack of organizational policies about handling conflict situations
(Leymann, 1993b).
A further argument against the view to look at an individual’s personality
as a cause of mobbing processes is that when a post-traumatic stress syn-
drome develops, the individual can develop major personality changes as a
symptom of a major mental disorder due to the mobbing process. As the
symptoms of this changed personality are quite typical and distinct, it is
understandable, but still false, that even psychiatrists lacking modem know-
ledge about PTSD as a typical victim disorder misunderstand these
symptoms as being what the individual brought into the company in the first
place (Leymann & Gustafsson, this issue).

MEASURES
There are a number of measures, which have been shown to be effective in
these situations on a practical level, although at present there are not yet
any research results available confirming these scientifically. Nevertheless,
practical experiences in Sweden are numerous. Due to the fact that the
National Board of Occupational Safety and Health (NBOSH) in Stockholm
has distributed pedagogical material since 1989 (video, overhead, manual,
books, etc.; a German translation is Leymann, 1995a and 1995b), about 300
Swedish companies have used it, according to information from NBOSH in
November 1995. In fact, the educational video and further material has been
a bestseller since 1989. I have myself used this material in about 100 com-
panies. The following information is based on these practical experiences
and other verbal information from the educational staff (see also Leymann,
1993a).
When to comes to selecting a measure, it is essential to know that this
must be carried out according to what phase in the mobbing process is
present. There are different measures available directed toward preventing
its development, stopping it, or rehabilitating a subjected individual.
180 LEYMANN

Precautions
It should be in the employer’s interest to establish a policy in preventing
conflicts from escalating into dangerous states. It seems to be nearly
sufficient if the employer states that dangerous escalation of conflicts are
not in the organization’s interest and that top management considers pre-
vention by supervisors and managers as a rule. Education of management
at all levels in the art of conflict management, and training in using the policy
of the company appropriately is one preventive measure. In addition, policy
rules about how to act if a conflict has reached a state where conflict manage-
ment becomes very demanding should exist.

Early Management Interventions

In order to intervene early, a supervisor must be capable of reading the first
signs of a developing mobbing process. Top management should also
appoint one or more individuals in the organization to whom employees in
danger can turn to for advice. For these officials, management has to delgate
authority in order to allow them to become active in the single case. Case
studies thus far (Leymann, 19925) show very clearly that inactivity at these
levels also involves the supervisor being very insecure in his or her organiza-
tional role in such a conact. A company policy should also give clear
information pertaining to this. One way of early prevention and intervention
is to straighten out organizational matters in the company and shape organ-
izational order and ethics in behaviour (see the pedagogical material from
the National Board of Occupational Safety and Health in Stockholm, 1989
and its German translation, Leymann, 1995a, 1995b).

Vocational Rehabilitation
As a mobbing process develops, it should be the obligation of supervisors
and managers to protect the individual in danger. Stigmatization of the
individual must be prevented, and he or she must be able to keep up his or
her previous reputation and abilities. Should the person be urged to take
sick leave, vocational rehabilitation should be offered. Present research in
Sweden and Germany will reveal effective methods at a later date. How-
ever, letting an unhappy person go through a mobbing process and there-
after just dumping him or her should be classified as a major management
failure.

Law
Three Scandinavian countries recognize the employee’s right to remain
physically and mentally healthy at work (Sweden, Finland, and Norway).
The Swedish National Board of Occupational Safety and Health has, on top
 THE CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 181

of this legislation, submitted three ordinances in order to enforce this act,

one of them especially regarding mobbing. One ordinance enforces the
employer to internal control of the work environment on a regular basis in
order to be able to take measures at an early stage (AFS,1992). Another
ordinance enforces direct interventions as mobbing occurs at the workplace
(AFS, 1993). A third ordinance in this area enforces the employer's respons-
ibility for vocational rehabilitation once an employee has been on sick leave
very often during one year or has been on sick leave for at least one month
(AFS,1994).

RESEARCH AROUND THE WORLD

This article gave an overview of the concept of mobbing, reported some
epidemiological findings, and summarized various measures against
mobbing. Following the publication of a first research paper (Leymann &
Gustavsson, 1984) and a first book (Leymann, 1986),the concept of mobbing
has been picked up in a number of different countries for further scientific
development. Research so far has been camed out in Norway (Einarsen &
Raknes, 1991; Kihle, 1990;Matthiesen, Raknes, & Rokkum, 1989),Finland
(Bjdrkqvist et al., 1994;Paananen & Vartia, 1991), Germany (Becker, 1993;
Halama, 1995; Knorz & Zapf, 1996; Zapf et al., this issue), Austria (Niedl,
1995), Hungary (Kaucsek & Simon, 1995), and Australia (McCarthy,
Sheehan, & Kearns, 1995; Toohey, 1991). Mobbing research is also about
to start in the Netherlands, the UK, France, and Italy. Although some
progress can be reported in this issue, it is clear that there are more open
questions than empirically founded answers. It is my hope that this issue
will further stimulate research in this area and make scientists and prac-
titioners aware of the harm and suffering caused by mobbing at work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Dr S. Baxter for her help with the translation and
Dr J. Knispel for his research language advice (Research Language Advice,
22303 Hamburg, Miihlenkamp 8D).

REFERENCES
Adams, A. (1992). Bullying at work. London: Virago Press.
Arbetarskyddsstyrelsns FBrfattnings Samling. (1992). Internkontroll av arbetsmiljdn
[Internal control of work environment] (Vol. 6 ) . Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Arbetarskyddsstyrclsns FBrfattnings Samling. (1993). Krcinkande sdrbehandling i arbetslivet
/%'iaimizoiMn at work] (Vol. 17). Stockholm:Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Arbetarskyddsstyrelsns FBrfattnings Sarnling. (1994). Arbetsanpassning och rehabilifering
p o r k assignment and vocational training] (Vol. 1). Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsn.
182 LEYMANN

Becker, M. (1993). Mobbing-ein neues Syndrom [Mobbing-a new syndrome]. S p e k m

der Psychiam'e und Nervenheilkunde, 22,108410.
Becker, M. (1995). Riickwege zum SelbstbewuStseh-Ein Beispiel f i r die Behandlung in
der Mobbingklinik [Ways back to self-confidencban example for the treatment in the
mobbing clinic]. In H. Leymann (Ed.), Der neue Mobbing Eericht. Erfahrungen und
Initiativen-Auswege und Hilfiangebote (pp. 124-144). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Bjbrkqvist. K.,Lagerspetz, K.M.J.,&Kaukianinen,A. (1992). Dogirlsmanipulateandboys
fight? Developmental trends in regard to direct and indirect aggression. Aggressive
Behavior, 18. 117-127.
Bjbrkqvist, K., 6sterman, K., & Hjelt-BBck, M. (1994). Aggression among university
employees. Aggressive Behavior, 20, 173-184.
Brodsky, C.M. (1976). The harassed worker. Toronto: Lexington Books; DC Heath and
Company.
Einarsen, S., & Raknes, B.I. (1991). Mobbing i arbeidslivet. En underslikebe uv forekomst
01 hebemessige av mobbing pd norske arbeidvplasser [Mobbing in worklife: A study on
prevalence and health effects of mobbing in Norwegian workplaces]. Bergen: Forksnings-
senter for arbeidsmilj8 (FAHS).
Grund, U. (1955). Wenn die hemmschwellen sinken. Die Aufgabe der Gewerkschaft:
A u f k l b n g und Priivention (When the thresold of scruples shrink: The task of the trade
unions: Information and prevention). In H.Leymann (Ed.), Der neue Mobbing-Bericht.
Etfahrungen und Inihtiven, Aufwege und Hilfsangebote (pp. 93-107). Reinbek bei
Hamburg: Rowohlt.
Halama, P. (1995). Psychosorialer Strep durch Mobbing und Gifistofle an Arbeitsplatz.
[Psychosocial stress through mobbing and toxic substances at work places]. Unpublished
manuscript. Hamburg.
Heinemann, P. (1972). Mobbing-Cruppvdald bland barn och vuxna [Mobbing-group
violence by children and add&]. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.
Johanson, U. (1987). Utveckla &t mdnskliga kapitalet [Developing the human capital].
Stockholm: SPF-Verlag.
Jones, E. (1984). Social stigmn--Thc psychology of marked relationships. New York:
W.H. Freeman.
ICarase.k, R., & Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy work: Stress, productivity and the reconstruction
of working lifr. New York: Basic Books.
Kaucsek, G.. & Simon, P. (1995, April). Psychorerror and nkk-management in Hungary.
Paper presented at the Seventh European Congress of Work and Organizational Psycho-
logy, Gybr, Hungary.
Kihle, S. (1990). Hebefarlige ledere og medarbeidere w h e n management is a health risk for
subordinates]. Oslo: Hemmets bokfbrlag.
&on. C., & Zapf, D. (1996). Mobbing-eine extreme Form sozialer Stressoren am
Arbeitsplatz [Mobbin- extreme type of social stressors at the work place]. Zeitscheft
f i r Arbeits- & Organisationspsychologie, 40,12-21.
Lazarus, R.S. (1966). Psychologicalstressandthe copingprocess.New York: McGraw-Hill.
Leyman, H. (1986). Vuxenmobbning-om psykiskt vad i arbetslivet [Mobbing-psycho-
logical violence at work places]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Leymann, H. (1987). Sjilvmord till fbljd av f6rhalanden i arbetsmiljbn [Suicide and con-
ditions at the work place]. Arbete, mdnnirka, miljd, 3,155-160.
Leymann. H. (1990a). Handbok far anvlindning av LIPT-fonnuldret far kartldggning av
risk?f6r psykiskt vdld i arbetsmiljgn [The LIPT questionnaire-a manual]. Stockholm:
Violen.
Leymann, H. (1990b). Mobbing and psychological terror at workplaces. Violence and
victims, 5,119-126.
 M E CONTENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF MOBBING 183

Leymann, H. (1992a). Vuxenmobbning pd svemka arbersplauer. En rikstdckande under-

sokning med 2.428 intervjuer [Mobbing at Swedish work places-a study of 2428 individuals:
Frequencies]. (Delrapport 1 om frekvenser.) Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H. (1992b). Frdn mobbning tiil utslagning i arLJet3livet[From mobbing to expukion
in work 1ifeJ. Stockholm: Publica.
Leymann, H. (1992c). Man& och kvinnligt vid vwenmobbning. En rikstcickande under-
s6kning med 2428 intervjuer [Gender and mobbing-a study of 2428 individuals]. (Del-
rapport 2.) Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H. (1992d). Psykinhiska hiiLroproblem i samband med vwenmobbning. En
rikstcickande undersdkning med 2428 intervjuer [Psychinm'c problem afier mobbin-
study of 2428 individuakJ. (Delrapport 3.) Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H. (1992e). Oerisk kommunikation i partiarberet [Unethical communication in
politicalparries]. Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H. (1992f). En svag gmpps psykosociala arbetsvillkor i Sverige [The psychosocial
work condition of a group of handicapped workers in Sweden]. Stockholm:
Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H. (1993a). Marketing fiir qualifizierte MaBnahmen mum Abbau von psychischem
Terror am Arbeitsplatz [Marketing of measurements against psychoterror at work places].
In H. GeiBler (Ed.), Bildungsmarketing. Band 4 Sene Berriebliche Bildung-Erfahrungen
w d Viswnen. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang Verlag.
Leymann, H. (1993b). Mobbing. Psychoterror am Arbeitsplatz und wie man sich dagegen
wehren kann [Mobbinmychoterror at work places]. Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag.
Leymann, H. (1993~).Atiologie und Haufigkeit von Mobbing am Arbeitplatz-eine
Obersicht iiber die bisherige Forschung [Etiology and frequency of mobbing at work-a
research review]. Zeitschrififir Personalforschung, 7,271-283.
Leymann, H . (199Sa). Mobbing und Psychoterror an Arbeitsplatz [Mobbing and psychoterror
at workplaces] (Videotape). Wien: Verlag des 6 G B .
Leymann. H. (1995b). Begleimtaterial m m Mobbing-Video [Information material for rhe
mobbing video]. Wien: Verlag des 6 G B .
Leymann, H. (1995~).Hur sjuk blir man av krcinkande srirbehandling i arbetslivet? Diagnos-
statistik over posttraumarisk stress belasming (PTSD)frdn de forsta 64 patienterna hos
Sveriges Rehabcenter A B Violen [How ill does one become through mobbing at work?].
Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H.,& Gustavsson, B. (1984). Psykiskt vdld i arbeulivet. Tvd explorativa under-
sdkningar [Psychological violence at work places. Two explorative studies]. (Under-
sdkningsrapport 42.) Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H., & Lindroth, S. (1993). Vuxenmobbning mor manliga fdnkolldrare [Mobbing
of male teachers at kindergartem]. Stockholm: Arbetarskyddsstyrelsen.
Leymann, H.,& Tallgren, U. (1989). Unde-kning av frekvensen vuxenmobbning inom
SSAB [A study of mobbing frequencies at SSAB]. Arbete, ma-nniska, milj6, I , 110-115.
Lorem, K. (1991). Hier bin ich-wo bist Du?Ethologie &r grauganz [Here I am-where are
you? The behaviour of geese] (New edition). Miinchen: Piper.
Matthiesen, S.B., Raknes, B.I., & RBkkum, 0. (1989). Mobbing pa arbeidsplassen
(Mobbing at work places]. Tidskrifi for Norsk Psykologforening, 26,761-774.
McCarthy, P., Sheehan, M.. & Kearns, D. (1995). Managerial styles and their effect3 on
employees health and well-being. Brisbane: School of OrganisationalBehaviour and Human
Resource Management, Griffith University.
National Board of Occupational Safety and Health in Stockholm. (1989). Mobbning och
utslagning i arberslivet [Mobbing and expulsion in working 1ifeJ [Video, manual, overhead
transparencies, book, discussion material]. Stockholm: Author.
Niedl, K. (1995). Mobbinglbullying an Arbeitsplatz [Mobbinglbullying at the work place].
Miinchen: Rainer Hampp Verlag.
184 LEYMANN

Olweus, D. (1993). Bullyingatschool: What we knowand wharwecando. Oxford: Blackwell.

Paanen, T., & Vartia, M. (1991). Mobbing or workplaces in sure government (in Finnish).
Helsinki: Finnish Work Environment Fund.
Toohey, J. (1991). Occupational stress: Managing u metaphor. Sydney: Maquarie
University.