ABSTRACT
The protagonists in these stories share a common experience: They perceive themselves as being the targets of harmful actions emanating from other employees, and it causes them psychological and emotional distress. From this perspective, both can be described as being “victims” of workplace mistreatment. A victim in the most general sense is anyone who experiences a negative outcome as a result of some event, which in the context of this chapter refers to how one is treated by another person or persons within the organization. In this chapter, we explore the concept of workplace victimization as a form of antisocial behavior. Like the other chapters in this volume, our exploration will be narrow and emphasize the work conducted by the first author and his colleagues. The chapter summarizes this program of research that has sought to explain why some people become the targets of harmful actions from other employees, be they coworkers or superiors.
