ABSTRACT
This book has demonstrated that much of the research and development of tools for organisations to tackle psychological violence in the workplace have been shaped by debate about behaviours, antecedent factors and the implications for prevention or intervention. What has been somewhat lost is thinking about the problem from the perspective of the harm that is done – the real physical and mental injury caused by psychological violence. When a harm perspective is adopted, as we advocate throughout the book, it cannot be denied that psychological abuse in the workplace is a form of violence and needs to be treated just as seriously as we treat physical violence and victimisation. With this as our core premise, this book raises several critical points that we hope challenge conventional thinking and perspectives around this growing problem. These key points can be summarised as follows:
• The neglect of the multilayered contextual forces in explaining psychological violence in the workplace. Several chapters in the book highlight the traditional focus on the individuals who are targets of psychological violence and the lack of attention given to perpetrators and the organisational and situational contextual factors that play a significant role in facilitating violations in the workplace. We argue that the organisational climate that forms the powerful contextual backdrop of these offenses is generated through the interaction of power and politics which produces workplace environments that are conducive to psychological violence, thereby making abuse systemic.
