ABSTRACT
Workplace bullying is a socially constructed cyclical phenomenon based on common norms and beliefs between targets, bullies, and bystanders within a larger environmental context through a variety of communication mediums. This chapter explores the interpersonal, social group aspects, dynamics, and conflicts that can lead to bullying, its effects on targets and bystanders/witnesses, and the collateral damage from bullying that spreads unabated to novices being socialized into their profession/field. The social construction of the reality of bullying often appears like the six blind men describing the elephant's ear, trunk, knee, side, tusk, and tail that they touched with their hands. Despite the isolation associated with an academic career, faculty still functions in a social ecological context, be it a dyad, small group, collaborative team, university committee, faculty senate, or professional association. Attachment theory refers to how individuals form social relationships.
