ABSTRACT
What follows is an exploration of the potential of a postmodern approach to the concept of ‘bullying’ to extend our explanatory frameworks for this new and highly salient concept. The chapter proceeds by examining the rise of the concept as a new way of giving meaning to experiences of distress at work. In this manner, ‘bullying’ is treated as a new signifier that emerges from a wider discourse that attributes distress in contemporary workplaces to unacceptable behaviours. Postmodern signifiers can be recognised as concepts or names that are formed out of projections of everyday life experiences and emotions. As a new signifier, ‘bullying at work’ gives expression to a variety of anxieties, fears, and resentments, and it indicts perpetrators.
