Workplace bullying policy in the australian public sector: why has gender been ignored?

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Workplace bullying policy in the australian public sector: why has gender been ignored?

HUTCHINSON, Jacquie

EVELINE, Joan.

This article examines the question of gender-neutral workplace bullying policy in the Australian context. It draws on the international workplace bullying literature and interview data gathered from policy actors located in Australian public service administrations, including managers, policy implementors and employee advocates. Our findings show that both the literature and the policy actors tend to present workplace bullying as a product of individualised behaviour, overlooking the nuances and dimensions of organizational power relations that include gender. As part of this tendency, policy actors insisted that workplace bullying be represented as gender-neutral. Our analysis reveal two keys factors underpinning the defence and dissemination of workplace bullying as a gender-neutral problem: the tendency to individualistic remedies in public sector policies: and the idea among policy actors that if workplace bullying was portrayed as needing gender analysis, its current support as an important organizational issue would dissolve.

Australian Journal of Public Administration – AJPA, Richmond: Wiley-Blackwell, v. 69, n. 1, p. 47-60,

2010

Artigo de periódico

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