Organisational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing bullying at work

This article investigates the causes of mobbing (bullying) at work. Mobbing is defined as a severe form of social stressors at work Unlike "normal" social stressors, mobbing is a long lasting escalated conflict with frequent harassing actions systematically aimed at a target person. It is argued that the organisation, the social system, a certain perpetrator and the victim have to be considered as potential causes of mobbing Results of two samples of mobbing victims and a control group support this view. It is concluded that one-sided explanations on the causes of mobbing ave likely to be inappropriate and that many cases are characterised by multi-causality - a common finding in conflict research.