THE PERCEPTION OF SCHOOL CLIMATE BY WORKPLACE BULLYING VICTIMS AND BYSTANDERS

The quality of the education and training process is closely linked to the overall quality of the school climate and the interpersonal relationships among the teachers. Our study is focused on workplace bullying. This negative phenomenon occurs in the school environment and it is a serious ethical problem that can fundamentally influence the quality of the climate in the teaching group and the functioning of the school as an educational institution as well.

The main objective of our study was to find out how primary school teachers perceive the school climate and interpersonal relationships within their workplace. The partial aim of this research was to find out how teachers who became victims or bystanders of workplace bullying perceived the school climate compared to teachers without this negative experience. To obtain the empirical data a semantic differential was used to determine the social climate among the teaching staff. The work position was also considered and the perception of the school climate among teachers and headmasters was analyzed. To identify teachers who experienced workplace bullying (bystanders and victims) the Negative Acts Questionnaire-revised (NAQ-R) was used. The research sample consisted of 756 Czech primary school teachers. The results of the survey point to the fact that not only teachers who have been victims, but as well as bystanders of workplace bullying perceive the climate of the teaching staff significantly more negatively than teachers without this negative experience.