Abstract:

The term mobbing refers to various forms of making life in the workplace unpleasant. It is typical of its insidiousness and difficult recognizability. Mobbing usually means behaviours such as psychological abuse (so-called psychoterror or psychological violence) repeated at least once a week for six months. Mobbing can occur in all types of workplaces, in different age categories and across different levels of educational attainment including teachers. The main objective of the study was to find out whether there was a relationship between workplace bullying and personal discomfort among primary school teachers. To obtain the data, the Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI-R) was used to measure teachers’ personal discomfort. The Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ-R) was used to measure bullying in the workplace. The research population consisted of 262 primary school teachers from the Czech Republic, with the majority being female (male 28, female 234; mean age 49.4). The data were analysed using a series of multiple linear regression analyses. Before the analysis of the data, the compliance with the regression analysis requirements was tested. The results showed that in the context of the possible influences of the different forms of mobbing on personal discomfort, only the effect of work-related bullying was observed. Work-related bullying had the strongest effect on interpersonal strain (explaining 28% of its variance, P<0.001). The issue of mobbing is increasingly becoming part of a continuous academic discussion with a paradigm and an update or development of a platform for possible solutions. Mobbing in the workplace is an issue that deserves attention and further research.

Keywords:

Mobbing in the workplace, teacher, personal discomfort, stress.