Beyond Definitions: An investigation of the theoretical and applied commonality between constructs of interpersonal mistreatment

Abstract

Researchers have used construct definitions (bullying, abusive supervision, workplace aggression and many more) as the vehicle to explore and articulate interpersonal mistreatment since the mid 1990s. However, over time single construct research also contributed to literature silos, construct proliferation, conceptual confusion and under theorization. In applied contexts, a single construct focus limits decision makers' knowledge of interpersonal mistreatment in their organisation. Nonetheless, research involving multiple types of misconduct remains rare.

This thesis aims to explore the shared space in conceptualisation, methodology and experience of a range of constructs of interpersonal mistreatment. Conservation of resources theory (COR) and Social Identity Theory / Self Categorisation Theory (SIT/SCT) were employed to broaden my perspective beyond definitions and their measures when designing this research.

Using a latent thematic document analysis, four seminal works on abusive supervision, incivility, workplace bullying, and workplace ostracism were examined for theoretical and methodological commonality. In the second study, cluster analysis was applied to behavioural experience data from the Workplace Behaviours Survey (n=4466), an organisational monitoring tool of the Australian Department of Defence. The self-report survey included 31 behaviours derived from published scales including workplace bullying, cyber bullying and sexual harassment.

Key findings from the document analysis were: The centrality of; misuse of power, shared operationalization processes and shared validation processes. Constructs were validated against a shared nomological net which also indicated levels of stress conforming to the predicted relationships as outlined by COR theory. An unexpected finding was that individual behavioural items could be enacted in different ways, enabling one behaviour to represent multiple constructs. These ways of enactment - here called tactics - include: direct or indirect, overt or covert, ridiculing, manipulation, exclusion, physically aggressive, engaging third parties, sexualized, and electronic ways of enacting behaviours. The findings illustrate how constructs of interpersonal mistreatment can have much in common, suggesting an underlying construct that needs theoretical attention.

The main finding of the cluster analysis is that behavioural experiences do not reflect definitional boundaries. Excluding and manipulating behaviours dominated all cluster solutions. Most clusters were differentiated by behavioural recurrence, not by types of behaviours. Where a broad array of behaviours were experienced by participants (that is, where clusters included electronic, sexualized, aggressive, and ridiculing behaviours) these behaviours co-occurred with excluding and manipulating behaviours. Changes in impact scores (an index of six items) and PSC scores were closely associated with the number and recurrence of behaviours experienced.

The combined findings of the two studies indicate a meta construct of interpersonal mistreatment which involves exclusion, manipulation, and abuse of power. Single construct measures risk miss-attributing harmful impacts from disparate experiences to a single construct. Tactics - how behaviours are enacted - offer an alternative lens to conceptualise behaviours and to theorise the relationship between defined constructs.

These findings indicate that co-occurrence of behaviours across multiple types of interpersonal mistreatment is the norm rather than an exception. A meta-construct is apparent and new ways of conceptualizing interpersonal mistreatment are proposed.