The aim of this doctoral research is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge concerning workplace bullying by considering the help-seeking experiences of targets of bullying and organisational responses to their complaints. A phenomenological research design was adopted. Twenty-two Irish primary school teachers (7 male, 15 female) self-selected for interview. Data were analysed utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework.

All those interviewed had made complaints in accordance with the nationally agreed procedures stipulated to address workplace bullying in their schools. Redress procedures comprises several stages. All had engaged in stage one and two of the official complaints procedures; and all had availed of counselling, with most engaging with the recommended employee assistance service (formerly known as ‘Care Call’ now Medmark). Some participants had ceased engagement at stage 2, while other participants who had proceeded to stage three, ceased engagement at this juncture. Further participants proceeded to stage 4, of whom two are currently proscribed from returning to their posts due to ongoing disputes based upon retaliation for complaints, which comprised challenges to their fitness to work.

It is significant that no participant expressed satisfaction with the outcome of exercising agency and engaging with redress procedures. In fact, complaints procedures served as technologies of power for bullies who launched counterattacks. This doctoral study traced the pre-action, action, response, and overall consequences for the teacher as the target of workplace bullying describing targets’ resistance within the context of complex social interactions and considered possible supportive, preventative, and resolution strategies.

The resultant approach has wide-ranging implications for the present pernicious practices, and it identified a number of proposals for professional practice and modifications in the way in which workplace bullying may be countered and contained. This thesis contributes to discourses of agency in workplace bullying and challenges both researchers and policymakers to fully elucidate the various issues surrounding pathways to redress for bullying. In addition through its emphasis on the power dynamics which characterize redress it extends the limited available literature in the substantive area about the ineffectiveness of complaints procedures.

Moreover, despite the research limitation respecting the modest scale of the study involving self-selecting teachers, the richness of the data elicited underscores the problematic and contingent assumptions underpinning anti-bullying policies and procedures which purportedly address workplace bullying within small organisations.

This thesis investigates the relationship between forms of self-concept and forms of aggression in adolescence. The relationship between self-esteem and aggression has been inconsistent in research, with both high and low self-esteem found to be related to aggression. The first paper presented here reviews the literature in the field and finds that this relationship becomes clearer when self-esteem is conceptualised in terms of a dual processing model, consisting of both explicit and implicit forms. The relationship with aggression is strongest when high explicit self-esteem is combined with low implicit self-esteem, as it is in narcissism. The literature review demonstrates that because of this, narcissism provides a better predictor of forms of aggression than the dual processing model of self-esteem can alone. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed, with a particular emphasis on the need for future research to investigate the emerging link between narcissism and bullying. The second paper presented here reports an empirical study investigating the relationship between adaptive (i.e., leadership, self-sufficiency) and maladaptive (i.e., the tendency to exploit others, exhibitionism, entitlement) forms of narcissism and bullying as well as the possible mechanisms through which they are related. We surveyed 388 UK adolescents (160 boys, 190 girls) using measures of narcissism, bullying behaviour, affective and cognitive empathy, and need for power. Results highlighted that both adaptive and maladaptive narcissism were predictive of bullying for both male and female participants. We found that this relationship was not mediated by either cognitive or affective empathy, but that it was significantly mediated by a need for power. The study highlights the need for future research to begin to design and test interventions targeting the bullying associated with different forms of narcissism individually.

School climate is a crucial concept used to explain school differences. Nevertheless, this concept is elusive in the literature, conveying different meanings. To address the relation between school climate and school outcomes, its historical roots are reviewed and a multivariate approach to it is proposed, in contrast to a unidimensional conception. In four papers, this strategy is used to study associations among various school climate factors (SCFs) and school outcomes, including teacher turnover, teacher job satisfaction, students’ math achievement, and students’ social attitudes. In paper 1, schools serving more socioeconomically disadvantaged students are found to present higher rates of teacher turnover. A complementary study shows that SCFs (supportive school leadership, positive school relationships, and academic monitoring) present differing effects on teacher turnover. In paper 2, the relationships between SCFs (teacher student relations and school discipline) and teachers’ job satisfaction and withdrawal cognitions (intentions to quit) are estimated. These SCFs appear to play a protective role with respect to teachers’ withdrawal cognitions, and these effects are indirect via their relationship to teachers’ job satisfaction. In paper 3, the relationship between the experience of bullying and students’ achievement is addressed. The relationship is found to be indirect, with key roles played by perceptions of school belonging and students’ classroom engagement. Finally, in paper 4 the relationship between civic knowledge and the endorsement of democratic values is estimated. This link is found to be partially mediated by ideological beliefs (authoritarianism), and the role of open classroom discussion (a SCF) as a moderator of these effects is demonstrated. This work demonstrates that in order to specify theory-driven models of different school outcomes, school climate should be conceptualized as diverse social-contextual effects operating in a complex multivariate setting with mediated and moderated pathways to outcomes.

This thesis examines the ‘hidden’ and under-researched area of bullying and harassment of Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in Police Services in England. In so doing the thesis explores the intersectionality between race and gender within the context of police culture. The thesis explores the development of the legislative and policy framework of bullying harassment within the context of English Policing. In doing so, it adopts a chronological approach, which facilitates an understanding, whilst identifying main influences and events, which have shaped English Policing bullying and harassment policy since the Macpherson Inquiry (1999).

The research argues that the failure of successive governments to develop a robust legislative framework on bullying – on the grounds that it would create an unnecessary regulatory burden to industry (Adams, 1994) – has had a massive impact on workplace bullying and harassment issues. This has led to the default position of the development of the creation of ‘dignity at work’ policies through which cases of bullying are channelled. The thesis argues that this policy framework when implemented within a command-and-control organisation such as the police makes it ‘fair game’ for undermining (EHRC, 2016).

The research identifies the impact of this historic policy failure to acknowledge the importance of intersectionality in matters of diversity and the continuing ‘struggle’ between race and gender within English policing. This factor then contributes to the ‘invisibility’ of BAME women in policing. In doing so it makes BAME women susceptible to ‘unique tactics’ of bullying and harassment, which contribute to their impeded progression as compared to their white counterparts. These ‘unique tactics’ are underpinned/enhanced by the police ‘organisation’ and enforced by police ‘culture’.

The thesis argues that the failure to ‘grasp’ the issue of bullying and harassment of BAME women within British Policing is due, in part, to a lack of effective leadership; which is driven by a ‘crisis management’ culture around issues of race and gender (CRE, 2004; Ghaffur, 2004; Rollock, 2010). Furthermore, the research argues, that this situation is compounded by a paucity of evidence-based research in this area, which contributes to intensifying the perceived and actual ‘invisibility’ of BAME women within contemporary English policing.

The thesis concludes, that; the bullying and harassment of BAME women in Police Services in England, is underpinned by issues of patriarchy and racism; which are difficult to challenge in bureaucratic and hierarchical organisations like the Police. It is argued in the research that Police Services in England have developed on ‘face value’ effective policies and procedures to deal with bullying and harassment however, it is the implementation of the bullying and harassment policies and procedures and the way in which certain sections of the organisation handle them (Department of Professional Standards (DPS) and Human Resources (HR)) where the tension lies. This is due to the viewpoint established by this research that those police departments responsible for handling cases of bullying and harassment of BAME women do not have many BAME people working within them (HASC, 2016). It is argued here that this makes implementation of bullying and harassment policies difficult, as these individuals do not truly understand the nature of racism which is essential to be able to tackle the bullying and harassment of BAME women. Furthermore, the forceful police culture, does its utmost to maintain and protect the organisation from those BAME women who would expose it both internally and externally for bullying and harassment. This triggers a range of acts; aimed at undermining, discrediting, and isolating the victim through drawn out investigative processes. These acts are aimed at maintaining power and order and are enabled through the operation of police culture, which by its very nature facilitates ‘corruption’ of processes in the handling of bullying and harassment cases.