This thesis is concerned with the interactions between staff and interactions in the classroom in regard to bullying among pupils in primary schools in Norway. The main investigation comprised 22 primary schools. A total of 2002 pupils, grades 4-6, and 279 teachers participated. Information was obtained through the use of one questionnaire developed specifically for pupils, and one developed for teachers. Only two of 15 selected schools were significantly different from each other on both Bullying Others (BO) and Being Bullied (BB). The school low on BO and BB also had significantly better scores than the other school on all staff related variables. Information from all 22 schools, comprising 118 classes, was used in a class level study of the relationships between classroom management, social interactions between the pupils in the class and class level estimates of BO and BB. Both high scores on classroom management and high scores on social interactions between the pupils were strongly and negatively related to bullying others, and negatively but more weakly related to being bullied. To consider the problem of causality more closely, a small-scale field experiment was conducted with two groups of first grade teachers, each group consisting of 20 teachers and their classes. Two groups of control classes were included. The teachers in the field experiment were offered four one-day seminars plus group counselling during the first school year. At the end of their first school year, the pupils in the two experiment groups and those in the two control groups were compared. The pupils in the experiment groups scored significantly better than the control groups on bullying others, and being bullied, as well as on all other 8 variables studied. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the results, and a theoretical model is suggested.

Although there are an abundance of studies which have addressed the relationship between clothing and youth identity, few have attempted to place it in the context of the various structural issues that help frame it. Such an undertaking is deemed important because any difficulties young people may experience in putting together a peer-approved clothed appearance is considered likely to carry profound implications, both socially and psychologically, in terms of the bullying, and social exclusion that can often result (e.g. Edwards, 2000). In thus seeking to develop a fuller understanding of how a range of young people perceive and practically enact their various clothing agenda, this investigation aims to privilege the subjective meanings and lived experiences of a diverse group of teenagers aged 14 to 17. A set of informal, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with teenagers drawn from a diverse range of social backgrounds, which allowed a wide array of structural factors to be accommodated. The evidence collected indicates firstly, that young people’s clothing agendas are not as identity-oriented as most consumption-based theories of postmodernity and ‘post-subculture’ are inclined to suggest. Instead, they tend to be focused more squarely on a more mundane and modest goal, that of mere peer acceptance into the immediate social networks to which they belong, or aspire to join. In fact, given the severity of the consequences of failing to achieve this objective, the clothing projects of many youth are perhaps best conceptualised as exercises in ‘survival’.Crucially, teenagers’ prospects of accomplishing this goal of survival, and /or using clothing to choose from the range of identity-options that are available are mediated in critical ways by their structural locations, and their attendant access to important resources of economic, cultural and social capital.

There is growing concern over the problem of bullying behaviour in schools. In response to this concern, this study set out to examine the incidence and characteristics of students who were considered to be bullies or victims, according to teacher and peer ratings and class questionnaires. The rationale behind choosing the seven schools was to include an example of each of the main types of school in the Irish educational system. The study looks at a small number of schools in depth, rather than a large number of schools superficially. Socio-economic and social and family background features are examined as factors in the causation of bully/victim problems. Students identified as bullies or victims are compared under the following headings: 1) Physical Characteristics 2) Psychological Traits 3) Personality Characteristics 4) Behaviour Characteristics Particular students who emerged as bullies or victims are profiled. Information regarding the nature, causation, maintenance, prevention, alleviation, eradication of bully/victim problems was gathered by means of pupil interviews and questionnaires completed by Principals and teachers. The study is organised into five chapters. The first two chapters provide a theoretical framework for the study. Chapter I deals with the purpose and background to the research. Chapter II reviews the literature on aggression and bullying behaviour. Chapter III focuses on the research procedure. Chapter IV is a presentation and discussion of the results of the research. Chapter V presents a summary, conclusions and implications of the study. The major conclusion of the study is that school as an institution does not cause people to become bullies or victims. While it may be the case, that the atmosphere in some schools is conducive to bullying behaviour, it is likely that social and family background features combined with certain physical, psychological, personality and behavioural characteristics are of paramount importance in the causation and maintenance of bullying behaviour.

The purpose of the present research is to advance our knowledge and understanding of bullying behaviour among incarcerated young offenders. This involved conducting a large-scale study investigating the prevalence, frequency, and circumstances of bullying, correlates of bullying, and characteristics of bullies and victims in young offender institutions of varying security level and type. Recommendations are made concerning how levels of bullying can be reduced based on the results. Bullying can be defined as the repeated oppression, psychological or physical, of a less powerful person by a more powerful one. This kind of behaviour is perceived as a serious problem in young offender institutions and has been implicated as the primary cause of recent deaths in at least one young offender facility. Although there is a substantial amount of research investigating bullying among school children, bullying in offender populations has been virtually ignored by criminological and psychological researchers until very recently. A sample (N=190) of male young offenders in Canadian custody facilities of varying security level and type were administered two standardized inventories measuring the prevalence, nature, and frequency of bullying behaviour, the response of staff and peers to this phenomenon, and psychological and background characteristics of offenders who are bullies and victims, as well as those who do not fall into either of these categories. A pilot study was conducted in order to develop a questionnaire to collect basic data on bullying among incarcerated young offenders and assess its value. In addition, a study was conducted in order to validate offender self-reports of bullying and victimization concurrently against peer nominations and staff reports. Information and knowledge concerning the nature and extent of bullying in a facility, the types of individuals who are likely to become bullies and victims, and circumstances within institutions which may permit or encourage bullying behaviour can be useful to correctional practitioners and policy makers. This kind of information could assist them in making institutional changes to aid in the prevention and reduction of bullying behaviour. It could also help them to classify offenders as bullies and victims to aid in the implementation of prevention measures targeted as these individuals, as well as for need and risk assessment. Hopefully, a large programme of research based on this thesis could lead to significant advances in knowledge about bullying in young offender institutions and hence to significant decreases in this troubling problem.

This qualitative research explores upwards harassment in the workplace and is located in the social psychological paradigm.  In this study the targets for harassment are academics working in Post-1992 English Universities and the perpetrators of the harassment, undergraduate students. The study uses attribution theory to explore the academics’ experiences of the harassment.  These accounts clearly show that students are not only verbally harassing academics and making unachievable task demands using electronic communication devices, but that they are isolating, and personally and sexually harassing academics. Academic attributions demonstrated that they perceived that harassment occurs when students themselves are feeling stressed. They felt that these stresses are not only related with course demands and social requirements, but that they are associated with the changing nature of society, the change in the profile of the university student, widening participation and the social political agenda of education. This research highlighted that, as a result of the harassment, academics are feeling heightened levels of anger, fear and guilt, and to deal with these potentially damaging emotions they proactively employ a variety of coping strategies.  This research demonstrated that the most predominant coping choice is informal social support.   However, it is also suggested that academics are themselves inadvertently putting undue stress upon each other. To minimise upward harassment, limit the negative effects of stress and the associated detriment to the health of academics, it is suggested that universities be proactive in working collaboratively with students, Student Unions, Human Resources, Information Technologists, academics and managers, to explore Anti-Harassment policies, and embed the message that harassment of any form, by anyone in the organisation, is unacceptable.

This research investigates the gendered aspects of organisational culture. Empirical studies of two organisations, both with distinctive divisional cultures were undertaken. Employing and extending the Weberian concept of social closure, I ask whether, and to what extent, different organisational cultures act as means of social closure to exclude and/or marginalise women managers. I design a research typology for studying gender and culture, consisting of gender awareness, management style, time management, public/private divide, informal socialising, and sexuality. I draw on several different theories of power to explain hierarchical gender relations in organisations. I found that a Weberian concept of legal rational authority is still relevant to organisational life, particularly leadership. The concept of discourse, as meaning what may be said at any one time, proved useful, particularly in illuminating the public/private divide. I argue that a concept of patriarchy is still vital for a feminist analysis of organisations and Gramsci’s concept of hegemony helps explain why women are seemingly complicit in their own oppression. The research highlights the importance of an adequate definition of orgnisational culture in order to identify its exclusionary characteristics. Different constituents of culture may act to exclude women in different ways and in different areas, even where a strong equal opportunities policy exists. Key findings include the prevalence of sexual harassment even at senior levels and in’feminised’ areas of work; the positive impact of a nonheterosexual culture on gender relations, and the importance of business demands on management style. At senior levels, long hours, informal socialising, management style, and the acceptance of a public/private divide act in combination or separately to marginalise and exclude women. Whilst women managers fare better in an equal opportunities organisation, men’s resistance to women in organisations becomes more subtle as overt discrimination is outlawed.