Integrated Actions for Decrease and/or Elimination of Mobbing as a Psychosocial Stressor in the Organizations Accessing and Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility

Jolita Vveinhardt,Regina Andriukaitiene,Martin Grančay

doi:10.5755/j01.ee.28.4.17911

Abstract

The purpose of this research is, having examined the expression of mobbing as a psychosocial factor in organisations accessing or implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR), to form integrated actions for decrease and/or elimination of the phenomenon. Addressing the goals formulated in the project, it was proposed to extend and clarify the responsibilities of companies related to issues of labour well-being (WBCSD, 1998; European Commission, 2001, 2011), ethics and human rights (European Commission, 2001, 2011). Companies with corporate social responsibility, while addressing issues of well-being of employees as an interested party, ethics and human rights, must face up to their responsibilities to prevent the safety of employees from psychosocial stressors caused by mobbing and bullying, while both collaborating with organised employees’ structures and accepting employees’ reports on destructive relationships in working environment and taking them into consideration. While implementing the project, there were formed questionnaires for research into mobbing / bullying and CSR, creating a universal instrument for the research consisting of two parts. The first part (mobbing / bullying as a psychosocial stressor) comprises four categories (factors regarding relations between employees; factors regarding nature of tasks, work content and assessment; factors regarding organisation and management of work; factors regarding working environment and conditions) which are expanded into fifteen sub-categories implementing through 109 statements of the questionnaire. The second part of the questionnaire (corporate social responsibility) comprises two categories (behaviour of socially responsible organisation and behaviour of socially responsible employee) which are expanded into eight sub-categories through forty-eight statements of the questionnaire. The instrument was verified through the fixed high psychometric characteristics of the questionnaire (the percentage of the explained dissemination in calculation, Cronbach alpha and Spearman-Brown coefficients, also through measuring factorial weights and whole unit correlation at three levels (minimum, maximum and mean) and setting high statistic values. Having created the instrument that complies with the purpose of the project, an empiric research was completed conducting a survey among 1,512 respondents from 34 organisations in Lithuania that declared or did not declare CSR. It was discovered that CSR has a significant influence on the employees’ approach to organisation’s products, promotes greater confidence and loyalty and leads to greater personal initiative completing tasks. However, comparing the organisations which declared and did not declare CSR, approval of the statements about psychosocial well-being is more significant in the latter ones, while in the organisations which declared CSR, orientation towards external interested subjects was revealed, and the systematic work organisation advantages possessed are not used for ensuring functional relationships between employees and employee safety against psychosocial stressors.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.28.4.17911

Highlights

This research raises the following problematic questions: what constituents are being covered by the concept of the welfare of employees as interested subjects in the organizations that are implementing CSR? what are the links between constituents of mobbing / harassment as psychosocial stressor and corporate social responsibility? what are substantial differences between the organization that declared CSR and the one that is striving for CSR considering employees’ protection from psychosocial stressors? what organizational changes are required for the elimination of problem of mobbing and harassment in employees’ interrelationships?
Based on formulated presumptions, the following categories were identified: psychosocial stressors; corporate social responsibility
FEIR – factors related to employees‘ inter-relationship; FNCA – factors related to nature of tasks, work content and assessment; FWOM – factors related to work organization and management; FPEC – factors related to physical working environment and conditions; FOSB – factors related to behaviour of socially responsible organization; FESB – factor related to behaviour of socially responsible employee. *Source: Vveinhardt, J., & Andriukaitiene, R. (2015)

Summary

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) expands a perception of human resources as an important organizational capital and creates possibilities for integral development of the concept of employees’ physical and psychological safety by coordinating interests of subjects interested in more flexibly. Paradox is in the fact that such misunderstandings as mobbing should not arise in employees’ interrelationship in the organizations that declared CSR and are striving for CSR. What are the links between constituents of mobbing / harassment as psychosocial stressor and corporate social responsibility? What are substantial differences between the organization that declared CSR and the one that is striving for CSR considering employees’ protection from psychosocial stressors? What organizational changes are required for the elimination of problem of mobbing and harassment in employees’ interrelationships? This research raises the following problematic questions: what constituents are being covered by the concept of the welfare of employees as interested subjects in the organizations that are implementing CSR? what are the links between constituents of mobbing / harassment as psychosocial stressor and corporate social responsibility? what are substantial differences between the organization that declared CSR and the one that is striving for CSR considering employees’ protection from psychosocial stressors? what organizational changes are required for the elimination of problem of mobbing and harassment in employees’ interrelationships?

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