THE EFFECT OF MOBBING ACADEMICIANS ARE EXPOSURED TO ON WORK ALIENATION

Abstract

Extended Abstract Problem: Mobbing can be described as emotional abuse that an employee is repeatedly exposed to at work. The impact of mobbing on the individual is always negative and occurs in various forms from physical to psychological abuse. One of the results of mobbing is that the employee can be alienated from the organizational rules and processes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of mobbing that academicians were exposed to and the level of work alienation that academicians were experiencing as a result of mobbing at Akdeniz University. Methods: The data was gathered from a sample of 346 academic staff working at various faculties, colleges and vocational schools. A questionnaire composed of three sections was used in the data collection process. The first section included questions about personal information. The second section, “Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R)â€? included items about mobbing at the work place. Finally, the third section aimed to measure the level of alienation based on “Work Alienation Scaleâ€?. Percentages, frequencies, means, standard deviations, Pearson correlation coefficients, multiple linear regression analysis, t-tests ans one-way ANOVA for independent samples were used in order to analyze the data. In the case that the assumptions of parametric tests were not satisfied, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis-H tests were used to analyze the data. Findings: The results of the correlation analysis revealed that there was positive and medium level significant relation between powerlessness, meaninglessness, and isolation dimensions of the “Work Alienation Scaleâ€? and work related mobbing as well as personal mobbing dimensions of NAQ-R. A significant positive and low level relation was observed between mobbing and attacks on dignity and powerlessness, meaninglessness, and isolation dimensions of the “Work Alienation Scaleâ€?. Nevertheless, no significant relation was observed between any dimension of the mobbing behavior scale and faculty alienation of work alienation. According to the regression analysis results, personal mobbing, work related mobbing, and attacks on dignity dimensions of mobbing had significant effect powerlessness, meaningless, and isolation dimensions of the “Work Alienation Scaleâ€?. Conclusions and Recommendations: This study revealed that academicians were exposed to rather low levels of mobbing and felt low levels of alienation. All four dimensions of “the Work Alienation Scaleâ€? were affected by all three dimensions of mobbing at work. While, the results indicate academicians were exposed to rather low levels of mobbing, they still experienced some levels of work alienation. As for recommendations, the factors that are likely to affect the work alienation among academicians need to be studied. Faculty administrations also bear responsibility to cope with work alienation among academicians. They can work on things such as more democratic management, strong leadership, team work, and strengthened communication. Key words: Mobbing, Work Alienation, Lecturers, Academic Organizations.