The Personal Management of Shame and Pride in Workplace Bullying

Abstract

Shame and pride management were used to predict workplace bullying and victimization among a random sample of 1,967 Australians who responded to a national crime survey. Those who identified themselves as having bullied others were pride-focused, not shame focused. They were more likely to express narcissistic pride over their work success, lauding their feats over others, and were less likely to express humble pride, sharing their success with others. In contrast, victims were defined primarily by their shame over failures. They were more likely to both acknowledge and displace shame over failures in work tasks. Victims and bullies revealed impediments to social reintegration. Victims did not trust others, while bullies did not see victims as needing to see offender rehabilitation. The findings raise questions of whether competitive, hierarchical and performance oriented workplaces fail to provide incentives for workers to manage shame and pride in ways that promote collegial workplace relations.