Voices Unheard, Stories Untold: An In-Depth Phenomenological Exploration of Workplace Bullying Among Indian Primary School Teachers

Abstract

Workplace bullying adds significantly to toxicity in workplaces. The present phenomenological study aims to unravel the experiences of primary school teachers who have faced bullying at work. Such studies in India are still sparse, and in-depth qualitative examination of the target’s experiences provides deeper insight into their view regarding anomalous behaviours and bullies. Semi-structured interviews of seven teachers were conducted and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The analysis resulted in three themes: “Workplace dynamics,” “I can tell what their problem is,” and “Coping with the problem.” The identified acts were linked to the extant model (Duluth model) describing the power control wheel at work. The researchers interpreted the bullied teachers' lived experiences to construe the affected teachers' behavioural, perceptual, and emotional responses. The findings reaffirm the existence of bullies in a teaching environment. Teachers with longer years of service acted as bullies in all the cases, and two participants just discussed Principal-on-teacher bullying. The study discusses how identified bullying acts can be categorized into themes of the power-control wheel at work. Studies on bullying in cultures with high power distance are limited and provide limited evidence on how the bullying behaviours are comparable to the acts constituting other abusive relationships.