Workplace Bullying in Extreme Conditions: A Labour Control Process

Abstract

Previous studies on workplace bullying (WB) has been studied intensively focused on psychological and socio-psychological perspectives leading to the individual acts and actors in bullying. Consequently, WB received myopic attention and failed to provide wider explanations of its endemic existence in the workplace. Nevertheless, recent studies called for wider explanations of WB drawing on labour process perspectives (Beale and Hoel, 2011; Akella, 2016). Responding to this call, we provide empirical accounts and theoretical explanations of WB where workers are least protected by the internal state (trade union) and the state – an extreme condition. Drawing on Burawoy’s work on consent and coercion, we argue coercive control strategies could take a form such as extreme bullying in the absence of state and internal state. The article aims to make a contribution to literature illustrating the workplace bullying in extreme conditions such as in a clothing factory in Bangladesh and conceptualise WB as a coercive control tool where management find it useful and normal to intensify exploitation with impunity.