Minorities and women less likely to report workplace bullying, study finds

MINORITIES and women are less inclined to report workplace bullying than white men, a study revealed on Tuesday (30).

Researchers examined survey responses from 3,494 individuals in Britain and determined that white men are the most prone to reporting experiences of humiliation, insults, or being ignored in the workplace compared to any other group.

According to the study, white men reported the highest rate of bullying at 60 per cent, followed by white women (54 per cent), black men (51 per cent), black women (44 per cent), Asian men (39 per cent), and Asian women (38 per cent).

In terms of overall bullying rates at work, white employees reported the highest rate at 57 per cent, followed by black employees at 48 per cent, and Asian employees at 39 per cent.

The Asian category included men and women who were from Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other backgrounds.

According to researchers Dr Tina G Patel and Prof Daiga Kamerāde from the University of Salford, along with Luke Carr from Manchester Metropolitan University, the findings challenge the prevailing belief that ethnic and racial minority groups, particularly women, are the most likely to report bullying in the workplace setting.

They explained that in certain professional jobs, white men often compete against each other, sometimes using bullying behaviour.

Researchers also adjusted the data to exclude the effects of age, education and type of job to study the effect of ethnicity and gender in isolation.

“The key finding, somewhat unexpectedly and contrary to our hypothesis, is that, in general, white men were more likely to report workplace bullying. This contradicts existing evidence that ethno-racial minority groups are more likely to be, or report being, bullied. White men are most likely to report experiencing specific bullying behaviours that make it difficult for them to complete their work," they wrote in Work, Employment and Society journal.

“This unexpected finding can be framed within the heavily masculine context of many workplaces, especially in those cultures found in the UK and the US. In such environments, these dominating groups were more likely to compete against each other in indirect-aggressive ways.”

According to researchers, women from ethnic minorities may have under-reported bullying.

“It is plausible that women from an ethno-racial minority group felt the most uncomfortable coming forward to make any bullying reports, resulting in under reporting of actual events," they said.

The under-reporting may be due to the past negative experiences encountered by ethno-racial minority groups regarding workplace discrimination, the researchers pointed out.

Among white men, 18 per cent reported experiencing insults, 10 per cent reported feeling humiliated or ridiculed, 37 per cent received unmanageable workloads or deadlines, 35 per cent had their opinions ignored, and 20 per cent had essential information withheld from them, the study said.