The Gendered Nature of Workplace Bullying in the Context of Higher Education

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to analyze the significance of gender in the occurrence of workplace bullying and exposure to its two forms including work-related bullying and person-related bullying. The purposive sample was composed of 400 employees (men = 200, women = 200) from higher educational institutes of Lahore, Pakistan. The age range of sample was 22 to 60 years (M = 33.95, SD = 8.0). Workplace Bullying Scale developed by Anjum and Shoukat (2013) and demographic information form were individually administered. Results revealed that women employees experienced workplace bullying more as compared to men employees. Women employees were much more likely to identify bullying behaviors as severe, unlike their men counterparts. Further, person-related form of bullying prevails more frequently among female employees. Overall, results indicate that bullying cannot be separated from gender and that such negative behaviors need to be seen in a gendered context.