ABSTRACT. This paper offers a speculative elabo-
ration on downward workplace mobbing – the
intentional and repeated inflictions of physical or
psychological harm by superiors on subordinates
within an organization. The authors cite research
showing that workplace mobbing is not a marginal
fact in today’s organizations and that downward
workplace mobbing is the most prevalent form. The
authors also show that causes of and facilitating
circumstances for downward workplace mobbing,
mentioned by previous research, match current
organizational shifts taking place within a context of
globalisation. This paper argues that it is not the orga-
nizational shifts themselves which are to “blame”, but
an inadequate transformation of leadership and power
in reaction to those shifts. Using Foucault’s power-
knowledge-rules of right triad, the authors offer an
explanation for downward workplace mobbing
beyond the organizational changes themselves. More
precisely, as the organizational changes can be char-
acterized by a new power/knowledge bond calling
forth new rules of right, downward workplace
mobbing could be seen as manifestations of power
outside of the delineations drawn by these new
rules of right. In other words, downward workplace
mobbing is pathology of current organizational
shifts, resulting from not acting out the full ethical
potential of the discourse of excellence, adventure,
creativity and responsibility, which characterizes these
shifts.
KEY WORDS: bullying, business ethics, change
management, globalisation, mobbing, organizational
ethics
1. Introduction
It is only since the last decade of the twentieth
century that organizational scholars have used the
words “bullying” (Adams, 1992) and “mobbing”
(Leymann, 1990) to describe phenomena of
repeated workplace aggression by individuals to
harm others with whom they work. Leymann
(1997) distinguishes bullying from mobbing in
stating that the use of the bullying concept in
research on workplace aggression stems from
research on bullying at school, which is very
often strongly characterized by physically aggres-
sive acts. Mobbing on the other hand, is charac-
terized by more sophisticated behaviours, which
better describes the phenomenon found at work-
places, and consists of harmful treatment of or
putting harmful pressure on an employee. We
will use the term “workplace mobbing” as
repeated behaviour of individuals or groups,
which intentionally harms others with whom
they work.
In this paper, we wish to explore a distinct part
of the workplace mobbing phenomenon. More
precisely, it is the downward mobbing which we
will focus on. This form of workplace mobbing
consists of mobbing by a superior against a sub-
ordinate. Other forms of workplace mobbing are
upward mobbing – mobbing up the ladder – and
horizontal mobbing, which is mobbing by
employees against a colleague.
In Section 2 we argue the relevance of our
article on downward workplace mobbing by
Downward Workplace
Mobbing: A Sign of
the Times?
Journal of Business Ethics 45: 41–50, 2003.
© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
Wim Vandekerckhove is a doctoral researcher on “intimi-
dation and integrity” at Gent University and a research
member of the Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry.
M.S. Ronald Commers is Professor in Philosophy and
Ethics at Gent University. He is also president of the
Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry and has published
on humanism, modernity and ethical theory.
Wim Vandekerckhove
M. S. Ronald Commers