The Mobbing Encyclopaedia
Bullying; Whistleblowing
Some Historical Notes:
Research and the Term Mobbing
© Heinz Leymann - file 11120e
Corrected Sue Baxter
Mobbing is a word not previously used in this context in the English
language. It was used by the late Konrad Lorenz, an ethologist, in describing
animal group behavior. He termed the attacks from a group of smaller animals
threatening a single larger animal "mobbing" (Lorenz, 1991).
Later, a Swedish physician who happened to become interested in what children
could do to each other between their class hours, borrowed this terminology
from Lorenz and called the very destructive behavior in small groups of
children directed against (most often) a single child, "mobbing"
(Heinemann, 1972). The present research on this type of child behavior
has been carried out over the past 20 years, one of the most prominent
researchers being the Norwegian Dan Olweus
(e. g. 1993).
Following this tradition, I borrowed the word mobbing in the early eighties,
when I found a similar kind of behavior at work places. I deliberately
did not choose the English term "bullying", used by English and
Australian researchers (in the USA, the term "mobbing" is also
used), as very much of this disastrous communication certainly does not
have the characteristics of "bullying", but quite often is carried
out in a very sensitive manner, still having highly stigmatizing effects.
The connotation of bullying is physical aggression and threat. In fact,
bullying at school is strongly characterized by such physically aggressive
acts. In contrast, physical violence is very seldom found in mobbing
behavior at work. Rather, mobbing at work places is characterized by much
more sophisticated behaviors such as, for example, socially isolating the
victim. I suggest keeping the word bullying for activities between children
and teenagers at school and reserving the word mobbing for adult behavior
at workplaces. Other expressions found in the literature are harassment
or psychological terror.
Regarding mobbing at work places, a first publication in 1976 referred
to "the harassed worker" (Brodsky, 1976).
In that book, for the first time, typical cases of (what I later called)
mobbing can be studied. Nevertheless, Brodsky was not directly interested
in analyzing just these cases as they were presented along with cases of
work place accidents, physiological stress and exhaustion by long work
hours, monotonous work tasks, etc. This book focused on the hard life of
the simple worker and his situation, nowadays known by stress research.
Because of it´s socio-medical engagement and a poor discrimination
between ever so different stress situations at work places, the book, written
under the influence of the social and political left wing climate of the
late sixties and early seventies, had no influence at all on society. The
Swedish research in the early eighties came about without knowledge of
Brodskys work. The reason was instead a new work environment law
in Sweden from 1976 and a national research fund, offering great possibilities
to enter into new research areas within industrial psychology.