Bullying at work, a severe form of anti-social behaviour, has become an issue of major concern to workers, organisations, unions and governments. It has also received considerable attention in organisational behaviour and human resource management research over the past 20+ years. Research has been conducted on the prevalence of bullying at work and factors which contribute to bullying, but less attention has been accorded to personal coping with bullying and organisational-level responses to counteract bullying. The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of 36 organisations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organisation. Personal experience of bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organisation, and lower self-rated performance. Personal coping strategies were generally unrelated to these outcomes. On the other hand, the perceived effectiveness of organisational efforts to deal with bullying was considered an important contributor to both the occurrence of bullying and reduced negative effects of bullying. Overall, our findings illustrate the importance of developing organisational-level strategies to reduce the incidence of bullying and to counteract its negative impact, rather than expecting individuals to develop personal strategies to cope with this problem.

This study explores the role of human resource specialists in the handling of employee grievances. Most studies of HRM devolution have drawn only on the perceptions of managers and have neglected the area of grievances. The research highlights the employee experience of grievances under different levels of HRM devolution. The progression of fourteen grievance cases was investigated, accessing the full set of parties to each one. Data were gathered using a triangulated method involving 70 interviews, direct observation and written submissions. The findings suggest grievance handling is not readily accommodated within devolved HR structures. The role of HR staff in grievance processes can beill-defined and shows wide variation, causing problems for both line managers and employees. This lack of definition can lead to negative outcomes and damage the credibility of the HR department. The insights from this study are intended to initiate debate concerning the potential roles of HR practitioners in grievance handling.