Workplace bullying in pharmacy – a study on prevalence, impacts and barriers to reporting
Journal of Health Organization and Management
ISSN: 1477-7266
Article publication date: 16 November 2023
Issue publication date: 24 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to estimate the prevalence of workplace bullying, personal and work-related impacts, reporting practices for bullying, and the reasons for not reporting bullying incidents in the New Zealand pharmacy sector.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted among registered pharmacists and pharmacist interns in New Zealand from June to August 2020. The questionnaire comprises both close-ended and semi-structured free-text questions. Goldberg’s 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assessed the respondents’ general psychological health status, and a 22-item Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) was used to estimate bullying prevalence together with the self-rated/self-labeled questions. The qualitative information obtained from the free-text responses was used to support and elaborate on the quantitative results.
Findings
The self-labeled prevalence of workplace bullying was 36.9%, with almost 10% reporting it occurring almost daily to several times per week. The 54.7% prevalence based on the NAQ-R assessment compares well with the prevalence of witnessing the incidents (58.5%). Psychological distress symptoms were experienced by 37.1% in pre-COVID and 45.3% during COVID-year 1. Supervisors or direct managers were the commonest perpetrators (32.7%). Only 28.8% of those who experienced bullying had reported the incidents formally.
Research limitations/implications
This study is cross-sectional, and the relationships indicated are bi-directional. The consistency of the results is reassuring, however inferring causality of effect is challenging. Future studies and analyses should focus on this. This study suggests that in the pharmacy environment bullying from the top is reasonably prevalent, is not commonly reported and requires the design and implementation of prevention and management strategies that take into account and mitigate these bullying factors. Professional pharmacy leadership organizations, National Health Authority and Pharmacy regulators could play a significant role in awareness and training to reduce bullying with the development and promotion of strategies to curb it and improve reporting.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to describe the prevalence and impact of workplace bullying, and the practices of reporting bullying incidents in the New Zealand pharmacy sector. Based on empirical evidence, pharmacists represent a small share of total healthcare workforce, yet the overall prevalence of bullying is consistent with professions with much larger numbers such as medicine and nursing.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the time and energy of all the participants who participated in this study. New Zealand Pharmacy Education and Research Foundation (NZPERF) provided a partial grant to carry out the research project, and the School of Pharmacy, University of Auckland, granted supplementary funding. The contributions of the Pharmacy Today, Pharmacy Guild, Clinical Advisory Pharmacists Association, New Zealand Hospital Pharmacists’ Association, Young Pharmacists Group, and Pharmaceutical Society of NZ were instrumental in disseminating the recruitment advertisement and the survey link to pharmacists across New Zealand.
The study was approved by the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee on 30th March 2020 for three years, Reference Number 024232.
Citation
Silwal, P., D'Souza, N., Aspden, T.J. and Scahill, S. (2024), "Workplace bullying in pharmacy – a study on prevalence, impacts and barriers to reporting", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-08-2022-0225
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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