Mobbing, Mental Health, and the Elusive, "Inclusive" Community

• In Event: Reconsidering Fairness Technologies: A Call for Critical Leadership Study of Mobbing and Managerialism

Abstract

Mental health impacts of mobbing including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation as a result of the isolation, degradation, and psychological terror. While targets suffer intensely, all members in mobbing-prone contexts operate in “a toxic work environment that supports a culture of secrecy, rumor, and innuendo and the presence of a veneer that brushes over organizational violence” (Sloan et al, pp. 91-2). On the rise too are pandemic-related mental health impacts on adults and children alike due to stressors related to the economy, childcare demands, personal health worries, grief and loss, isolation from support networks, etc. These intersect with ongoing stressors stemming from, among others, endemic racism, economic and housing insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, and trouble with addiction and recovery. Stress and trauma exacerbated by the pandemic, political polarization, and police violence disproportionately impacts vulnerable and historically marginalized communities.

In the third paper, Author 3 draws on decades of work in the Global North and South to explore implications for mobbing and mental health in mobbing-prone contexts of schools and universities. This presentation considers emerging demands to identify and adopt practices for a radical reconceptualization of instruction and administrative work to accommodate disparate student, parent, and employee needs. These occur in anxious organizational spaces confronting increased costs, declining revenues, and employees coping with pandemic stress in their own work and homelives. Worries about organizational viability may precipitate abusive behavior toward members deemed “weak-links”, “not pulling their weight”, or otherwise “out of step” with dominant groups. Author 3 considers the likelihood that some may initiate, participate, or fail to intervene in mobbing under such conditions and discusses the mental health implications of such actions or inaction (APA, 2021). Given the disparate impact of covid on marginalized communities, working women, the elderly, and the disabled, a particular mental health concern relates to the practices of mobbing and microaggressions. The mental health effects of mobbing can be particularly detrimental when mobbing behaviors appear to be consistent with expressions of support for diversity, equity and inclusion. Even more so when mobbing occurs between and among protected groups.

Author

• Chalmer Thompson, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis
  Presenting Author