The workplace bullying: organizational change interface: emerging challenges for HRM

Abstract

hough previous research has established organizational change as an antecedent of workplace bullying, issues about the source, aetiology, target orientation and level of organizational involvement and the role of HRM remain unstudied. Addressing these gaps through a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry of Indian IT sector employees laid off during the 2008–2009 financial recession, downwards depersonalized bullying rooted in the organizational context, stemming from the implementation of the change endeavour and indicating the complicity of HR managers emerged as predominant. Apart from adding the perspective of workplace bullying to the lay-off literature, the study proposes the concept of ‘compounded bullying’ and has implications for the definition of workplace bullying, the legitimacy of organizational power and the scope of HRM.