WORKPLACE BULLYING AS NEGOTIATION’S EVIL TWIN

High-profile incidents continue to fuel scholarly interest in bullying and other forms of mistreatment at work. This interest has led to a proliferation of overlapping definitions and descriptive theories that make it difficult to (1) differentiate workplace bullying from other problematic behaviors (e.g., abusive supervision, harassment, incivility, etc.) and (2) establish explanatory and predictive theories for it. We offer the present analysis to address both limitations. We begin by establishing workplace bullying as negotiation’s evil twin: both come as responses to conflict with the former constituting an illegitimate alternative to the latter. This perspective allows us to then draw on multiple cognitive and behavioral theories to explain why and when parties engage in bullying as well as how it influences targets to concede to otherwise unacceptable terms. In contrast to previous frameworks, ours suggests that anyone can bully and points to potential techniques for mounting effective defenses against it.