Workplace bullying: a social network perspective

This chapter introduces a social network perspective on workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment. As a type of interpersonal interaction, bullying behaviours can be conceptualized as interpersonal ties, and the bullying ties among a set of individuals can be considered a social network. Moreover, many of the antecedents and consequences of bullying, such as social relationships and various types of interactions, are usefully understood and analysed as social networks. Adopting a social network perspective will not only provide new perspectives for theory development but will allow researchers to take advantage of well-established methods, thus improving our understanding of the social dynamics of workplace bullying.