Does mobbing impact on witnesses?: An observational study in the nursing staff of a hospital in Buenos Aires

Abstract

Introduction: Mobbing is a set of unacceptable behaviors and practices, aimed at, causing or likely to cause physical, psychological, sexual or economic harm, and includes gender-based violence and harassment.

Objective: To analyze the impact of mobbing on witnesses and its relationship to job performance.

Methodological design: an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out in a hospital in the Buenos Aires suburban area. The sample consisted of 64 nursing professionals. Four evaluation instruments were used.

Results: In the sample studied, 51.6% had been victims of mobbing, 79.68% had witnessed this type of act and 37.5% reported that they currently feel harassed or psychologically bullied at work. The mean score obtained in the HPT-R was 65.51±25.96. The results show that witnesses suffer significantly more stress symptoms than non-witnesses. Witnesses presented higher means for the vast majority of the stress symptoms analyzed. When ANOVA test was applied, it was found that those who were witnesses had higher number of stress symptoms, HPT-R scores and lower professional performance.

Conclusions: Witnesses of psychological harassment at work had a higher perception of stress symptoms than those who did not, in addition to a higher overall score of perceived harassment and lower job performance.

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