Increasingly, over the past decade, organizational scholars have turned their attention to the 'darker side' of employee behavior. This has included research related to bullying (Adams, 1992), mobbing (Leyman, 1990), psychological abuse (Keashly, Trott, & MacLean, 1994), work harassment (Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Hjelt-Back, 1994), counterproductive-deviant workplace behavior (Robinson & Bennett, 1995), unreliability (Hogan & Hogan, 1989), petty tyranny (Ashforth, 1994), office politics (Ferris & King, 1991), incivility (Andersson & Pearson, 1999), workplace aggression/violence (Baron & Neuman, 1996), organizational retaliatory behavior (Skarlicki & Folger, 1997), revenge (Bies & Tripp, 1996), and antisocial behavior (Giacalone & Greenberg, 1997). While the defining features of the behaviors subsumed under each of these labels vary, these phenomena do share at least one common characteristic. Implicit in all of these formulations is the notion that an individual, or group, is engaging in some form of behavior that would be considered harmful (or at the least, undesirable) to the target-individual, group, or organization. In short, all of these behaviors constitute workplace aggression-efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work or their organizations (Neuman & Baron, 1997a).

Consistent with this premise (and the arguments that I have made elsewhere; (e.g., Neuman & Baron, 1997a; 1998), the vast literature on human aggression may do much to inform all of the research streams cited above but the present paper will focus on workplace aggression and its relationship with bullying and worker productivity.

This paper is being written for three audiences: (1) the general working public, (2) academic researchers, and  (3) practitioners.  As a result, I will try to avoid the use of jargon and make every attempt to define and explain topics outside the realm of daily experience.

Some Basic Definitions

The following concepts are central to the present paper and require some explanation to assure a common understanding:

Aggression involves acts by individuals that are intended to harm other individuals or groups (Baron & Richardson, 1994). "Intentions" and "harm" are central and important elements of this definition. If one person attempts to harm another person but fails in this attempt, we would still consider this a form of aggression because there was intent to do harm. Conversely, if one person harms another by accident, this would not be considered an aggressive act. For example, a dentist may inflict pain on a patient but that harm is unintentional (at least I would hope that it is unintentional). As a result, the dentist's behavior would not be considered aggressive.

Another aspect of the definition of aggression involves the infliction of harm. This harm may be inflicted in some physical way (e.g., punching, biting, stabbing, pushing) or by means of verbal behavior (e.g., by means of yelling, shouting, cursing, insulting, degrading, or criticizing). Consequently, aggression can result in either physical or psychological harm to the target.

Workplace aggression involves efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work (or have worked) or the organizations in which they are presently (or were previously) employed (Neuman & Baron, 1997a). Workplace aggression can involve aggression by one coworker against another, superior against subordinate, or subordinate against superior.

Bullying involves deliberate, hurtful and repeated mistreatment of a target. Although bullying can occur among coworkers (or be directed by subordinates against superiors), the most common form of bullying involves the abuse of power by superiors against subordinates. It also is important to note that some people hold informal power over others as opposed to legitimate power; i.e., power granted by the organization to establish superior-subordinate relationships.

A very important aspect of the definition of bullying involves the fact that bullying involves repeated mistreatment of a target. In other words, the bully engages in repeated attacks against the target. This is one area where bullying and aggression are somewhat different. Aggression may include a single act and not an on-going pattern of harm-doing behavior. It is my contention that not all forms of aggression represent acts of bullying but all forms of bullying involve aggression. For example, product tampering, sabotage directed against an organization, and vandalism of company property are all forms of workplace aggression but they are not instances of bullying.

The Basic Propositions

The following propositions are central to my paper and I will explain each of them in the sections that follow:

1) Conditions that elicit hostile thoughts, unpleasant feelings, and/or physiological arousal lead to aggression.
2) Increasingly, such conditions are common in the modern workplace, resulting in perceptions of injustice, increased levels of stress, and negative affect.
3) These factors contribute to an atmosphere where bullying is more likely to occur.
4) Both the causes and consequences of aggression and bullying are enormously costly to organizations in both human and financial terms.