Neill Thompson
I am a Chartered Psychologist and senior lecturer at Northumbria University.
Professionally I have predominantly worked in areas which could be classified as employee relations and motivation. My main interest areas are workplace bullying, employee selection and human factors in healthcare. Although I have occasional dalliances with quantitative studies (largely when forced) predominantly my interests are with qualitative approaches.
An area of personal interest I am trying to develop is introducing discourse analysis and conversation analysis approaches into my work.
Professionally I have predominantly worked in areas which could be classified as employee relations and motivation. My main interest areas are workplace bullying, employee selection and human factors in healthcare. Although I have occasional dalliances with quantitative studies (largely when forced) predominantly my interests are with qualitative approaches.
An area of personal interest I am trying to develop is introducing discourse analysis and conversation analysis approaches into my work.
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Papers by Neill Thompson
Objectives To examine the prevalence and impact of bullying behaviours between staff in the National Health Service (NHS) workplace, and to explore the barriers to reporting bullying.
Design Cross-sectional questionnaire and semi-structured interview.
Setting 7 NHS trusts in the North East of England.
Participants 2950 NHS staff, of whom 43 took part in a telephone interview.
Main outcome measures Prevalence of bullying was measured by the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ-R) and the impact of bullying was measured using indicators of psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire, GHQ-12), intentions to leave work, job satisfaction and self-reported sickness absence. Barriers to reporting bullying and sources of bullying were also examined.
Results Overall, 20% of staff reported having been bullied by other staff to some degree and 43% reported having witnessed bullying in the last 6 months. Male staff and staff with disabilities reported higher levels of bullying. There were no overall differences due to ethnicity, but some differences were detected on several negative behaviours. Bullying and witnessing bullying were associated with lower levels of psychological health and job satisfaction, and higher levels of intention to leave work. Managers were the most common source of bullying. Main barriers to reporting bullying were the perception that nothing would change, not wanting to be seen as a trouble-maker, the seniority of the bully and uncertainty over how policies would be implemented and bullying cases managed. Data from qualitative interviews supported these findings and identified workload pressures and organisational culture as factors contributing to workplace bullying.
Conclusions Bullying is a persistent problem in healthcare organisations which has significant negative outcomes for individuals and organisations.
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/6/e002628.full?sid=c0490879-49bd-4787-86b6-9d050fe86f55
Talks by Neill Thompson
Thompson, N.J. Carter, M., and Haylock, K.
This case study provides an account on the implementation and evaluation of a workplace bullying intervention, utilising a partnership approach between psychologists, specialist drama- based trainers and an NHS Trust. The study is noteworthy as one of few studies to have examined a workplace bullying intervention and offered empirical evidence towards efficacy.
Introduction
Bullying was identified as a significant problem in a UK healthcare organisation, with around 17% of staff reporting that they had been bullied by other staff in the previous 12 months. In response, the organisation implemented a drama-based training programme designed to tackle bullying. The project included an evaluation of the efficacy of this bullying intervention and outlined contextual/process factors that are important in delivery.
The strategy taken
A new HR Director prioritised the tackling of workplace bullying. The researchers provided advice on potential strategies and content of interventions and an external specialist training provider was commissioned to deliver. The first phase of the training had 179 staff members attend the training. The interactive drama scenario was tailored to the organisation, using relevant occupational roles and activities. For example, one scenario involved members of a clinical team and the negative behaviours demonstrated included gossiping about other staff, shouting at juniors, and undermining others. In the re-run of the scenario, trainees can ‘freeze’ the action and advise the actors on how to behave differently and what to say. A second phase of training has been redesigned using an internally facilitated DVD based format. An evaluation of this stage is currently being undertaken.
Measuring the impact of the project
In this paper we will describe the findings of a process and outcome evaluation. It is important not only to understand if an intervention works but also to understand how during implementation other factors may influence outcomes (Randall, Nielsen and Tvedt, 2009)
The evaluation of the effectiveness of the training programme was conducted across 3 time points (see Figure: 1). At the start of each training session, trainees were invited to participate in the evaluation study. They completed a questionnaire that asked about the prevalence of negative behaviours that they had experienced and witnessed in the workplace, their confidence in challenging bullying behaviours, their health and wellbeing, and intention to leave the organisation. At the end of the training session, they completed a questionnaire that asked about their confidence to challenge bullying behaviours, and what they found most and least useful about the training. Approximately two months after the training session, trainees were sent a follow-up questionnaire that asked about their experiences of negative behaviours since completion of the training, their confidence in challenging bullying behaviours, their health and wellbeing, and intention to leave the organisation.
The evaluation of the process and contextual factors involved seeking qualitative feedback from trainees through the post training questionnaire. Trainers involved in the delivery also produced short reports after each section to highlight factors which they were aware of which may have influenced the effectiveness of the training.
Figure 1: Overview of Evaluation Phases
Results
Results will be presented on the effect of the training on trainees’ experiences of bullying, wellbeing and intention to leave the organisation. Furthermore, focus will particularly be given to areas such as the effectiveness of the training in increasing trainees’ awareness of bullying behaviours and their confidence in challenging behaviours. Feedback from trainees on what they found most and least useful about the training will also be reported.
Practical Implications of the research
The practical implications of this research are that practitioners can use the overview provided in planning for their own training interventions. This might include considering drama-based training to address negative behaviours, or alternatively to be cognizant during planning stages of some of the contextual and process factors that we highlight. The case study provides important insights for furthering our knowledge of applying workplace bullying interventions. The collection of qualitative process data from key stakeholders and our ongoing evaluation of a second stage revised format of the training programme will be presented to offer insights for practitioners intending to design and deliver similar programmes. Factors such as the characteristics of the attending trainees, programme content, delivery and training transfer will be discussed.
The study not only provides an evidence base for a particular workplace intervention but also offers contextual factors for the future design of interventions.
Benefits to our knowledge
Despite progress in other area of Workplace bullying research, only a few studies have empirically examined interventions (Vessey, Demarco and DiFaziol, 2010; Vartia and Tehrani, 2012). Also, the case study offers an important contribution in responding to calls within occupational psychology for evidence based practices (Briner and Rousseau, 2011). Furthermore, a recent review of workplace bullying interviews highlighted that, although bullying training is often adopted by organisations in the UK, there remains limited supporting empirical evidence for the majority of interventions (Illing et al, 2012). Although modest in scope this study is important in moving research forward into attempting to address some of these significant research gaps.
References
Briner, R.B. and Rousseau, D.M. (2011) Evidence Based I-O Psychology: Not there yet. Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice. Vol 4.,1: 3-22
Illing JC, Carter M, Thompson NJ, Crampton, P.E.S., Morrow G.M., Howse, J.H,, Cooke, A. and Burford, B.C. (2012; currently under review) Evidence synthesis on the occurrence, causes, consequences, prevention and management of bullying and harassment behaviours to inform decision making in the NHS. Final report. NIHR Service Delivery and Organisation programme
Randall R, Nielsen K, Tvedt SD. (2009) The development of five scales to measure employees appraisals of organisational level stress management interventions. Work and Stress; 23: 1-23
Vartia M, Tehrani N (2012) Addressing bullying in the workplace. In: Tehrani N, ed. Workplace bullying: Symptoms and solutions. Routledge, Hove, UK; 213-229.
Vessey JA, Demarco R, DiFazio R.(2010) Bullying, harassment, and horizontal violence in the nursing workforce: the state of the science. Annual Review Nursing Research. ;28:133-157.
Workplace bullying is a significant problem in a NHS with around 17% of staff reporting that they had been bullied by other staff in the last 12 months. Despite the prevalence, there is very little research on effective interventions. This ongoing project aims to understand the problem and evaluate the efficacy of interventions.
Method:
Multiple methods were used: a survey of staff in 7 NHS organisations (n=2950), qualitative interviews (n=43), a realist review of 170 workplace bulling intervention related articles, and an evaluation of a drama based training intervention.
Results & Conclusion:
20% of staff reported being bullied and 43% reported having witnessed bullying. Bullying was associated with key negative outcomes. A range of interventions were identified along with key mechanisms of change and contextual factors that enabled and hindered their implementation. Findings will be discussed in relation to implications for practice and guidance for the implementation of organisational strategies. Future research directions related to intervention focused research will be discussed.
Despite the persistence of workplace bullying, there is very little research on bullying interventions. In practice there is an extensive range of services and interventions utilised to address workplace bullying. However, the efficacy of these interventions remains under-researched and there is a need for further investigation (Kompier et al., 1998). While there is an urgent need to develop and evaluate bullying interventions that have a long-term efficacy in the workplace, a primary stage in achieving this goal is to understand and evaluate current evidence. This project aimed to review the existing evidence for the efficacy of workplace bullying interventions and the conditions that they work.
Method:
We conducted a Realist review - a qualitative systematic review method whose goal is to identify and explain the interaction between context, mechanism and outcome. We searched 5 electronic databases and references of included articles seeking to identify interventions which are used to tackle workplace bullying. All study designs and outcomes were considered. To support the review workplace bullying experts, from academia and practice, were engaged with and a number of good practice case studies identified.
Results & Conclusion:
Results: 163 papers met our inclusion criteria. We reviewed a range of interventions that were reported as being used in the management of workplace bullying. These included; organisational policies, training, coaching, counselling, and organisational level strategies. Within these interventions mechanisms of change were identified that were reported to bring about positive outcomes. Contextual factors which enable and hinder interventions are described. Findings will be supported by evidence and illustrated through case study examples. Conclusions will be discussed in relation to implications for practice and guidance for the implementation of organisational strategies. A range of future research directions related to intervention focused research will be discussed.