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A Dozen Free Online Articles
that Have to Do with Mobbing
in Academic and Other Workplaces
Compiled and annotated by Kenneth Westhues, University of Waterloo, in 2014.
2013
Full text online. The author is Professor of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University.
Apryll M. Stalcup, "Surviving Toxic Work Environments," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 405 (2013), pp. 1145-1147. Don't let the journal title scare you off. This article includes no technical language or professional jargon. It represents the application of rigorous scientific reasoning to a debilitating social problem. The toxicity described here comes not from some poisonous chemical compound but from destructive patterns of human interaction. A lot of wisdom in this short essay, and sound practical advice.
2012
Full text online as PDF. One of eight interrelated articles by these authors in a special issue of the journal on "Belonging and non-Belonging: Costs and Consequences in Academic Lives."
Michael Manley-Casimir et al., “Contextualizing Academic Lives,” Workplace: a Journal for Academic Labor 19 (2012), pp. 4-13. Thoughtful, comprehensive review of academic careers in their historical and institutional context, with analysis not only of extreme situations like mobbing but of "garden-variety" situations involving saga-keepers and newcomers. I can't imagine any professor, regardless of seniority or field, whose awareness of self and workmates would not be enhanced by this essay.
Carla Gunn, "The Big Chill: Secrecy, Exclusion, and Collusion in Academic Committees," University Affairs (March 2010), p 96. While not directly focused on mobbing, an insightful reflection on the poisonous culture of collusion and factional politics out of which mobbing cases often arise.
David Price, "Trial by FBI Investigation," Counterpunch (August 10, 2009). An account of the mobbing of Janice Harper, anthropology professor at University of Tennessee Knoxville. Raising concerns about the dearth of women faculty in her department appears to have provoked a barrage of wild charges against Harper, including the modish smear of being some kind of terrorist, a threat to national security. Police and FBI investigations turned up nothing against her, but UTK's Institutional Review Board joined the mob. Despite glowing academic evaluations and a college committee's unanimous vote to give her tenure, Harper lost her place on the UTK faculty in 2009. A lawsuit is pending.
James Randolph Hillard, "Workplace mobbing: are they really out to get your patient?" Current Psychiatry (8:4, April 2009), pp. 45-51. Many mobbing targets, probably the majority, consult with a mental-health professional at some point in the process. This may be of their own accord, at the suggestion of family or friends, or at management's direction. In any case, it is essential that they read Hillard's article before the visit, and print a copy to give to the professional. If the latter cannot believe the story of Dr. Hillard and Mr. G, he or she is not qualified to deal with a mobbing case.
Helen Hickey de Haven, "The Elephant in the Ivory Tower: Rampages in Higher Education and the Case for Institutional Liability," Journal of College and University Law 35 (No. 3, 2009), pp. 504-611. In this long, tough-minded, exhaustively researched article, De Haven makes prudent use of research on mobbing in the academic workplace. This is a far more insightful analysis of school shootings and similar tragedies than is found in the typical official reports. "Facing the institutional responsibility for the rampage phenomenon," she writes, "is not only the best way to tame the beast that lurks in our midst, endangering our cherished open spaces, it is also a way of transporting the academy as a whole into a future better adapted to the survival of its fundamental principles."
Gary
A. Olson, "Avoiding Academe's Ax Murderers," Chronicle
of Higher Education (October 15, 2008).
Concise, perceptive essay by a dean at Illinois State about
mobbing tendencies in academic departments. Reminiscent of Nietzsche's
adage, "Distrust all those in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."
People of this kind often arouse the same impulse in normally tolerant
individuals, and thereby a mob is born.
Sandra
Stokes and Sheri Klein, "In Their Own Words: Academic Mobbing: Is Gender
a Factor?" Women in Higher Education (May 2008). Click
here for the monthly
journal's homepage.
Two professors at campuses of the University of Wisconsin, one at
Green Bay and the other at Stout, describe what academic mobbing means
and relate it to issues of gender discrimination.
An informative article that begins with the story of a university instructor who "went from being on the A-list at work to being isolated, singled out for criticism and branded as 'trouble.'" Using examples from both inside and outside academe, O'Brien describes the variety of ways mobbing cases play out. She ends with practical suggestions for both individuals and organizations.
The prominent British English professor and Guardian columnist argues that mobbing belongs in the "lexicon of terms which, once we know them, make facts of working life around us materialise..." From his four decades in academic life, he recalls half a dozen cases he was, in one way or another, involved in.
Very well-written report of multi-method investigation of mobbing in universities. Gravois draws on research about both birds and humans, on his field trip to Southern Illinois University with one mobbing researcher, and on interviews with mobbing targets on that campus. This article nicely conveys the complexity of mobbing as a subject of social scientific inquiry.
While briefly summarizing the mobbing research and describing a professor's case, this article emphasizes what counselors can do to help. The advice is sensible and realistic.