Workplace Mobbing

Workplace mobbing is a hostile and unethical communication, systematically aimed from one or more individuals towards mostly one individual, who are forced into a helpless position and are held in it by constant bullying. This article describes some of the most important characteristics of mobbing: offensive behaviour, organizational and non-organizational causes of this behaviour, the victim, and the consequences. Modern business environment is complex, dynamic, volatile, and requires better ability to adjust. Constant changes are a part of organizational reality, but they also produce an ideal environment for all kinds of conflicts. Conflicts are inevitable in every organization, but the task of its management is to identify them and resolve before they affect the workforce, productivity, and costs. The idea is to avert psychological abuse and aberrant behaviour such as mobbing that may cause physical and mental disorders. Mobbing is a problem of the modern society; as a violation of human rights it is relatively new and unrecognised in Croatia. Abuse is mostly psychological; it affects the victim's health and life, quality of work, productivity, profitability, and may lead to significant economic losses in the community. Mobbing can be averted by joint forces that would involve employees and management, medical and legal professionals, and even community as a whole. The more an organization pursues excellence based on trust and business ethics, the higher the probability that mobbing will be averted or stopped.