Psychological Abuse At The Workplace

TRACKING A PATH OF DEBILITATION

The often devastating effect that sustained psychological abuse has on the target professes at differing rates for different people.  Targets claim that they are amazed at the effect the negative actions have on them.  When they can look back on the incidents that caused their misery, they ‘shake their head’ at the events and their consequences.  Most say they have never experienced anything like this before in their lives.  They say they have always been valued as an employee wherever they have worked.  They recount praise from their superiors and experiences of productive teamwork.  Their life experiences up until the time they suffered abuse had not necessitated developing coping skills to deal with the subtle, almost petty negative actions targeted at them.

The abuser destroys the target’s self-confidence and self-esteem over a period of time, and eventually changes the way they view themselves in relation to their surroundings.  They lose a sense of what is just and reasonable in workplace relations.  As they increasingly doubt their ability to carry out tasks, the value of their ideas and opinions, and their general worth in the organisation, they feel they have no right to any respect or standing in the organisation.  They take the blame themselves.  They can even believe they deserve the treatment they receive.

What communication processes take place to launch a strong, confident, capable person into a psychological decline so debilitating that they no longer function effectively at nay level?

The work of Biderman (1975), cited in the Amnesty International Report on Torture, provide insight into these processes.

Biderman’s research shows how psychological abusers isolate their targets from potential support systems, instil thoughts of despair, and use praise reward as part of the degenerating process. 

Biderman provides a model to explain the process of psychological abuse used during the Korean War to breakdown American soldiers into complete submission.

Although torture seems far removed from anything that could happen in the workplace, many parallels exist.

The outcome of this process ensures that ‘[the] victim is trapped in a situation in which the stresses are manipulated so as to constantly frustrate this need to behave in a consistent, learned personal behaviour pattern and in accordance with an esteemed self-image - both of which are necessary for the protection of basic self-identity.’  (1975. Pg. 52).

The following chart, (adapted from Mann, 1996, pp. 86-87) parallels the stages of psychological abuse inflicted on a victim in the workplace with those stages outlined in Biderman’s Chart of Coercion.

Once people become aware that they were targets of abuse, that they did not cause or deserve the abuse, and that the abusive actions caused a severe negative reaction for them their next questions include:

Why did this happen to me?
Why didn’t I see this coming?
Why couldn’t I do something to stop it?

In interviews with people who have survived this type of abuse, a number of common factors emerge for both the abuser and the target.  These factors have emerged as targets described their experiences at length.  The descriptions are not prescriptive to each case, but became regular comments during the interviews to develop a common theme.  The profile of the perpetrator emerges from the target’s description not the perpetrator’s.

The following charts summarise these factors under the headings of interpersonal skills, workstyle, and insecurity.

Profile of abuser

Profile of victim
 
Reproduced with the express permission of Robyn Mann (2000).

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