Now that workplace bullying is being regarded as illicit behavior at work, it is necessary to establish guidelines to determine workplace bullying in order to obtain objectivity and consensus with respect to determining workplace bullying. If someone was found to have committed bullying, they would not just be labeled as bullying perpetrator at work but could be subject to discipline or be appointed to different position under the workplace bullying prevention law. The workplace prevention law is initially designed to induce organizations to come up with solutions at their disposal, which, though, has limitations in determining workplace bullying, given that the law is too general and inclusive to cover the concept of bullying.
The dissertation, in an effort to find out conceptual signature needed to clarify definition of workplace bullying, examines what constitutes the concept of bullying from the discourses over bullying intended to make bullying behavior illicit in advanced countries as well as relevant legalization cases and how the country proceeds with relevant bill. In addition, the dissertation looks into discourses over constitution of workplace bullying and interprets definitions of workplace bullying on the back of conceptual signature. We found that determination of bullying occurrence requires such interpretation.
The conceptual signature of workplace bullying may be represented by ‘repetitive persistence’ and ‘negating expression of exclusion’. Workplace bullying is a repetitive behavior pattern willfully intended to exclude or negate someone else by wielding entrusted power at work. In such situation, the victims are exposed to persistent bullying and naturally desire not to be placed under the same conditions. Given this, ‘any behavior reaching beyond proper scope of job position’, described in Article 76, Paragraph 2 of the Labor Standards Act, needs to be construed as ‘the behavior intended to inflict suffering on coworkers or exacerbate workplace environment by repetitively perpetrating bullying willfully intended to exclude or negate someone else’. Such interpretation is expected to cover overall context and situation surrounding bullying behaviors, contributing to objective determination on workplace bullying and positive application of workplace bullying prevention law.