Effects of nursing organisational culture on face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying in the workplace

Abstract

Aims and objectives To investigate the current state of face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying among nurses in the workplace and to identify the effects of nursing organisational culture on face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying. Background It is important to accurately examine the current state of workplace bullying to acknowledge the gravity of the situation faced by nurses and devise prevention strategies. Electronic communication by computer or smartphone is widely used as a prompt and efficient means of facilitating nursing work; however, this leads to the possibility of cyberbullying as well as face-to-face bullying among nurses. Design Descriptive cross-sectional study. Methods A total of 226 staff nurses working in one of five upper tertiary hospitals in Korea with a career of 10 years or shorter were surveyed using a self-reported questionnaire. The collected data were evaluated using various statistical analyses, including hierarchical regression. Our study was applied to the STROBE checklist of items. Results The mean face-to-face bullying score was 1.32 +/- 0.53 and the cyberbullying score was 1.14 +/- 0.37 (possible range: 1-5); most were work-related negative experiences. The explanatory power of nursing organisational culture for face-to-face bullying was 6.3%, and relation-oriented culture and hierarchy-oriented culture were major factors affecting face-to-face bullying. The explanatory power of nursing organisational culture for cyberbullying was 4.3%, and relation-oriented culture was a major factor affecting cyberbullying. Conclusions Relation-oriented culture had a significant effect on both face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying. Therefore, organisations should strive to foster a relation-oriented nursing organisational culture in order to prevent and resolve workplace bullying among nurses. Relevance to clinical practice Cyberbullying should be addressed as an important type of workplace bullying in nursing, which occurs via various information and communication devices. To prevent workplace bullying among nurses, various strategies that promote relation-oriented nursing organisational cultures should be considered.