Dignity and Inclusion at Work

Book excerpt: The agenda of respectful workplaces is no more urgent than in the context of workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment. This becomes even more significant in the face of mistreatment linked to social identity and national culture. The chapters constituting Section 1 speak to the spectrum of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention undertaken within and beyond workplaces to tackle workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment. As well as organizational-related mechanisms, therapy, collective action and legislation are described. Normative angles, the challenges of actual practice and the contours of effectiveness are pinpointed. The increasing recognition of the conflation between category-based harassment and workplace bullying and the burgeoning cross-cultural lens of the substantive area are captured through the chapters of Section 2. Identities revolving around gender, sexuality, disability, caste and ethnicity serve as markers for mistreatment, underpinning the need to explore the dynamics of these situations in terms of causes, manifestations and consequences. Variations in the unfolding of negative acts due to cultural influences have been found, emphasizing that though misbehaviour is universal, it has country-specific characteristics.