Impacts of Workplace Bullying on Staff Psychological Wellness in Institutions of Higher Learning

This study aimed at exploring workplace bullying as psychological violence in institutions of higher learning in general and among the academic staff of the National University of Lesotho in particular. The purpose this study was to determine the influence of workplace bullying on staff psychological wellness. The findings of the study highlighted the following impacts of workplace bullying on staff psychological wellness: negative self-image, negative emotions, low energy level, and minimal self-motivation. The methodology for this study was the qualitative research approach, with an overarching intention of making meaning out of the meaning made by interviewees of their experiences related to workplace bullying. Data for this study was collected through a semi-structured interview on twenty academic staff members of the aforementioned institution. Data analysis was done through the iterative and inductive methods of the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), for the generation of an integrated narrative of interviewees’ meaning making of their experiences of workplace bullying.The researcher is of the opinion that workplace bullying as directly or vicariously experienced by interviewed staff of the National University of Lesotho can be coined ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. Workplace bullying can be said to be directly or indirectly linked to the following staff casualties, which coincided with the university restructuring programme: stroke, heart attacks, brain hemorrhage, and unknown numbers of staff members with dangerous levels of high blood pressure, insomnia, burnout, emotional imbalance, family collapse, paranoia, and depression.

Keywords: university restructuring; negative self-image; negative emotions; low energy level; minimal self-motivation.