Workplace bullying and incivility: a systematic review of interventions

Workplace mistreatment has a negative impact on the health and well-being of approximately 20 per cent of workers. Despite this, few interventions have been evaluated and published. The purpose of this paper is to address the question “what interventions designed to reduce workplace bullying or incivility are effective and what can be learnt from evaluated interventions for future practice?”

A systematic review was undertaken in which 11 electronic databases were searched, yielding 5,364 records. Following screening on abstract and title, 31 papers were retained for detailed review and quality assessment. Subsequently, 12 interventions to address workplace bullying or incivility were critically appraised.

The papers spanned a wide range of approaches to and assumptions about resolving the problem of bullying and/or incivility. Half the studies focused on changing individual behaviours or knowledge about bullying or incivility, and duration of intervention ranged from two hours to two years. Only four studies were controlled before-after studies. Only three studies were classed as “moderate” in terms of quality, two of which were effective and one of which was partially effective.

A final synthesis of results of the review indicate that multi-component, organisational level interventions appear to have a positive effect on levels of incivility, and should be considered as a basis for developing interventions to address workplace bullying.