Workplace bullying, gender, race and power: a review

Abstract

Introduction:

workplace bullying (WB) is considered violence based on humiliation, aggressions, psychological terror and abuse of power that interferes with workers’ health and the course of their careers.

Objective:

to analyze Brazilian scientific production on WB within the Health and Education fields considering gender, race and power relations.

Method:

integrative review using SciELO, Virtual Health Library-Regional Portal, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases. After analysis of 249 studies, published from 2006 to 2016, 20 articles were selected.

Results:

there is shortage of research that has gender and race as central categories; the studies points at the need for investigations into sexual harassment experienced by women; organization, working conditions and power relations were pointed out as central to the WB experiences.

Conclusion:

the findings reiterated the influence of WB on workers’ health, their family life and career development, and indicated the need to have the race and gender categories integrated into scientific investigations. Preventive programs and specific laws are recommended to avoid occupational and gender violences, and racism.

Keywords:
work; health; education; workplace mobbing; occupational health