title: An Exploration of Managers' Discourses of Workplace Bullying.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify discourses used by hospital nursing unit managers to characterize workplace bullying, and their roles and responsibilities in workplace bullying management.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Nurses around the world have reported being the targets of bullying. These nurses often report that their managers do not effectively help them resolve the issue. There is scant research that examines this topic from the perspective of managers.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a descriptive, qualitative study. Interviews were conducted with hospital nursing unit managers who were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. Data were analyzed using Willig's Foucauldian discourse analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Managers characterized bullying as an interpersonal issue involving the target and the perpetrator, as an intrapersonal issue attributable to characteristics of the perpetrator, or as an ambiguous situation. For interpersonal bullying, managers described supporting target's efforts to end bullying; for intrapersonal bullying, they described taking primary responsibility; and for ambiguous situations, they described several actions, including doing nothing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Managers have different responses to different categories of bullying. Efforts need to be made to make sure they are correctly identifying and appropriately responding to incidents of workplace bullying.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Tacoma, WA.
authors.forename: Susan L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Doris M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Boutain
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Jenny Hsin-Chun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Randal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Beaton
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Bothell, WA.
authors.forename: Arnold B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: de Castro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D058445:Bullying; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000523:psychology*; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000379:methods
keywords: Leadership; management; nursing research; occupational health; professional issue; workplace bullying