Mobbing in the Public Sector: the Case of the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania and its Institutions

Abstract

One element of any organization’s success is its organizational culture that manifests itself through the creation of a value system and emphasis on the well-being of employees. In this context, mobbing is a phenomenon understood as psychological stress experienced by individuals at work as a result of certain actions by another person leading to negative consequences for the individual, the organization and society. Given the fact that mobbing in statutory organizations or in organisations involved in their activities has hardly been studied, this article aims to reveal the peculiarities of mobbing in the Ministry of National Defence of Lithuania and its institutions through the organizational environment and employees’ relationships. Two hundred and one participants responded to the questionnaire. It was found that mobbing exists in the Ministry of National Defence and its institutions, but the number of employees experiencing workplace bullying corresponds to the general trend established by scientific research. The results also revealed that mobbing does not depend on the employee’s length of service, it is most commonly expressed through verbal communication and women experience it more often than men. It can be stated that the prevention of mobbing in the institutions under analysis is very weak and conflicts are solved in a time-consuming manner, concentrating only on local measures.