Concept
Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers. Recently, matters of workplace harassment have gained interest among practitioners and researchers as it is becoming one of the most sensitive areas of effective workplace management, because a significant source of work stress is associated with aggressive behaviors at workplace. In Asian countries, workplace harassment is one of the poorly attended issues by managers in organizations. However, it attracted much attention from researchers and governments since the 1980s. Under occupational health and safety laws around the world, workplace harassment and workplace bullying are identified as being core psychosocial hazards. Overbearing supervision, constant criticism, and blocking promotions are all considered workplace harassment. Workplace harassment is also known by many other names. "Mobbing", "workplace bullying", "workplace mistreatment", "workplace aggression", "workplace molestation" and "workplace abuse" are all either synonymous or belong to the category of workplace harassment. Workplace harassment includes different types of discrimination and acts of violation that are not confined to one specific group. The wide-ranging types of workplace harassment can be loosely categorized into emotional and physical abuse. All of these forms of workplace harassment target various groups, including women, men, racial minorities, homosexuals, people with disabilities and immigrants. In essence, workplace harassment requires a pluralistic understanding, because it cannot be delineated in one coherent and concrete definition. Acknowledging the difficulty of formulating a universal definition of workplace harassment, Ezer broadly defines workplace harassment as "irrational repeated behavior towards an employee or group of employees, which represents a health and security risk. Any act of discrimination or assault that systematically disadvantage the employees is considered workplace harassment.