Methodological Issues in the Measurement of Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is a complex phenomenon that reflects both an actual exposure and a subjective interpretation of this event. In order to achieve trustworthy knowledge about the bullying phenomenon, we need to have valid and reliable measurement inventories. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of measurement methods utilized in research on workplace bullying, including their challenges, strengths and limitations. We start out by presenting the main measurement methods that have been used within the field to this date, namely the self-labelling method and the behavioural experience method, and explain their similarities and differences. We continue by discussing some important advantages and disadvantages of the methods, and explain the use of operational criteria that can be used to determine levels exposure to bullying. This includes both subjective and statistical criteria (e.g., ROC-analyses and cluster analyses). After discussing the assessment of witnesses and perpetrators in order to verify accounts of bullying, we provide a brief discussion of 'targets' and 'victims' and explain why we should avoid using these concepts interchangeably in our research on bullying. The chapter concludes with a recommendation for a 'best practice' approach to the assessment of workplace bullying.