The mobbing experiences of white collar women in the workplace: A qualitative study on the types of mobbing exposure, experienced effects and perceptions of mobbing of white collar women employees in Ankara

The objective of this study is to discover how white collar women employees were subjected to mobbing in the workplace, by whom they were mobbed and what effects did they experience as a consequence of mobbing; and also to observe the perceptions of these women with regard to what constitutes as mobbing in the workplace. In order to be able to detect subtle details concerning mobbing cases that might prove difficult to statisticize within the scope of quantitative methods, and for the sake of enabling the victims to express their mobbing experiences with their own words so that their perceptions can be distinguished; a qualitative research method was adopted in this study. In this regard, 15 white collar women who are employed in various sectors and positions in Ankara province and who declare that they have been victims of mobbing in the workplace were chosen through snowball sampling method and semi-structured interviews were held with these women. Then, the proceedings of these interviews were thoroughly analysed to determine the codes, categories and themes; thus the similarities and differences between the mobbing incidents, the experienced mobbing consequences and the mobbing perceptions of the participants were uncovered and interpreted. In accordance with the study's findings, mobbing comes forward as quite a common problem that can result in dire consequences for white collar employees working in offices. A type of psychological terror or bullying that is applied systematically and for months – even years in some cases – in order to deactivate someone in the workplace or to force them into quitting; mobbing can induce loss of efficiency and resources in the workplace, can create a toxic work environment, can result in loss of prestige for the organisation and/or the executives, and can cause qualified employees to quit. Throughout the research, another significant finding was that the protective, preemptive and deterrent mechanisms against mobbing were widely ignored by the perpetrators. On the other hand, even though the mobbers of the participants varied in their rankings and not all the perpetrators were the executives, the entirety of the participants clearly expressed that they hold the executives responsible for preventing mobbing incidents in the workplace. Therefore, the findings were also studied with respect to upper echelons theory.