Subject Matter Bullying

Workplace bullying is any aggressive behavior associated with work and intended to cause physical or psychological harm to another. [Brenner 2025.2] Subject matter bullying is a special kind of (usually workplace) bullying. Someone might be engaged in subject matter bullying when the intended harm inflicted on the target is a loss of social status, or denial of social status, with respect to the community concerned with the subject matter. For example, in the course of a debate among data architects about the causes of an database anomaly, subject matter bullying might be occurring when one participant engages in an ad hominem attack on another in order to reorient the debate toward criticisms of the target's favored architectural approach.

In this description, the phrase might be occurring is doing a lot of work. In subject matter bullying, the distinction between bullying and passionate debate can be subtle. One clarifying guideline is that in bullying, the advocates seek to advance their arguments by intentionally harming their debate opponents.

Perpetrators employ the tactics of subject matter bullying not merely to advance their own social status, though that is often a result. The primary motive of subject matter bullying, like all bullying, is inflicting harm on the target.

Identifying subject matter bullying

Identifying bullying in the workplace is sometimes difficult, because perpetrators use a variety of ploys to disguise their bullying. [Brenner 2010] But distinguishing subject matter bullying from ordinary work can be far more difficult than distinguishing other forms of bullying from ordinary work, for at least three reasons.

A degree of subject matter mastery is required

The debates within the community of a field of knowledge can be deep. Just understanding those debates can require a level of mastery many never attain. Distinguishing subject matter bullying from ordinary work can sometimes require a level of mastery beyond understanding the debates that arise in ordinary work.

Near the heart of the difficulty is the fact that the subject matter of subject matter bullying is the same as the subject matter of ordinary work. In other kinds of workplace bullying the subject matter might differ from the subject of ordinary work. It might be how privileges are granted, or what work is assigned. In subject matter bullying, the harm inflicted is much closer to the subject of the work. For example, the harm might be rejection in a humiliating manner of the target's idea for solving the problem at hand.

Contextual factors beyond the here and now can be significant

To fully appreciate the dynamics of subject matter bullying, a thorough grasp of contextual factors can be necessary. Knowing the past history of the relationships between bully and target (or between the allies of each) can affect whether or not we perceive an interaction as bullying. [Pinto, et al. 2023] Likewise, knowledge of the past history of the ideas espoused by perpetrator and target can also determine whether or not we perceive a given interaction as bullying.

For example, in a debate about the merits of the current design of a system, the perpetrator might sarcastically comment, "Although this design is fundamentally atrocious, the prototype didn't detonate when we first energized it." This might sound like nothing more than a wry comment, but when we know that the target's concept did detonate when first energized, the comment is more clearly a nasty attack.

Mobbing and collaborating can be isomorphic

In the context of bullying, the term mobbing refers to "concerted effort by a group of employees to isolate a co-worker through ostracism and denigration." [Denenberg & Braverman 2001] [Sloan, et al. 2010] But "concerted effort" is the essence of collaboration, which is the engine that drives development of knowledge in all fields. In the knowledge workplace, collaborations form and dissolve frequently. Some are actually virtual, in the sense that their members might meet only rarely in person.

Given this high level of structural fluidity, collaboration formation and dissolution can be a sign of a healthy community associated with a given field of knowledge. But such a social structure is also subject to mobbing. Secret conversations are easily arranged. Excluding, isolating, or expelling individuals is easily accomplished. Distinguishing mobbing from collaboration requires intimate knowledge of the group's communications.

Last words

Because inflicting harm on the target is at the center of any bullying, we can more easily recognize subject matter bullying if we first try to identify the person harmed. In subject matter bullying, the harm is expressed in terms of the target's loss of stature in the community that surrounds and supports the subject matter.  Top    Next Issue

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More articles on Workplace Bullying:

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How Workplace Bullies Use OODA: II

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When the Chair Is a Bully: III

When the chair of the meeting is so dominant that attendees withhold comments or slant contributions to please the chair, meeting output is at risk of corruption. Because chairs usually can retaliate against attendees who aren't "cooperative," this problem is difficult to address. Here's Part III of our exploration of the problem of bully chairs.

Strategies of Verbal Abusers

Verbal abuse at work has special properties, because it takes place in an environment in which verbal abuse is supposedly proscribed. Yet verbal abuse does happen at work. Here are three strategies abusers rely on to avoid disciplinary action.

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