Managing instrumental communication in the context of the perception of bullying among new employees

Introduction/background: Researchers have indicated that organizational change may indirectly affect workplace bullying. In the case of employees undergoing organizational change, the same stressors might be experienced only by new employees. Aim of the paper: The aim of the article is to identify whether work experience in the organization intensifies subjective perception of bullying in the process of instrumental communication and receiving negative feedback. Materials and methods: Relational and phenomenological methods were applied. Multi-phase mixed methods research included; shadowing, participant observation, discourse analysis, semi structured interviews, oral history interviews. Qualitative data (n = 67) gathered in the first stage in longitudinal studies was transformed into a questionnaire used in quantitative research (n = 267) in the second research stage. Results and conclusions: The findings indicate that improper conditions for decision realization, inadequate individualization of instructions and poor feedback intensify the subjective experience of bullying. Perceived bullying in the process of instrumental communication decreases with longer work experience within the given organization and not with overall work experience.