Investigating the formation factors of organizational bullying in the university: the lived experience of young assistant professors of Guilan University

University as an institution emerging from the heart of society and academics as its thinkers, have a key role in social developments. However, in universities, there are factors that have distanced the university from achieving its main goal and led to the occurrence of destructive psychological phenomena such as organizational bullying. For this purpose, the present study was conducted with the aim of answering the question of what are the experiences of young assistant professors about organizational bullying in the university and what factors lead to its formation in the university environment.

The current research is of qualitative type and was done with interpretive phenomenology method. The research community consists of all the young assistant professors who are members of the faculty of Gilan University in 1401. Sampling of the current research was done with a purposeful and snowball method. After interviewing 16 men and 8 women, theoretical saturation was reached. The tool of this research was a semi-structured interview and the data was analyzed using Moustakas' multi-step method.

From the data analysis, 5 main themes related to the lived experience of young assistant professors from organizational bullying including being ignored, deprivation of facilities, rudeness, threats and imposition of double duties were obtained. Also, 5 main themes related to organizational bullying factors including individual factors and organizational factors were obtained. The main theme related to individual factors includes the personality characteristics of organizational bullies and the themes related to organizational factors include the weakness of the administrative system, organizational discrimination, distortion of laws and regulations, and inefficient management.

The results showed that many young assistant professors in their early years of service have experienced a type of vertical bullying from the top down, which usually includes being threatened, deprivation of research and administrative facilities and exploitation. Also, the lack of transparency in some laws and regulations, the weakness of the administrative system in the university and the discrimination in providing services and facilities to some professors have been the main reasons for the formation of bullying in the university.