Pan-Pacific Conference XXXIV. Designing New Business Models in Developing Economies

demoralise individuals; (3) is often characterised by
power imbalance between involved parties; and (4)
is purposeful (http://en.wikipedia/org/wiki/bully).
Neuman and Baron (2005) also categorised bullying
behaviours as aggression. Zapf and Gross (2001) in
addition states that bullying indicates unresolved
social conflicts and an imbalance in power.
Therefore, in this meta-synthesis bullying is seen as
a form of aggressive behaviour, abuse power or
authority and destructive.
Workplace is defined as the physical environment
where individuals work and is, except for an
individual’s home, one of the most important social
environments where interpersonal interactions take
place (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/
english/workplace). Thus, for this meta-synthesis
the workplace is seen as a central concept that
includes resources, human capital, social
interactions, performance and job satisfaction.
Workplace aggression and bullying refer to
individuals’ counterproductive behaviour in the
place of work that harms individuals, groups and the
organisation (Fox & Spector, 2004). Workplace
aggression and bullying, for the purpose of this
paper refers to any counterproductive behaviour on
any level with intend to abuse power, harm, hurt,
demoralise and undermine individuals in the
workplace. Moreover, this leading to costs,
diminishing of productivity and well-being of
individual and organisations.
DESIGN
A qualitative meta-synthesis was applied due to its
careful and logical approach to analyse data across
qualitative studies and its acknowledged efficacy for
reviewing and combining qualitative literature
findings. (Erwin, Brotherson & Summers, 2011;
Smith, Fox & Trayner, 2015). Thus, qualitative
meta-synthesis is the interpretation of findings of
purposively selected qualitative studies.
METHOD
Meta-synthesis
This research explored qualitative studies on
workplace aggression and bullying in a variety of
study fields, including; education, business ethics,
human resources and management. The research
reported in this paper is a qualitative metasynthases.
The qualitative meta-synthesis approach
purposely and coherently examine data from a body
of qualitative studies (Erwin, Brotherson &
Summers, 2011). This approach implements an
interpretive process to integrate and compare
findings from existing qualitative studies to create
significant meaning (Sandelowski & Barroso,
2007).
The outcome of meta-synthesis contributes to a
shared understanding of specific phenomena and it
is important that phenomena is understood in
context and association. Eleven qualitative peerreviewed
and published research articles were
purposively sampled and these research studies are
implemented in the meta- synthesis in this paper.
The phenomenon aggression and bullying in the
workplace is reviewed and synthesized in a global
context and in a variety of career fields.
Literature Search and Selection Criteria
The selection criteria included peer-reviewed and
publishes articles. According to Bondas and Hall
(2007), ten to twelve purposively chosen articles
have to be included in a meta-synthesis to create
adequate meaning and validity. Ten articles were
included in this meta-synthesis. Articles were
searched based on the following search terms; (1)
qualitative research; (2) workplace aggression; (3)
workplace bullying; (4) aggression attributes; and
(5) consequences of aggression. Articles’ minimum
inclusion criteria in this meta-synthesis were to:
have a clearly defined qualitative methodology,
address aggression and or bullying in the
workplace,
be written and published in English to be
incorporated in the synthesis,
be published in peer-reviewed journals to
maintain scientific rigor, and
be published between 2005 and 2016.
Quality Appraisal
All ten qualitative articles were examined for
quality to consider their contribution to this metasynthesis
and uphold scientific rigour. Following
the critical reading and consideration of the articles,
quality of the studies were evaluated in terms of the
clarity and rigour of the studies’ research focus,
methodological approach/inquiry, and description of
critical findings with reference to the research
checklist of Taylor, Reeves, Ewings, Binns, Keast
and Mears (2000). Quality was considered
throughout all articles and higher quality articles
were included from which themes in the synthesis
were obtained.
Data Extraction and Analysis
Data extraction was completed by the two
independent review authors and included: (a)
author(s) and date of publication; (b) country of
origin: (c) research focus; (d) methodological
approach/inquiry; and critical findings: aggression /
bullying attributes and aggression / bullying
consequences. Myburgh and Poggenpoel (2009)
reason that synthesis is realised by upholding the
central concepts of each study and evaluating them
to other key concepts in the findings. Bondas and
Hall (2007) in Myburgh and Poggenpoel (2009)
argue that data correctness is achieved when the
meta-synthesis findings can be applied into other
contexts as well as reveal elements of real life
experiences.
FINDINGS
This meta-synthesis highlights important knowledge
and possible considerations associated with the
phenomenon of aggression and bullying in the
workplace. Aggression and bullying in the
workplace is a global phenomenon and concern,
seen through the research and evidence included in
this meta-synthesis from various countries such as
South Africa, USA, UK, Canada, Australia and
Belgium. The findings of these studies corroborated
aggression attributes, consequences and
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