Mobbing in the Institutional Work Environment: The Example of Polish Prosecutors’ Offices

The survey is part of an identified research gap, which is the issue of mobbing behavior in the environment of common organizational units of the Polish prosecutor’s office. Data was collected by asking 1,891 people (which constituted 12.6% of all employees) in an anonymous survey, both prosecutors and assessors, as well as administrative staff, at all levels of the Polish prosecutor’s office. This is the first study of its kind in Poland and one of the few in general that addresses the institutional legal community. The findings confirm the fact that incidents of harassment at work are more frequent in organizations where duties are routine. The phenomenon of mobbing in the Polish prosecutor’s office is present and is not only of a marginal, incidental nature. Over a quarter of interviewees experienced at work behavior that falls under the statutory definition of mobbing. As expected, the predominant type of professional relationship in which mobbing occurs is a subordinate professional relationship (73% of cases), although in as many as 12% of cases mobbing occurred in equivalent relationships. The results also show the disturbing fact that this type of behavior is not reported (as many as 68% of the mobbed); the main reason being the lack of belief in the effectiveness of such actions and the lack of faith that formal disclosure will change anything. In the light of the facts learned, ways to overcome the identified negative phenomena are given as recommendations.