Subjective and objective evaluations on harassment: the construction of an organizational disease questionnaire

The aim of this study is to highlight the need to analyse harassment both from an objective and a subjective view-point. Most available measuring instruments--mainly self-report questionnaires--collect the likely or presumed victim's perceptions without paying much attention to data providing objective evidence. The construction of an organizational disease questionnaire, being presently carried out, tries to meet both needs. The questionnaire, based on Leymann's harassment model, contains a section specifically devoted to exploring objective aspects and aims at considering interventions to cope with various kinds of organizational disease. Two-hundred subjects, selected through a quota sampling, were presented with the questionnaire in this phase of the study. The findings show its usefulness in describing real disease situations, of variable intensity, in order to intervene by solving and preventing the disease, and enhancing organizational wellbeing.