Spotlight On: Team member publications
Throughout the project we will be featuring summaries of publications from our BRIDGES at Work team members which have provided foundational knowledge for our current project. This week, we take a look at a publication from team members Yiqiong Li and Michelle Tuckey.
The full paper, entitled ‘Changing the underlying conditions relevant to workplace bullying through organisational redesign’, can be accessed here:
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054373
Intervention targeting underlying organisational conditions
Conventional organisational responses to workplace bullying (policies, training, investigations) often target surface behaviours, while the causes of bullying lie in deeper underlying organisational conditions, such as patterns in work design (i.e., job clarity, workload), people‑management practices (i.e., managing underperformance), and resource allocation (i.e., access to training and development),
What we did
We developed and evaluated a primary prevention approach aimed at transforming the organisational risk conditions that give rise to bullying. The intervention used co‑design principles, involving staff and managers in diagnosing and redesigning aspects of working conditions. Through a quantitative survey, the study examined how changes in job demands and job resources occurred as part of the intervention and tested whether those changes helped explain why bullying went down after the intervention. Through qualitative interviews and focus groups, the study identified additional mechanisms of change, including the foundations for successful organisational redesign and the processes that enable or hinder change execution.
Why this matters
The findings show that bullying can be prevented through well‑designed organisational‑level interventions, rather than relying solely on reactive measures. Changing how work is designed and and how people are managed can address root causes of bullying, and reductions in job demands serve as a key mechanism through which intervention effects occur. Qualitative insights reveal success factors such as shared ownership, clear processes, strong leadership support, and psychologically safe participation. Using this approach, organisations can “design out” bullying by reshaping the underlying people management contexts in which bullying develops.
Relevance to BRIDGES at Work
The organisational redesign approach presented in this study directly supports the BRIDGES at Work project. The bullying intervention shows how identifying recurring risk contexts provides a practical and evidence‑based pathway for primary prevention. BRIDGES at Work is applying this same logic to the prevention of workplace sexual harassment, identifying the risk contexts that enable sexual harrassment. Importantly, we will use co‑design in the same way - working collaboratively with leaders and employees to analyse the risk contexts and redesign the underlying organisational conditions that shape everyday interactions. Co‑design ensures that the people who understand the work best help create practical solutions that fit their context.