Heinz Leymann (17 July 1932 – 26 January 1999) was a
Swedish academic, famous for his studies on
mobbing
Mobbing, as a sociological term, refers either to bullying in any context, or specifically to that within the workplace, especially when perpetrated by a group rather than an individual.
Psychological and health effects
Victims of workplace mo ...
among humans. He held a degree in
pedagogical psychology, and another one in
psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior.
...
and worked as a psychologist. He was a professor at
Umeå University
Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present bord ...
.
Academic background
Born in 1932 in
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, Leymann, became a Swedish citizen in the mid-1950s, and was awarded his
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in pedagogical psychology from
Stockholm University
Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
in 1978. He then went on to get another research doctorate (''doktor i medicinsk vetenskap'', "doctor of medical science," typically translated into English as PhD) in psychiatry in 1990 from
Umeå University
Umeå University (; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a public university, public research university located in Umeå, in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present bord ...
. Somewhat unusually, his doctorate in psychiatry was based on his clinical background as a psychologist; he did not go through medical training.
Leymann's work on mobbing
Leymann pioneered research into
mobbing
Mobbing, as a sociological term, refers either to bullying in any context, or specifically to that within the workplace, especially when perpetrated by a group rather than an individual.
Psychological and health effects
Victims of workplace mo ...
in the 1980s. His initial research in the area was based on detailed case studies of a number of nurses who had committed or tried to commit
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
due to events at the workplace. He developed the
Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror (LIPT), a questionnaire of 45 mobbing actions.
Although he preferred the term
bullying
Bullying is the use of force, coercion, Suffering, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggression, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. On ...
in the context of school children, some have come to regard mobbing as a form of group bullying. As professor and practicing psychologist, Leymann also noted one of the side-effects of mobbing is
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...
and is frequently misdiagnosed.
Among researchers who have built on Leymann's work are:
* Davenport, Schwartz & Elliott
[Davenport NZ, Schwartz RD & Elliott G]
Mobbing, Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace
3rd Edition 2005, Civil Society Publishing. Ames, IA,
* Hecker
* Shallcross, Ramsay & Barker
*
Westhues
* Zapf & Einarsen
[Zapf D & Einarsen S 2005 "Mobbing at Work: Escalated Conflicts in Organizations." ]Counterproductive Work Behavior
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is employee's behavior that goes against the legitimate interests of an organization. This behavior can harm the organization, other people within it, and other people an ...
: Investigations of Actors and Targets. Fox, Suzy & Spector, Paul E. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
vii. p.
See also
*
Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror
*
Workplace bullying
Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes physical and/or emotional harm. It includes verbal, nonverbal
Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a non ...
References
Duffy, M., & Sperry, L. (2012). ''Mobbing: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions''. New York: Oxford University Press.
External links
The Mobbing EncyclopaediaWebsite concerning Leymann's work on mobbing.
Website dedicated to the research of Dr. Heinz Leymann.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leymann, Heinz
Academics and writers on bullying
Workplace harassment and bullying
1932 births
1999 deaths
Swedish psychologists
Swedish psychiatrists
Swedish people of German descent
Stockholm University alumni
Umeå University alumni
Academic staff of Umeå University
20th-century psychologists