Understanding and Preventing Faculty-on-Faculty Bullying: A Psycho-Social-Organizational Approach by Darla J. Twale (review)

With an increasing focus on incivility in the American workplace, attention has turned to the issue of bullying. In her latest work, Understanding and Preventing Faculty-on-Faculty Bullying, Twale unravels bullying in the ivory tower from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Focusing on how "bullying is a voluntary deviant behavior that is deliberate and systematic and departs from standard workplace norms" (p. 8), Twale draws from psychological, sociological, and organizational lenses to develop a critical assessment of faculty interactions. Using examples that impact faculty at all levels and appointments, Twale demonstrates how daily interactions and institutional culture can create a hostile work environment.

Divided into four sections, Twale's work systematically unpacks bullying in the academy, as well as provides research-based evidence on how institutions can reduce and resolve instances of faculty bullying. The volume starts with an overview of bullying in the workplace, then shifts to analyzing bullying in the academy from disciplinary lenses. Each perspective of bullying—psychological, sociological, and organizational—garners its own chapter. From each perspective, the antecedents and effects of faculty bullying are analyzed with a variety of disciplinary-based theories, models, and frameworks. Mirroring the previous section, the third section provides readers dense yet succinct chapters on how to "recover, resolve, and restore" a civil academic work environment from each lens. The volume concludes with recommendations for future research, along with academic and practical resources for addressing and mediating bullying in the workplace.

This book serves as a useful guidebook to those in managerial roles in the academy and those looking for scholarship on cause and effect of bullying in academia. Charts about antecedents and effects of bullying and depictions of theory are extremely useful for those with minimal time for a comprehensive reading. The book's organization makes it extremely valuable for anyone dealing with or seeking to address faculty incivility.

Throughout the book, three main themes emerge. First, the decreasing number of tenure-track faculty and increasing number of professional and adjunct faculty are creating an environment ripe for hostility. As departmental dynamics shift from traditional tenure-based hierarchies, both older and younger faculty have to re-negotiate their presence in the department, which may directly impact not only careers, but personal well-being as well. Senior faculty may feel threatened by junior faculty members joining departments. Non-tenured faculty may also bully new or adjunct faculty to gain a sense of power within the department.

The increasing emphasis on research also creates bullying opportunities in the professoriate. Junior tenure-track faculty are especially vulnerable to being bullied, as they are trying to conduct research that will result in successful tenure review. "Tenure, autonomy, academic freedom, and a self-oriented profession contribute to an academic culture that can inculcate collegiality," acknowledges Twale, "as easily as it can inculcate competition, cynicism, blatant disregard, and disrespect" (p. 97). New faculty pursuing research agendas that do not align with departmental or institutional goals may receive harsh feedback, little support, and feel disconnected, which in turn affects personal motivation toward goals.

Finally, insecurity about resources impacts civility in the academic profession. In the book, Twale uses the example of how a department that is downsizing can be ripe for bullying. "With the focus shifting to possible retrenchment, exigency, or declining enrollment, chairs/deans have less time [End Page E-13] to address incivility and bullying in their midst" (p. 95). Connecting with the chapter on social interactions, more faculty must "jockey for position" among peers to stand out and receive resources (p. 74). Anxiety about job security and performance can lead to faculty bullying behaviors, whether faculty play the role of recipient or perpetrator.

Twale's work is especially strong in helping readers understand the importance of socialization to developing a culture of civility. From graduate students to junior faculty, current studies explore socialization in the context of career development (Gibbs & Griffin, 2013; Rhoades, Kiyama...