Cliques, Rumors, and Gossip by the Water Cooler: Female Bullying in the Workplace

Aggression in the workplace has developed as a topic of interest to many in the past decade. Although aggression has been traditionally distinguished in the theoretical and empirical literature as sexual aggression (harassment) and nonsexual aggression, in this manuscript the authors will argue that there are also unique characteristics as well as effects upon recipients of a particular kind of nonsexual aggression: workplace bullying. In particular, a specific type of bullying primarily used by women, relational aggression, will be reviewed and recommendations for managers in addressing relational aggression and bullying in the workplace will be offered.