The extant literature evidences the link between incivility and workplace culture. Both have a symbiotic relationship whereby a change in one influences the other. When workplace cultures develop dysfunctional values and beliefs, negative traditions, and caustic ways of interacting, they have become “toxic cultures.” This study examined Irish post-primary school teachers’ experiences of incivility and toxic culture in the workplace through in-depth interviews with forty-two participants. Results show that toxic work culture had a negative impact on both the personal and professional lives of the participants. We conclude that antecedents in toxic school culture are linked to epistemological assumptions, group dynamics, and deficiencies in leadership, and we suggest that they act as causes and/or facilitators of workplace bullying.

Background: Research evidence suggests that a multidisciplinary team approach improves the outcomes of patients with breast cancer. However, limited attention has examined the extent to which the clinical nurse specialist’s (CNS’s) role can impact Irish patients’ care, particularly given the novelty of this role in Ireland. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the informational role of CNSs in supporting Irish patients during their breast cancer journey and the extent of its impact on their care. Methods: Three Irish breast cancer teams were investigated. A Picker questionnaire was administered to more than 100 patients per team who had completed treatment. Questions focused on the patients’ journey from diagnosis through to treatment completion. Follow-up interviews with the teams’ CNSs were conducted to achieve a deeper understanding of the care received. Results: While patients reported an overall positive impression of their care, they were least satisfied with the amount of information and emotional support they received during their chemotherapy. Clinical nurse specialists commented that there is insufficient staffing in medical oncology to address this need in part because the ill-defined job description makes it difficult to quantify the impact of this role. Conclusions: The informational role of the CNS is inadequately recognized and is thus not currently able to fully address patients’ care needs. Implications for Practice: Clarification of the CNS’s role description in oncology care in Ireland is needed as is sufficient CNS staffing to maintain the vital informational role of CNSs throughout the patients’ breast cancer journey.

This paper explores how sensemaking theory offers a new perspective on HR's role during strategic change. As change in organisations today is less of a programme and more of a continuous cycle of business transformation, there has been a shift in focus to its underpinning, cognitive process of sensemaking. However, HR's role in developing sensemaking praxis in organisations is not widely researched to date. This paper addresses that gap. We draw on Eisenhardt and Sull's ‘simple rules’ whereby complex strategy praxis is reduced to a highly translatable, small number of key rules (2001). Through a diary study of middle managers engaging in strategic change, we investigate their real-time, lived sensemaking praxis. We conclude that HR have a significant contribution to play in developing an organisation's sensemaking praxis through four Simple Rules of Sensemaking: (1) plan creative discourse opportunities, (2) ensure leader-middle manager parity, (3) mutually direct sensemaking through ongoing re-planning and re-prioritisation, and (4) ensure leadership effort continues beyond the initiation of strategic change.

This article investigates why workers submit to managerial bullying and, in doing so, we extend the growing research on managerial control and workplace bullying. We employ a labour process lens to explore the rationality of management both engaging in and perpetuating bullying. Labour process theory posits that employee submission to workplace bullying can be a valuable method of managerial control and this article examines this assertion. Based on the qualitative feedback in a large-scale survey of nurses in Ireland, we find that management reframed bullying complaints as deficiencies in the competency and citizenship of employees. Such reframing took place at various critical junctures such as when employees resisted extremely pressurized environments and when they resisted bullying behaviours. We find that such reframing succeeds in suppressing resistance and elicits compliance in achieving organisational objectives. We demonstrate how a pervasive bullying culture oriented towards expanding management control weakens an ethical climate conducive to collegiality and the exercise of voice, and strengthens a more instrumental climate. Whilst such a climate can have negative outcomes for individuals, it may achieve desired organisational outcomes for management.