Power harassment is a form of

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...

and

workplace bullying Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation. T ...

in which someone in a position of greater power uses that power to harass or bully a lower-ranking person. It includes a range of behavior from mild irritation and annoyances to serious

abuse Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

s which can even involve forced activity beyond the boundaries of the job description. Prohibited in some countries, power harassment is considered a form of illegal

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

and political and

psychological abuse Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic ...

. Types of power harassment include physical or psychological attacks, segregation, excessive or demeaning work assignments, and intrusion upon the victim's personal life. Power harassment may combine with other forms of bias and harassment, including

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

. In the context of sexual harassment, power harassment is distinguished from contra power harassment, in which the harasser is of lower rank than that of the victim, and peer harassment, in which the victim and harasser are of the same rank. The term "political power harassment" was coined by Ramona Rush in a 1993 paper on sexual harassment in academia. Because it operates to reinforce and justify an existing hierarchy, political power harassment can be difficult to assess.

By country

Japan

Although power harassment is not unique to Japan, it has received significant attention in Japan as a policy and legal problem since the 1990s. A government survey in 2016 found that more than 30% of workers had experienced power harassment in the preceding three years. The Japanese term "power harassment" () was independently coined by Yasuko Okada of

Tokoha Gakuen Junior College is a co-educational private junior college in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka City is the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, and the prefecture's second-largest city in both population and area. It has been populated since prehistoric times. ...

in 2002.''Yasuko Okada (岡田康子)'
職場で深刻化する「パワー・ハラスメント」
In TOKYO JINKEN vol. 15. (Published 2002-09-20 by Tokyo Metropolitan Human Rights Promotion Center). The Japanese courts have applied the general compensation principle of Article 709 of the

Civil Code of Japan The law of Japan refers to legal system in Japan, which is primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with precedents also playing an important role. Japan has a civil law legal system with six legal codes, which were greatly influenced by Ger ...

to compensate victims of workplace bullying and power harassment. In 2019, the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

adopted the Power Harassment Prevention Act, which amends the Labor Policy Comprehensive Promotion Act to require employers to address power harassment. The 2019 act creates a new Chapter 8 that addresses “remarks and behavior of people taking advantage of their superior positions in the workplace that exceed what is necessary and appropriate for the conduct of business, thereby harming the working environment of employees.” The law took effect for large employers on June 1, 2020. It prohibits the retaliatory discharge of employees who complain about power harassment and requires employers to put systems in place for reporting and addressing power harassment.

South Korea

The topic of power harassment is known in South Korea as

Gapjil Gapjil () is an expression referring to an arrogant and authoritarian attitude or actions of people in South Korea who have positions of power over others. Gapjil is a neologism made by combining the word Gap (갑; 甲)—the first of Heavenly ...

, and it has been recently increasingly discussed in Korean media and scholarly works.

Example

Many workers are forced by their superiors to perform tasks outside of their job description and

working hours Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid labor. Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regulate the work week by law, s ...

. It is common for workers to be fired or suffer severe repercussions if they do not satisfy their superior's orders, despite there being no justifiable basis for such orders. Situations exist where employees are treated in a manner that far oversteps the bounds of what is proper between a boss and his or her workers. Someone in a position of power should never be allowed to exercise the power in a

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

or discriminatory fashion. This can create an unhappy and unsafe work environment not just for those being harassed but for the entire work force. Typical examples of power harassment include: # being scolded in front of other colleagues, rebuked in a loud voice #

neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness and ...

# false evaluation and demotion.

References

Abuse Aggression Workplace bullying Business law Labour law Labor relations Economy of Japan Harassment Power (social and political) concepts {{Socio-stub

By country

Japan

South Korea

Example

See also

References