Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Lisa Barrow

Abstract

Workplace bullying has affected more than 60 million workers in the United States. The specific problem was a lack of information about academic contrapower harassment on conflict management in higher educational institutions. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how administrators in higher educational institutions addressed student bullying of professors when reported by professors to administrators. The research question was to explore what conflict management strategies were used by school administrators in higher educational institutions to address targeted professors’ reports of student bullying. The conceptual framework for the study included academic contrapower harassment, student entitlement, and student consumerism. Seventeen professors who were targets of student bullying through social media participated. Semistructured interviews data were collected and analyzed by establishing three hierarchical coding nodes matching the interview questions contributing to thematic data saturation and triangulation. Findings showed that school administrators primarily used investigations, appeasing students, and practicing avoidance to respond to targeted professors’ reports of student bullying. Fifteen professors viewed bullying by students being problematic in higher education. Recommendations for future research comprise interventions about academic contrapower harassment from the school administrators’ perspectives. The implications for positive social change may occur when administrators in higher educational institutions increase the awareness of academic contrapower harassment, promote human self-worth, and evaluate the effectiveness of school administrators’ conflict management strategies to address workplace bullying.

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