Discrimination as a Mobbing Behavior

Discrimination is one of the oldest human topics because of human characteristics. From the perspective of last two centuries, it can be supposed that discrimination history is mostly about gender, nationality, race, or skin colour. The topic interested in here is not purely about discrimination in all aspects, but especially about discrimination in the workplace, discriminatory actions, or behaviours in the work-related environment. Discrimination can be considered as a harmful behaviour psychologically in terms of people who are subjected to it. If it occurs in the workplace or in work-related environments, the people who become victim cannot prevent it. At that time, discrimination can be discussed as a mobbing behaviour. Accordingly, the main issue of this chapter is discrimination as a mobbing behaviour.

Mobbing Syndrome as a Personality Disorder: The Consequences of Complicated Socialisation in the Symptoms of Occupational Destruction

The relevance of this study is conditioned by the need to identify the key preconditions and causes of increased violence in the workplace to find new methods of combating mobbing at both international and national levels. The purpose of this study is to analyse mobbing as a psychosocial and medical phenomenon, which is logical to consider with the symptoms of professional destruction. The study of mobbing syndrome took place in two stages based on synergetic methodology using such general scientific research methods as analysis, synthesis, comparison, and systematisation. The study identified the specific features of mobbing at the Ukrainian and world level. The authors considered the main causes of mobbing behaviour as a social issue, as a social phenomenon of the organisation, and as a form of collective violence. The study provides reasoning regarding the necessity of studying the mobbing syndrome from the standpoint of psychosocial and medical aspects. The authors analysed fractal dynamics of mobbing formation, presented in somatogenesis, psychogenesis, and sociogenesis. The study presents the main predictors of professional destruction, which include individual-personal, i.e., total control, manipulation, and conflict, etc., and clinical, which include emotional instability, narcissism, steroidism, and more. It is determined that the types of individual's socialisation develop in accordance with the defensive mechanisms that prevail upon restoring one's security. The study considered the specific features of the clinical aspect of personality disorder. The authors provided a general description of the narcissistic type of personality disorder as a structure of mobster. The practical value of this study lies in the interdisciplinary investigation of mobbing syndrome based on psychosocial and methodological factors

Variation in chick-a-dee call sequences, not in the fine structure of chick-a-dee calls, influences mobbing behaviour in mixed-species flocks

When animals vocalize under the threat of predation, variation in the structure of calls can play a vital role in survival. The chick-a-dee calls of chickadees and titmice provide a model system for studying communication in such contexts. In previous studies, birds’ responses to chick-a-dee calls covaried with call structure, but also with unmeasured and correlated parameters of the calling sequence, including duty cycle (the proportion of the calling sequence when a signal was present). In this study, we exposed flocks of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and heterospecific birds to playback of chick-a-dee calls and taxidermic models of predators. We quantified birds’ responses to variation in number of D notes and duty cycle of the signalling sequence. Chickadees and heterospecific birds responded more intensely to high-duty-cycle treatments, and equally to treatments where duty cycle was held constant and the number of D notes varied. Although our study does not disentangle the effects of call rate and duty cycle, it is the first to investigate independently the behavioural responses of birds to variation in structural and sequence-level parameters of the chick-a-dee call during a predator confrontation. Critically, our results confirm that the pattern previously observed in a feeding context holds true in a mobbing context: variation in calling sequences, not in call structure, is the salient acoustic feature of chick-a-dee calls. These results call into question the idea that chick-a-dee call structure carries allometric information about predator size, suggesting instead that sequence-level parameters play a central role in communication in a mobbing context.

Mobbing as an example of unethical behaviours at work

Currently, in the workplaces, the issues of behaviours classified as unethical or a violation of an employee’s dignity and personal rights are on the rise. Mobbing is one of the manifestations of such behaviours, described in the provisions of the Labour Code. The phenomenon of mobbing refers to the quality of interpersonal relationships at work and affects the operation of the entire organizational structure. This is a severe example of the violation of personal rights because such harassment is no less than a psychological terror affected by one or more persons against (typically) a single individual. The aim of this study is an analysis of mobbing, especially as regards the employer’s obligation to oppose mobbing practices. Ethical behaviour towards staff is not only a condition for observing the principles of community life in the work environment but it is the building block for creating a positive image of the employer in the business community. Mobbing behaviour impacts an organization’ image and poses several financial costs.

Social-bond strength influences vocally mediated recruitment to mobbing

Strong social bonds form between individuals in many group-living species, and these relationships can have important fitness benefits. When responding to vocalizations produced by groupmates, receivers are expected to adjust their behaviour depending on the nature of the bond they share with the signaller. Here we investigate whether the strength of the signaller–receiver social bond affects response to calls that attract others to help mob a predator. Using field-based playback experiments on a habituated population of wild dwarf mongooses ( Helogale parvula ), we first demonstrate that a particular vocalization given on detecting predatory snakes does act as a recruitment call; receivers were more likely to look, approach and engage in mobbing behaviour than in response to control close calls. We then show that individuals respond more strongly to these recruitment calls if they are from groupmates with whom they are more strongly bonded (those with whom they preferentially groom and forage). Our study, therefore, provides novel evidence about the anti-predator benefits of close bonds within social groups.

Responsiveness to conspecific distress calls is influenced by day-roost proximity in bats ( Saccopteryx bilineata )

Distress calls signal extreme physical distress, e.g. being caught by a predator. In many bat species, distress calls attract conspecifics. Because bats often occupy perennial day-roosts, they might adapt their responsiveness according to the social relevance in which distress calls are broadcast. Specifically, we hypothesized that conspecific distress calls broadcast within or in proximity to the day-roost would elicit a stronger responsiveness than distress calls broadcast at a foraging site. We analysed the distress calls and conducted playback experiments with the greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata , which occupies perennial day-roosts with a stable social group composition. S. bilineata reacted significantly differently depending on the playback's location. Bats were attracted to distress call playbacks within the day-roost and in proximity to it, but showed no obvious response to distress call playbacks at a foraging site. Hence, the bats adapted their responsiveness towards distress calls depending on the social relevance in which distress calls were broadcast. Distress calls within or in proximity to the day-roost are probably perceived as a greater threat and thus have a higher behavioural relevance than distress calls at foraging sites, either because bats want to assess the predation risk or because they engage in mobbing behaviour.

Is it safe to nest near bold neighbours? Spatial patterns in predation risk associated with the density of American Golden-Plover nest

Predation is one of the main factors explaining nesting mortality in most bird species. Birds can avoid nest predation or reduce predation pressure by breeding at higher latitude, showing anti-predator behaviour, and nesting in association with protective species. Plovers actively defend their territory by displaying early warning and aggressive/mobbing behaviour, potentially benefiting the neighbouring nests by decreasing their predation risk. To test for the existence of such a protective effect, we studied the influence of proximity to plover nests on predation risk of artificial nests on Igloolik Island (Nunavut, Canada) in July 2014. We predicted that the predation risk of artificial nests increases and decreases with the distance to and the density of plover nests, respectively. We monitored 18 plover nests and set 35 artificial nests at 30, 50, 100, 200 and 500 m from seven of those plover nests. Surprisingly, we showed that predation risk of artificial nests increases with the density of active plover nests. We also found a significant negative effect of the distance to the nearest active protector nest on predation risk of artificial nests. Understanding how the composition and structure of shorebird communities generate spatial patterns in predation risks represent a key step to better understand the importance of these species of conservation concern in tundra food webs.