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Workplace trauma can take place in various forms including abusive supervision or management, workplace bullying, vicarious traumatization, violence, compassion burnout, and workplace stress. For the most part, the perpetrators of these incidents can either be strangers, peers, or management within the organization. The aftermath of workplace trauma can be detrimental to a person’s physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and cause work-related issues. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the personal experiences of those in the mental health field who have been traumatized in the workplace specifically by the management within the organization. This study was directed by several theoretical frameworks, including the conservation of resources theory, social learning theory, social identity theory, social dominance theory, and gender role socialization theory. Candidates participated via an open-ended guided interview process where they could discuss their experiences and the aftermath of those experiences. The answers were then evaluated for common themes within the phenomenon. Suggestions for organizations to help reduce the occurrence of this type of workplace trauma and how to handle the aftermath should it occur are also included.

This qualitative thesis uses a method of narrative research to explore the effects of a traumatic practice experience on the 16 midwives interviewed for this project. It is an investigation of relationships at play influenced by power games and their consequences creating conflict. The issues of partnership and autonomous midwifery practice are the key drivers that make New Zealand midwives more likely to be blamed and their competence in practice challenged. Partnership negates domination for collaboration and as a result challenges the beliefs of the dominant groups of medicine and management. Midwives questioned why when they had coped with similar situations in the past was this incident ‘the straw that broke the camels back’. The investigation uncovers that the trauma experienced was prolonged due to a breakdown of relational trust in organisations, management, colleagues, women and self. The breach of trust altered the meaning of the traumatic event for the midwives which impacted on their personal and professional identities creating biographical disruption and exacerbating the initial stress reaction. Loss of personal and professional identities elicited grief which in most cases was disenfranchised and therefore not supported. Grief associated with maternal death was supported. As a result of the increase of emotional stress some of the midwives suffered illness such as anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder and chronic back pain implying that the aetiology of the disease could be emotions. These illnesses experienced by the midwives contributed to workforce attrition. Midwifery has an oral history whereby relationships are built and experiences shared, making narrative research an ideal method for this personal topic. The analysis of the study data draws upon the narrative concepts of Margaret Somers (1994), Arthur Frank (2005) and Davis and Harre (1990) and Bourdieu (1982) theory of economic practice to facilitate an understanding of the effects of these