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Purpose Adapting a positive business ethics framework, the purpose of this paper is to offer a new perspective to manage bullying at work. Specifically, this paper reports an empirical study which examines how the good work of servant leadership may lower employees’ exposure to workplace bullying, with compassion as a mediator and social cynicism beliefs (SCBs) as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were gathered from 337 essential health professionals working in various public and private health-care organisations in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model. Findings This study found that perceived servant leadership helps in lessening employee exposure to workplace bullying by strengthening their compassion. However, SCBs moderate the mediating role of compassion in employees’ perceptions of the servant leadership–bullying relationship. Research limitations/implications This study has implications in developing models of leadership to build employees’ empathetic resources to combat workplace bullying. The authors found that servant leadership and workplace compassion, embodying positive, ethical and sustainable attributes, play a crucial role in managing bullying at work by promoting relational dignity. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationships between employee perceptions of servant leadership, workplace bullying and employee compassion while considering SCBs as a boundary condition.

Alongside scholarly and societal dimensions of research impact, the meaningfulness of research, emerging from the link to context, is crucial. Authentic inclusion of Global South scholars based in the Global South aids these objectives.

To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors in chief of the journal have invited the editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentaries aimed at creating dialogue around the theme Technology, Megatrends and Work. Of all the profound changes in business, technology is perhaps the most ubiquitous. There is not a facet of our lives unaffected by internet technologies and artificial intelligence. The Journal of Business Ethics established a dedicated section that focuses on Technology and Business Ethics, yet issues related to this phenomenon run right through all the sections. Kirsten Martin, editor of the Technology and Business Ethics section, joins our interim social media editor, Hannah Trittin-UIbrich, to advance a human-centric approach to the development and application of digital technologies that places Business Ethics at centre of the analysis. For Shuili Du, technology is the defining condition for a new era of Corporate Social Responsibility—CSR 3.0—which she defines as “a company’s socially responsible strategies and practices that deal with key ethical and socio-technical issues associated with AI and related technologies on the one hand and leverage the power of AI and related technologies to tackle social and environmental problems on the other hand.” It is not just technologies that are a determining feature of our lives but technology companies, an argument made by Glen Whelan as he examines Big Business and the need for a Big Business Ethics as we try to understand the impact of Big Tech on our post-work world. Indeed, as noted by Ernesto Noronha and Premilla D’Cruz, megatrends in addition to advancement in technologies, namely globalization, the greening of economies, and changes in demographics and migration, are shaping the future for workers in ways previously unimaginable. Contributing to this important debate, Praveen Parboteeah considers the influence of another longstanding but oft overlooked megatrend, the role of religion in the workplace. Given the enormity of the influence of technology and other megatrends in our world, it is not surprising that this essay introduces ground-breaking ideas that speak to the future of business ethics research. To commemorate 40 years since the founding of the Journal of Business Ethics, the editors in chief of the journal have invitedthe editors to provide commentaries on the future of business ethics. This essay comprises a selection of commentariesaimed at creating dialogue around the theme Technology, Megatrends and Work. Of all the profound changes in business,technology is perhaps the most ubiquitous. There is not a facet of our lives unaffected by internet technologies and artificialintelligence. The Journal of Business Ethics established a dedicated section that focuses on Technology and Business Ethics,yet issues related to this phenomenon run right through all the sections. Kirsten Martin, editor of the Technology andBusiness Ethics section, joins our interim social media editor, Hannah Trittin-UIbrich, to advance a human-centric approachto the development and application of digital technologies that places Business Ethics at centre of the analysis. For ShuiliDu, technology is the defining condition for a new era of Corporate Social Responsibility—CSR 3.0—which she defines as“a company’s socially responsible strategies and practices that deal with key ethical and socio-technical issues associatedwith AI and related technologies on the one hand and leverage the power of AI and related technologies to tackle social andenvironmental problems on the other hand.” It is not just technologies that are a determining feature of our lives but technologycompanies, an argument made by Glen Whelan as he examines Big Business and the need for a Big Business Ethicsas we try to understand the impact of Big Tech on our post-work world. Indeed, as noted by Ernesto Noronha and PremillaD’Cruz, megatrends in addition to advancement in technologies, namely globalization, the greening of economies, andchanges in demographics and migration, are shaping the future for workers in ways previously unimaginable. Contributingto this important debate, Praveen Parboteeah considers the influence of another longstanding but oft overlooked megatrend,the role of religion in the workplace. Given the enormity of the influence of technology and other megatrends in our world,it is not surprising that this essay introduces ground-breaking ideas that speak to the future of business ethics research.

Engaging Polanyi’s embeddedness–disembeddedness framework, this study explored the work experiences of Bhil children employed in Indian Bt cottonseed GPNs. The innovative visual technique of drawings followed by interviews was used. Migrant children, working under debt bondage, underwent greater exploitation and perennial and severe depersonalized bullying, indicative of commodification of labour and disembeddedness. In contrast, children working in their home villages were not under debt bondage and underwent less exploitation and occasional and mild depersonalized bullying, indicative of how civil society organizations, along with the state, attempt to re-embed economic activities in the social context. Polanyi’s double movement was evident. ‘Place’ emerged as the pivotal factor determining children’s experiences. A ‘protective alliance’ of community controls and social power, associated with in-group affiliations and cohesive ties, stemming from a common village and tribal identity, aided children working at home for Bhil farmers. ‘Asymmetric intergroup inequality’ due to pronounced social identity and class differences, coupled with locational constraints and developmental disadvantage, made migrant children vulnerable targets. Social embeddedness influences how child workers are treated because it forces employers to be ethical and not engage in bullying. However, by shifting production to children’s home villages, there is an attempt to obscure the difference between child labour and child work. Thus, the seeds of disembeddedness are sown through the very act of re-embeddeding, potentially hampering future interventions.

The culturalist thesis remains pertinent to the field of workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment despite the universal presence of the problem across the globe. Nonetheless, most insights into the phenomenon come from Western inquiries conducted on Caucasian samples in the developed world, underscoring their limited generalizability and applicability to Eastern and Global South societies. Indeed, while the field of workplace bullying has been researched internationally for about 25 years, studies from Asia have been undertaken for a little over 10 years. Yet, deepening country-specific knowledge uniformly is especially important to inform and facilitate the design and execution of interventions customized to suit the context such that the (potential) effectiveness of action efforts is maximized. While the present volume focused on various countries in Asia is a step in this direction, the current chapter serves as a backdrop to the continent by providing an overview of the Asian context within which workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment unfold. The chapter juxtaposes Asia’s enormous diversity in terms of ethnicity, culture, history, political system, economy and climate vis-a-vis its fast-paced economic growth and contemporary global significance. In emphasizing the extremely complex sociocultural underpinnings of workplace bullying in Asia across the ‘varieties of workplace bullying’ conceptualization, the chapter provides a background to the much-needed Eastern perspective in the field.

Though workplace bullying is consistently seen as a violation of workplace dignity, this link, to date, has not been explored and substantiated. Moreover, while the field of workplace bullying increasingly recognizes its entwinement with identity-based harassment, the social category of sexual orientation has received limited attention. Further, Indian academic literature, so far, has not systematically researched lesbians, gays and bisexuals at work. Studying lesbians in Indian workplaces through phenomenological case studies subjected to ideographic within-case analyses and nomothetic cross-case analysis, this chapter addresses the three aforementioned gaps by speaking to the interface between workplace bullying and sexual identity through the lens of workplace dignity. Facing internal interpersonal bullying in real and cyber forms due to the hegemony of heteronormativity in workplaces which espoused anti-homosexuality sentiments, participants experienced relational/subjective indignity ‘in work’ and objectivity indignity ‘at work’ though inherent dignity remained intact. Authenticity, however, was a contentious and complex issue. Apart from furthering knowledge vis-a-vis the three aforementioned gaps, the chapter makes a pioneering contribution by propounding a theoretical model linking workplace bullying and workplace dignity, underscoring why dignity serves as the ideal foundational meta-frame for the field of workplace bullying going forwards and highlighting how attention to both relational/subjective and objective dignity makes workplace bullying intervention endeavours more holistic, nuanced, accurate and responsible and, therefore, potentially more effective.

This chapter presents an international state-of-the-art literature review of abusive trolling experienced by workers in the creative and cultural industries (CCIs), bringing target experiences and organizational/occupational perspectives to the forefront and contributing to the still-evolving understanding of trolling. The abusive trolling encountered by creative and cultural workers essentially reflects workplace cyberbullying at the interpersonal level stemming from external sources, as captured by D'Cruz and Noronha's ‘varieties of workplace bullying' framework, and provides evidence for the category-based cyber abuse at the workplace. Apart from discussing the responses of creative and cultural workers to abusive trolling, interventions employed to manage trolling in the CCIs are reviewed and future research directions are forwarded.

Drawing from in-depth interviews of cleaners employed in the cleaning industry in India, the study examines the ongoing process of constructing a positive identity among dirty workers. Cleaners respond to the intense identity struggles emerging from caste stigma, dirty taint, and precarity by constructing ambivalent identities. Cleaners’ identity work is constituted by the very identity struggles they encounter, and their efforts to negotiate stigmatized identities further create identity tensions. Apart from accenting the paradoxical duality inhered in identity work, the findings show how caste/class inequalities are reworked in a neoliberal milieu and reproduced in identity construction processes. The findings call attention to caste as an important social category in organizational studies that has implications for work identities, dirty work, and precarious work.

In this article, we shift the usual analytical attention of the GPN framework from lead firms to suppliers in the network and from production to IT services. Our focus is on how Indian IT suppliers embed in the Netherlands along the threefold characterization of societal, territorial and network embeddedness. We argue that Indian IT suppliers attempt to display societal embeddedness when they move to The Netherlands. Our findings reveal that the endeavour by Indian IT suppliers to territorially dis-embed from the Dutch context is reinforced by their peripheral position in the network and their ability to offshore work in a bid to contain costs, in addition to the influence of client domination. Therefore, territorial embeddedness is considered to be secondary to societal embeddedness which is intertwined with client interest while neglecting the interest of other network members. Nonetheless, the inter-firm relationship is complex, given the tension between societal, territorial and network embeddedness. While preferring Indian IT suppliers because of their low pricing, Dutch clients also insist on compliance with the institutional context of the Netherlands especially when it comes to Dutch employees. This results in hybridization which means that Indian IT suppliers find ways to adhere to the institutional framework for Dutch nationals while simultaneously insulating Indian employees from the same. Consequently, a highly unfair segmented internal labour market develops, with Dutch nationals being treated more favourably as compared to Indian nationals. Nonetheless, to address these violations, Indian employees prefer individual strategies of resilience and rework rather than a collectivization response.

Increasing global competition has intensified the use of informal sector workforce worldwide. This phenomenon is true with regard to India, where 92% of the workers hold precarious jobs. Our study examines the dynamics of workplace dignity in the context of Indian security guards deployed as contract labour by private suppliers, recognising that security guards’ jobs were marked by easy access, low status, disrespect and precariousness. The experiences of guards serving bank ATMs were compared with those working in large reputed organisations. The former reported loss of dignity though their inherent self-worth remained partially intact, whereas the latter reclaimed dignity despite the precarious working conditions and the absence of unions. Guards from large reputed organisations evolved strategies by which they took advantage of the client’s vulnerabilities, developed ‘thick’ relationships at work and immersed themselves in 'doing dignity work' to ensure that they are not disposable. ‘Doing dignity work’ was a visible device which involved actions that met or went beyond the norms laid down by the client and was used by security guards to limit the extent of their precariousness. Since the opportunity to reclaim dignity was facilitated by large reputed clients’ adherence to legal regulations, we see implications of the study for the moral economy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report a study of targets’ experiences of cyberbullying on online labour markets (OLMs). In addition to highlighting the link between targets’ coping and power and control, the paper compares conventional and digital workplaces. Design/methodology/approach The method of critical hermeneutic phenomenology is used in the inquiry, bringing political and applied dimensions into the study. Targets’ lived experiences, developed as case studies, were explored via conversational interviews. Thematic analysis was undertaken ideographically, followed by ideology-critique at a nomothetic level. Adopting the psychological/behavioural lens of coping theory, ideology-critique identified micro-level schemas and macro-level ideologies that perpetuate target disenfranchisement. Critical hermeneutic phenomenology illuminates the mutuality between individual and social processes, opening new doors to address power inequities through emancipation. Findings Hermeneutic phenomenology uncovered the core theme of “pursuing holistic and long-term well-being”, capturing targets’ attempts at working through their experiences of bullying without jeopardising their position on the OLM. Ideology-critique went beyond highlighting problem-focussed and emotion-focussed coping strategies that empowered targets to indicate how participants’ mindsets, anchored in ongoing circumstantial discourses and long-standing social cognitions, inhibited them from questioning the status quo and exploring alternative coping strategies like legislation and collectivisation, thereby curbing their agency. The findings were theorised in terms of power and control vis-à-vis the unique attributes of workplace cyberbullying, comparing and contrasting conventional and virtual workplaces. Research limitations/implications The inquiry is limited to the Upwork platform. Including other OLMs will enhance theoretical generalisability. Practical implications The study feeds into praxis by alerting digital workers in general and targets in particular about their circumstances, setting the stage for mobilisation. Originality/value The study makes several pioneering contributions. First, it reports the first empirical inquiry examining bullying in digital workplaces, importantly, also extending knowledge on cyberbullying across conventional versus digital workplaces. Moreover, OLM research on abuse and harassment has not been undertaken so far. Second, methodologically, the inquiry illustrates the combination of hermeneutic phenomenology with ideology-critique, taking the rare steps of joining ontological perspectives conventionally viewed as divergent and of incorporating a largely neglected micro-level focus into ideology-critique. Third, it furthers theoretical insights into power and control in workplace bullying while drawing links with coping.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report a study of bullying on online labour markets (OLMs), highlighting how abuse unfolds in digital workplaces and depicting the trajectory of target resilience. Design/methodology/approach Adopting van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology, targets’ lived experiences of bullying on OLMs was explored. Data gathered from Indian freelancers located on Upwork via conversational telephonic interviews were subjected to sententious and selective thematic analyses. Findings The core theme of “pursuing long-term and holistic well-being” showed how targets tapped into yet augmented their resilience while navigating the features of OLMs as they coped with their experiences of bullying. The interface between targets’ internal and external resources, including platform support, vis-à-vis the concreteness and permanence of the site as targets asserted agency, sought control and realized positive outcomes while preserving their reputation, relationality, success and continuity was captured. It may be noted that bullying in digital workplaces is exclusively virtual in form. Research limitations/implications Alongside theoretical generalizability, statistical generalizability of the findings should be established. Practical implications Recommendations for action for platforms and targets are forwarded. In particular, the critical role of formal workplace support in influencing employee resilience is emphasized. Originality/value The paper makes several pioneering contributions. First, it reports the first empirical inquiry examining bullying in digital workplaces. Moreover, OLM research on abuse and harassment has not been undertaken so far. Second, it furthers theorization of resilience, especially with regard to workplace antecedents. Apart from identifying the new organizational antecedent of formal workplace support, it uncovers the complexities of resilience. Third, it extends knowledge on workplace cyberbullying, positive outcomes of workplace bullying and OLMs in India.

Workplace bullying literature has focused mainly on actions of individual targets of mistreatment, undertaken to address the problem, and on analyses of the effectiveness of responses. Less attention has been paid to the efficacy of state regulation in establishing a climate of prevention as well as redress. We examine the role of the Dutch Working Conditions Act as a means of mitigating workplace bullying from the perspective of legislative intention, processes and outcomes. Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in creating, influencing and implementing the Act are analysed thematically to highlight how contextual, employer and phenomenon-specific factors affect the effectiveness of legislation with regard to workplace bullying. The findings indicate that state involvement, organisational commitment and collective action are all important contributors in reducing workplace bullying, but that even in the context of neoliberalism, the role of the nation-state is of critical importance, notwithstanding initiatives by employers. JEL Codes: J58, J78, J81, M54

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between servant leadership, workplace bullying and employee compassion. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating role of social cyni...

Socio-economic discrimination based on class, race, and gender has been a subject of exploration for scholars of organization studies for many years (Amis, Mair & Munir, 2020; Bapuji, Ertug & Shaw,...

The use of influence strategies is an integral component of the salesperson's role, while selling to retailers. However, it remains a chronically under-researched area, particularly so in emerging markets, which are distinct in terms of retail formats and salesperson challenges. In this study, we investigate influence strategies used by salespersons for selling to retailers in the dominant small retail format in India. Using a combination of observation techniques and in-depth interviews, we allow salesperson influence strategies at play to emerge. In comparison to extant literature, we find evidence for both universality and specificity in the types of influence strategies used at small retail. We identify ‘share of counter’ as a unique small retail phenomenon, potentially requiring a specific set of salesperson influence strategies to succeed. Based on this, a modified typology of salesperson influence strategies, specific to small retail, is proposed. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and ma...

Telework is defined as using information and communications technologies to work beyond the employers’ premises. In India, the dominant notion is that telework is meant for married people and women who are primarily employed in the information technology/information technology-enabled services, or the finance or media sectors. The chapter finds that although employees from these sectors dominate telework, but other sectors such as hospitality, telecommunications and manufacturing also employ teleworkers. Teleworking is not only restricted to married women, but is equally availed of by both married men and unmarried employees. However, teleworking is not an employee prerogative; the final decision rests with management, which must implement measures to maintain control. Not surprisingly, a substantial number of teleworking employees report that they work all the time. Consequently, teleworkers argue that employees should have more say when it comes to setting targets, influencing performance appraisals and accessing promotions, privileges, leave and holidays, and overtime payments.

The Indian industrial relations system is dominated by the state machinery which controls the process of conciliation, arbitration and adjudication. In this chapter, we focus on conciliation which, in the Indian context, means an effort to mediate between employers and employees. Over time, with fewer cases being mediated, there has been considerable disillusionment with the system of conciliation. The conciliation officer’s (CO’s) role has been reduced to that of a postman/postwoman who refers cases to adjudication while employers use the process as a delaying tactic to ultimately force employees to settle or withdraw disputes. Indeed, conciliation has not been used effectively or served the purpose for which it was created. Nonetheless, both employers and employees do not want the process be abandoned. Indeed, conciliation could be a cheap and quick process if used appropriately.

Across the globe, the platform economy, comprising online and offline variants, engages freelancers as independent contractors, excluding them from employee status, thereby advancing precarity. Internationally, there are various initiatives to address the vulnerabilities of platform workers. Indian online freelancers hold mixed views about their predicament, considering their gains juxtaposed against their problems. In dealing with these contradictions, some freelancers invoke merit and conformity, deeming regulation and collectivization as irrelevant, while other freelancers, acknowledging merit and conformity, emphasize the importance of external oversight. Enhancing the prospects of Indian platform workers appears to be left to the endeavours of progressive pressure groups within the subcontinent, perhaps aided by the middle-class membership of the workforce. Alongside this, international responses unifying the voice of labour across the North-South divide and placing the platform economy within the purview of non-standard employment at least and standard employment at best are relevant ways ahead.

In this article, the authors argue that offshoring of legal work from the United States has contributed to the fracturing of the long-established internal labor market arrangements in large U.S. law firms. Drawing on evidence from the United States and India on legal employment, the growth of offshoring, and the rapidly changing nature of work that is offshored, the authors contend that the changes in employment systems in law firms are likely to be permanent, in contrast to other researchers who suggest they are temporary adjustments to the financial crisis. As U.S. law firms are dismantling their internal labor market systems, Indian law firms are partially recreating them.

As well as presenting the first empirical study on workplace bullying in the context of child labour, this chapter extends the substantive area through its focus on the agricultural sector, the rural economy and non-standard employment. Drawing on a larger multi-focus, multisource and mixed-method study, the chapter details the exploitation and abuse encountered by Indian child workers below the age of 18 years migrating from Rajasthan to undertake manual cross-pollination on Bt cottonseed farms in Gujarat. Despite international conventions and Indian regulations on child rights and child labour, child workers were found to perform the worst kinds of child labour and hazardous work. Against a backdrop of exploitation based on substandard working conditions, child workers face physical violence, bullying and sexual harassment. Class and caste/tribal identities (as well as gender), alongside corruption, inadequate oversight of the agricultural and informal sectors and successful resistance of perpetrators and their allies against concerted efforts to curb child labour play an important role. The chapter’s seminal contributions include redefining age within the field of workplace bullying whose focus is on adult workers and reconceptualizing the manifestations of workplace bullying to incorporate Eastern and developing country perspectives, in addition to speaking to the issues of bystanders, boundarylessness, power, workplace friendship, social support and dignity.

This chapter makes an original contribution to the substantive area by showing forgiveness as a new response which helps targets of workplace bullying overcome harm and experience healing. Forgiveness, as with the extant literature on identity work and resilience, is associated with targets’ sense of well-being. Drawing on a hermeneutic phenomenological study of IT and ITES-BPO employees in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, India, the chapter describes the dynamics of forgiveness experienced by targets. Conversational interviews held with 24 participants identified mainly via snowball sampling were thematically analysed. Genuine forgiveness, moving on without forgiving and maintaining unforgiveness emerged as the core themes which depicted three trajectories of forgiveness. Targets reported a sense of well-being and healing regardless of the specificity of their forgiveness response. Genuine forgiveness and moving on without forgiving portrayed elements of both spiritualism and materialism, thereby underscoring the complex sociocultural fabric of Indian society.

This chapter reports a pioneering study on workplace bullying in digital workplaces, taking the field in a new direction. In addition, it makes further contributions by providing insights on the interface between emotional abuse and the informal economy. Adopting van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenology, targets’ lived experiences of bullying on online labour markets were explored. Data gathered from Indian freelancers located on Upwork via conversational telephonic interviews were subjected to sententious and selective thematic analyses. The core theme of ‘pursuing long-term and holistic well-being’, along with its major themes, themes and subthemes, was recast to match a priori categories identified from the literature on bullying in conventional workplaces, namely, sources, manifestations, aetiology, outcomes, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. In highlighting the features of bullying in digital workplaces and comparing them with conventional workplaces to show similarities and differences, the chapter rewrites the dynamics of the substantive area. Moreover, the findings which advance insights into the positive relationship between workplace bullying and non-standard employment in the novel work context of online labour markets are particularly pertinent to India where a disproportionate part of the workforce is engaged in the informal economy. Recommendations for action in terms of regulation and collectivization are proposed.

This chapter brings novel theoretical contributions that advance the concept of external bullying at work. Based on a hermeneutic phenomenological study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of beauty service workers employed in unisex salon chains in Bangalore, India, the present chapter examines customer abuse in the context of interactive bodywork. Taking into account the stigmatized nature of beauty service work, the chapter notes that employees in salons experience customer abuse because of occupational features of a low-skilled, low-status and sexualized job, in addition to the unequal power relationship between them and their customers arising from the notion of customer sovereignty. Gender, caste and regional identity also play a role. Beauty service workers feel humiliated and helpless during negative customer encounters. However, they endure and overcome the abuse due to favourable aspects of their jobs, namely, occupational, organizational and contextual factors which make beauty service work a high-profile offering due to its commercial, professional and branded setting. The findings of the study further the aetiology of and rewrite power dynamics linked to external bullying at work. Other original contributions include contrasting external bullying at work in in-situ/traditional versus cyber/virtual environments and demonstrating dual locus workplace bullying.

The study of workplace bullying (WPB) in India dates back over a decade, rendering it an established area of inquiry. This chapter, using the lens of D’Cruz and Noronha’s (Res Emot Organ 12:409–444, 2016) varieties of workplace bullying, elaborates on the sociocultural underpinnings of the phenomenon in the subcontinent, drawing on the extant literature. While the incidence rate of workplace bullying in India at over 40% across numerous inquiries is higher than many other countries, factors such as power, social categories, individualism and materialism are seen as triggers while factors such as spiritualism and social support are seen as antidotes. In showing how available empirical evidence from India demonstrates the role of the country’s ethos in the dynamics of workplace bullying, the chapter reinforces D’Cruz’s (Workplace bullying in India. Routledge, New Delhi, 2012; India: a paradoxical context for workplace bullying. In: Omari M, Paull M (eds) Workplace abuse, incivility and bullying: methodological and cultural perspectives. Routledge, London, pp 55–70, 2016a) thesis that India serves as a paradoxical context for the phenomenon. The chapter urges the incorporation of a sociocultural lens in studies of workplace bullying in India, maintaining that such an approach is critical to facilitate relevant and effective interventions to tackle the problem in the subcontinent. To this end, it proposes the adoption of metaphorical or a combination of dimensional and metaphorical frameworks in inquiries of workplace bullying in the country.

Introduction India is the worldwide offshore services market leader, with a share of 58 per cent of the global outsourcing industry. The aggregate revenues in FY 2013 were about $108 billion with exports contributing 75.8 billion of the total industry revenues. As a proportion of national GDP, the sector has grown from 1.2 to 8 per cent and with regard to the share in the total exports from 4 to 25 per cent between 1998 to 2013, providing direct employment to 3 million and indirect employment to 9.5 million (NASSCOM, 2013). On this road to becoming a market leader, some argue that Indian IT firms, over the past decades, have upgraded to offer all services in the value chain, including information technology outsourcing (ITO), business process outsourcing (BPO), knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), and a significant number of advanced services for specific industries such as finance and health care that were once strictly considered to be the preserve of the industrialized world (Fernandez-Stark et al., 2011). In doing so, they have made a steady movement along the knowledge continuum in the direction of increasing expertise and information-intensiveness in the nature of the work that is outsourced (Thatchenkery et al., 2004). This emergence of ‘high-end’ or ‘up the value chain’ services, besides being a key driver in changing the face of India's outsourcing industry (Raman et al., 2007) has widened the labour market in terms of the skills and the educational backgrounds of those employed in the sector. For instance, engineers, MBAs, PhDs, CFAs, lawyers, etc., are groups now sought after for employment in KPO organizations. Further, the Indian ITO-BPO-KPO sector is considered to be a prime example of global production networks providing high-quality employment opportunities replete with the privileges of high salaries, career development opportunities, comfortable working conditions and a range of employee friendly HR policies (Fernandez-Stark et al., 2011). In short, some argue that ‘decent work’ does not appear to be a relevant issue for this industry (Upadhya, 2010).

The power and influence of trade unionism in telecommunications, state government employment and municipal bus services are examined in Gujarat, an Indian state ruled by the Hindu nationalist, pro-big business Bharatiya Janata Party. We identify significant examples of resilience in unions critical of the BJP, alongside conflicts of interest and challenges for pro-BJP unions. These are somewhat surprising findings in a context expected to be hostile to class-based trade unionism, suggesting an important pole of ongoing, organised labour opposition to Gujarat’s perceived political hegemony, and posing some wider issues. In the interim between the writing and publishing of this article, the BJP won India’s 2014 general election.