Daphne project: 2003-152

The main results expected from the project were:

-Analysis of the actual situation of mobbing and mobbed women in Europe to understand the real incidence of mobbing in the 4 countries involved in the project;

-Highlight differences among countries about what mobbing is and how to address it and single out good practices adopted;

To reach these aims the four project partners did a research and wrote a report so to have a clear understanding of what was going on in their countries on mobbing.

Reports reflected the difficulties we had, mainly linked to the fact that in different countries different words are used to indicate a phenomenon which is similar but not exactly the same.

Reports were very useful to highlight differences among countries on what mobbing is, how it occurs and how it is addressed. Where it was possible we also added an analysis on good practices adopted.

-check how SMEs address the problem of mobbed women by identifying from 5 to 10 SMEs in each country involved which adopted innovative methods or actions to fight against mobbing;

We had some difficulties in working with SMEs as often mobbing is more evident in the public sector as well as in the multinational companies. However, once we found 5 SMEs to work with we got a great co-operation from them. Some times Human Resource managers didn’t know mobbing but they were more than interested to find out about it and to prevent it in their companies.

Their contribution, together with the support obtained by Trade Unions, was crucial for the project as they gave us a clear idea of the problems they encountered in their day-by-day work openly speaking about difficulties they had and methods adopted to assure a better working environment.

-Exchange and adaptation of best practices to different social, cultural and working environment;

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This point was difficult to achieve as we had the confirmation that mobbing and how it occurs is mainly connected with the Culture of a country so it was very difficult to adapt methods and strategies to prevent mobbing. Nevertheless, to discuss about differences was really useful as we all had the possibility to look at the problem with a different approach. We got the chance to see what had been done in different countries and to analyse these methods within a specific socio-economic context.

-Promotion of a European approach of mobbing in a gender perspective;

We think that the project gave a considering contribution to the promotion of a European approach of mobbing in a gender perspective as at first partners found out that in each country there was a different word to refer to that phenomenon and in same cases the meaning was slightly different. Moreover, having UK as a partner which has a completely different terminology on mobbing led us to find a common definition which could help us in working on the project.

Finally, the final Conference in which we had SME’s representatives, Trade Union representatives, psychologists and mobbed people from the four countries involved, together in one room to discuss about the problem was a very important step towards a European approach on mobbing. Furthermore, the meeting was a success and all the people accepted to be part of a European network in which to further discuss the phenomenon.

-Dissemination of the best practices and of this European approach to the management of SMEs through workshops, seminars, conferences to be held in Centres, Trade Unions, firms connected to the partners of this projects.

Dissemination took place through:

  • Workshops and seminars for Managers of SMEs during which publications in 4 languages (English, Italian, Dutch and Swedish, according to the country) on mobbing and how to fight it has been distributed and delivered; Booklets has been printed out and distributed during National workshops to SMEs managers, it has also been given to other organisations working against mobbing which agreed to widespread them as much as possible. Finally, Trade Unions did a great job, as they delivered Mobbing booklets through their networks.
  • An International Conference on mobbing and mobbed women held in Rome with the specific aim of spreading the obtained results.As already said, the main dissemination event has been the Final Conference which was very useful and represents a starting point to move on from.

As follow-up of the project we have the network which has been launched at the International Conference.