Book Review: Bully in the Ivory Tower, How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher Education
by Dr. Leah Hollis, Ed.D, Patricia Berkly L.L.C., 2012.
Review by Deborah Straw
As an adjunct teacher at several colleges, I have been bullied more than a few times. A colleague, a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures, responded when I asked about her experience, “What surprised me was the title [in a related book on bullying] about ‘the rise’ of the academic bully culture. What? It’s always been there — from grad school and on to the first or even second job. And beyond.”
Bullying and harassing are not going away any time soon. Bullying can have long-lasting effects—to individuals, to departments and to an entire institution in terms of productivity, morale and finances. Finances may go into retraining, lost productivity or even costly, unpleasant lawsuits. Results of bullying to the individual may go as far as the bullied person becoming alcoholic, leaving a job with no prospects in sight, seeking therapy or religion so she can hang in there, weight gain, loss of sleep, or, in rare cases, suicide.
In her 2012 book, Bully in the Ivory Tower, How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher Education, author Leah Hollis, Ed.D., finds that women are most frequently bullied, African Americans and those in the LGBT community. (Since her book’s publication, this first statistic appears to have changed. A 2017 U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey found that “Hispanics are the most frequently bullied race.” Perhaps this is occurring as immigration issues, especially those relating to Mexico, occupy the news.)
In the New Oxford Dictionary, bullying is defined as “use [ing] superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants.” A few synonyms are persecute, tyrannize, and torment. Harass is another. For this study, Hollis coins vicarious harassment as meaning when a leader or manager empowers a helper to “wield his or her power…. His/her power is extended through an appointed subordinate.” She also introduces the word “bullrassment,” but she seldom refers back to this term.
As the author writes, “whether the term is harassment, discrimination, abuse, assault, or bullying, the truth is that incivility and aggression in any form erode the human condition. Stress is a killer…”
Hollis performed a qualitative and quantitative study of 175 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, all of which award B.A.s.
She did not include two-year colleges, but feels that the results “may be generalizable.” Approximately 3200 participants received her survey. She included people between the ages of 40 and 59, with a range of job titles: “entry level staff, middle management, deans, directors, and executive levels.” She states that studies have been done on faculty but none on administrators. Most of her participants held Masters degrees or Ph.D.s. She personally interviewed nine respondents; a few answers are included, as is an overview of the answers, although this reader would have loved to have more in-depth case studies to make the topic more lively and meaningful.
In the Hollis study, most bullying is of the emotional, psychological, “browbeating” sort, not the physical or sexual harassment we hear of so much in the news and from the Twitter tag #MeToo. Examples of the former include humiliating a person in meetings or in front of one’s peers; increasing a person’s workload without regarding it as dumping more work on an already busy employee, “false accusation of criminal activity” and more.
After Dr. Hollis analyzed her data, she found that “close to 62% of respondents… confirmed that they had been bullied or witnessed bullying in their higher education positions in the last 18 months.” In a 2017 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, June 2017, 59% of American reported being bullied, and l9% more witnessed abuse. A full 53% of Hollis’ respondents “are actively trying to leave their positions,” or would leave if other positions opened up.
Here are a few of Hollis’s recommendations, both for further studies, and for employees of universities and colleges. In future studies, she would include more younger respondents: “The shifting demographics show that the United States is quickly approaching a ‘minority-majority’ status which comes from the young population …”
She recommends using executive coaching for aggressive employees: “Coaching can be a confidential method to refine management strategies.” Although this is expensive, she believes, “this cost pales in comparison to the millions of dollars lost in disengaged stuff or turnover…” Hollis believes, based on her findings, “a healthy workplace relies on an engaged and consistent executive leadership with integrity.” Leadership should not “tolerate aggression at any level…”
Hollis stresses the importance of, in initial job interviews at institutions, hiring and search committees looking for signs of bullying personalities. Interviewers might be aware of things like this: “Do they brag about ‘cracking the whip’ or ‘cleaning house’ in their last position?” for example.
This book is one of the first to address what Hollis calls a “silent epidemic…” in academia, but other books on this phenomena have since been published. These include Workplace Bullying in Higher Education (ed. Jaime Lester), Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture (Darla J. Twale and Barbara M. De Luca), and Working with Problem Faculty, A Six-Step Guide for Department Chairs (R. Kent Crookston).
Despite the author’s qualifications and extensive experience, there are a few drawbacks to the book. The text needed more proofreading, especially in terms of punctuation; some statistics are repeated too often. The author is the Founder and President of Patricia Berkly, LLC, the publisher of Bully in the Ivory Tower.
Nevertheless, Hollis’ excellent credentials show up in her many academic positions and in her help to more than 175 schools through presenting workshops on campuses on issues of civility. In addition, the author of The Coercive Community, published in the U.K., Hollis currently is an Assistant Professor at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Despite the few issues in the text, this eminently readable book is important as one of the first to address the terrible, life-draining issue of administrative bullying in “the ivory tower.” Presumably, the more attention that brave writers like Hollis pay to this situation, the more likely it is that institutions will work to resolve and abolish this dysfunctional type of interaction. In Hollis’ and other researchers’ minds, doing so would save big dollars, jobs and many employees’ self-esteem and ability to grow and become more creative in their positions.
