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Organisations with effective and transparent conflict management systems have lower levels of workplace bullying, according to a major study.

The research closely tracked more than 1,000 workers at four organisations in Sweden over three-and-a-half years.

The academics – from Linköping University in Sweden and the University of Bergen in Norway – sought to assess the relationship between an organisation's workplace conflict management systems, and its incidence of workplace bullying.

They note that workplace bullying tends to gradually increase over time, so the study measured each organisation's 'conflict management climate' (CMC). This gauged employees' level of trust and confidence that workplace conflict would be dealt with quickly, and in a fair and predictable manner.

It also assessed employees' experience and observation of workplace bullying – ranging from one-off incidents to systematic, ongoing exposure – via three surveys over the period of the study...