**1. Introduction**

Smooth interpersonal relationships in the workplace environment are critical to the unobstructed function of an organization [1]. The term "mobbing" (moral harassment) in the workplace is defined as the systematic and persistent intimidation, the insult, the exclusion, and the unfair behavior toward a target person [2–4].

According to Pranjić et al. [5], the phenomenon of moral harassment in doctors has five dimensions. First, an attempt is made to underestimate their work with humiliation in front of colleagues or patients, bad criticism, and discipline implied by threats. The second dimension includes sarcasm and use of any form of violence to undermine the victim's personal integrity. The third dimension involves the isolation of the victim by concealing useful information and unjustified non-authorization or promotion. There is undue pressure through increased workload and deadlines that cannot be achieved. The fifth dimension aims to destabilize the victim through leakage of malicious rumors, continuous depreciation, and sudden removal of jurisdictions [5].

The causes of the phenomenon include competition, envy, diversity (gender, religion, sexuality, and social origin), and a workplace environment with a great deal of workload and simultaneous conflict of roles [6]. The phenomenon is associated with psychological stress and low job satisfaction and the consequences are detrimental to young doctors as revealed by many studies [2, 5, 7].

In Greece, despite that 13.2% of workers declare that they have been victims of mobbing, there is no relevant legislation. Only laws related to the assault of human dignity exist [8, 9]. The lack of clear legal framework makes it thus very difficult for the victim to take legal action against the offenders as he/she "bears the burden of proof" [2, 6, 10]. The recognition of the problem is often difficult, as the person is devastated psychologically and has no courage to defend himself/herself or is afraid of retaliation [1, 11–13].

The difficult situation of the victim is compounded by the current economic crisis in Greece. Under the hardship of finding a job, the need for survival becomes a priority increasing the tolerance of violence [14]. As a result, the phenomenon of mobbing is being added as a problem of the hospitals in the public sector together with the financial constraints, the pay cuts, and the brain drain [15, 16]. At the same time, there is increasing pressure to augment the efficiency of organizations, which creates a fertile ground for mobbing against young doctors [5, 13, 17–23].

In Greece, although there is increasing evidence that the phenomenon is present among young doctors, no such study is ever conducted in the medical residents of a University Hospital [18, 20]. Greek University Hospitals accept a plethora of patients with severe diseases. The University General Hospital of Patras accepts over 100,000 persons per year in the Emergency Sector, and over 40,000 hospitalized patients [24]. Because of the economic crisis, the brain drain of young doctors in Greece leads to fewer and fewer medical residents getting the job done in a difficult working environment with demanding working hours and reduced wages [15]. As a result, the outcomes of the present study are significant in order to delineate the working conditions of the remaining young doctors.

The University General Hospital of Patras was therefore selected for this study, as it receives a large number of patients from all over the Western Greece region; the amount of workload is consequently large. In addition, the number of medical residents was such in order to obtain a satisfactory sample size; this survey is a pioneer in the health sector in Greece.

The basic research hypothesis of the present study was that the phenomenon of mobbing among medical residents might be present at a considerable intensity in Greece. The following scientific questions are raised and addressed in this study: Is there a mobbing effect in medical residents? Are there independent associations between mobbing, genders, age, educational level sector the residents work in? On the basis of this hypothesis, the ultimate goal of this investigation was to demonstrate to what extent there is mobbing among medical residents.

*Correlates of Mobbing among Medical Residents in a University General Hospital… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104041*
