Mobbing is a modern term for systematic bullying, harassment, or psychological terror in workplaces whereby one worker is "ganged up" on and stigmatized by co-workers or superiors for no justifiable reason. Research into the phenomenon has been pioneered in the 1980s by Swedish scientist Heinz Leymann who coined the term.
Mobbing is typically found in work environments that have poorly organized production and/or working methods and incapable or inattentive management. According to [1], mobbing victims are usually "exceptional individuals who demonstrated intelligence, competence, creativity, integrity, accomplishment and dedication".
A longer-established technical use of mobbing is in the study of animal behaviour, especially in ornithology, where it refers to the behaviour of a number of smaller birds together harassing a bird of prey that represents a threat to them.
Further reading
[1] Noa Davenport et al., Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace (1999)
