Psychological and disguised violence at work: a study of moral harassment in Brazilian public careers

Moral harassment is characterized as psychological, subtle, disguised, intentional, repetitive and prolonged violence in which the aggressor intends to humiliate and exclude a person in the context of work activity. The research problem was: how is moral harassment characterized in public careers and how to prevent it?. In this way, this research aimed to identify and characterize the prevalence of moral harassment in Brazilian public careers, as well as to describe the means used to prevent this type of violence at work. For this, a bibliographic research with a qualitative approach using systematic review of the literature was conducted. It has been found that moral harassment in public careers predominates in a descending way in which the superior harasses his subordinates. The main consequences of moral harassment are stress, burnout, depression, anxiety, emotional fever, fear, sadness, crying, difficulty concentrating, reduced work capacity, loneliness and inadequacy, panic disorder, hypertension, gastritis, reflux esophagitis and other different forms of suffering at work. This research identified measures to prevent and avoid moral harassment: formation of victim support groups, establishment of sectoral committees to fight against moral harassment composed by highly trained members on the subject, legal actions and actions of awareness and information on moral harassment. This study contributes to the literature, as there has been a shortage of studies related to practices to prevent and avoid moral harassment in the public sector. Finally, it highlights the need to implement preventive measures to publicize and raise awareness of moral harassment as a way of educating public servants to the culture of respect and consideration of the human dignity of others.