Dr. Anita Garvey is an Assistant Professor in Organisational Studies at Northumbria University. Her research areas involve using the lens of political economy, critical theory and sociological analysis, to analyse phenomena in the field of organisational studies, contextualised by neoliberal capitalism.
Anita is a critical scholar whose qualitative doctoral research focused on the concept of ‘moralistic' workplace bullying in a marketised UK Public Sector, using Gramsci’s theory of hegemony.
The UK public sector has undergone significant changes propelled by neoliberal marketisation, purportedly to enhance competitiveness, financial accountability and efficiency. Moralistic bullying explores how negative interactions towards bullied targets by ostensibly scrupulous individuals are erroneously justified in the workplace, legitimised through privilege, and reconstructed as 'moral' by the actors. Moralistic workplace bullying thereby involves actors of bullying abusing their power and legitimising their behaviour through falling back on organisational norms and mores. Simultaneously, actors of bullying engage in moral condemnation and disdainful criticism of the employees that they target, ultimately leading to the latter’s ejection from the organisation. The actors of moralistic workplace bullying justify their own behaviour through presenting and claiming moral probity, which exonerates their negative actions with the aim of keeping their positions in complex hegemonic workplace environments of financial instability.
From a feminist perspective, Anita also has an interest in gender, racism and class, entailing examining the intersectionality of these areas of political, social and personal identity, and their implications for societal and workplace inequality.
Anita is a Programme Leader, Module Tutor and Dissertation Supervisor, and since her arrival at the university has been nominated for student awards in the category of Best Lecturer and Best Pastoral Support.
