Can You Help Research Clergy Mobbing?

I am forwarding this to you from Steven Vensel.

Below are links to an important research study investigating “mobbing” and clergy.  Mobbing occurs when a small group of people force a pastor out of a church.  This phenomenon has never been investigated in church settings.

Mobbing is an emotional assault in which a hostile workplace environment is created through innuendo, rumors, and public discrediting.  Mobbing is defined as the prolonged malicious harassment of a coworker by a group of other members of an organization to secure the removal from the organization of the one who is targeted.  Usually a single individual initiates the mobbing by gathering others to participate in malevolent actions to force a person out of the workplace.  Mobbing involves a small group of people and results in the humiliation, devaluation, discrediting, degradation, loss of reputation and the removal of the target through termination, extended medical leave or quitting.  In a church workplace setting “coworkers” may include other clergy, staff, volunteers, elders, deacons, and/or congregation members. 

If you are a pastor who has been mobbed in the past year participation will consist of going to SurveyMonkey, a secure research website, at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ClergyMobbing and completing a demographic questionnaire and three short questionnaires.  This should take no more than 35 minutes. 

All information and collected data is completely confidential, secure and protected.  No identifying information will be collected and there are no obligations, advertisements, requests, promotions or commercial activities associated with this research whatsoever; it is strictly and only for research purposes.

If you have not experienced mobbing please inform as many pastors as possible to visit the “Clergy Mobbing” Facebook page for study details.  This is important research.

For more information visit the Facebook page:  Clergy Mobbing on Facebook

Thank you for helping with this project in any way possible. 

Sincerely,

Steven Vensel

Project Investigator, Department of Counselor Education, Florida Atlantic University, svensel@fau.edu