From Suffering to Growth: A Conceptual Review of Workplace Bullying Through a Logotherapeutic Lens with Organizational Implications

This paper presents a conceptual review of workplace bullying as a trauma, integrating psychological and existential perspectives on post-traumatic growth. The study offers a conceptual framework for comprehending existential trauma, meaning-making, and healing in the context of workplace bullying by referencing Janoff-Bulman’s shattered assumptions theory and then Calhoun and Tedeschi’s post-traumatic growth model. This theoretical foundation is further expanded through Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, which emphasizes the value of meaning in the process of transforming suffering. An illustrative case exemplifies the existential dimensions of workplace bullying, including the disruption and reconstruction of meaning, while highlighting how logotherapeutic concepts can facilitate post-traumatic growth. This paper also offers a conceptual framework with organizational implications for future studies.