How Deep Culture and Deep Structure Sustain Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is often treated as a “personality problem,” yet it persists because it is typically sustained by deeper forces inside organizations. Drawing on Johan Galtung’s (2003) concept of a “deeper layer” beneath visible conflict, this article shows how bullying becomes system-consistent through deep structures (incentives, complaint pathways, risk logic), deep culture (minimization norms and gendered credibility gaps), and repeated violations of basic human needs for safety, dignity, and reality-validation. It also introduces a crucial modern asymmetry: organizations can function as legal “persons” while lacking an embodied moral nervous system, making it easier for harm to be absorbed by employees rather than repaired by the system. Read on.