Research into workplace bullying has only recently begun to investigate preventative measures. This paper continues that emphasis by examining the management of bullying in a sample of New Zealand organisations. In this study, the survey results from 252 occupational health and safety practitioners were analysed to examine how bullying is understood and managed, along with factors that predict preventative efforts. Results indicate that bullying was perceived to impact significantly on organisations, although the organisations had limited preventative measures in place. The findings confirm the importance of leadership and the establishment of an effective bully-free environment as preventative measures.

Farmers have to cope with both society and market pressures in their working practices, as well as with the enlargement of farms, off-farm opportunities and profound changes in the workforce. Expectations in terms of working duration and rhythms are increasingly expressed by farmers, meaning that working conditions and the efficiency of work organisation are critical issues nowadays. The bibliography shows that work organisation is mainly discussed by social scientists, but that livestock scientists make a significant contribution to the debate. Indeed, technical changes modify working calendars, priorities between tasks and interchangeability among workers; technical adaptations are levers to solving problems of work with equipment, buildings and the workforce. We present here French approaches to work organisation that take into account livestock management and its implications in work organisation. The ‘Work Assessment’ method represents the work organisation and evaluates work durations and time flexibility for farmers. The ATELAGE model describes and qualifies work organisation with its various regulations and time scales, integrating the other activities – economic or private – that farmers can carry on. Three principles underpin them: not all workers are interchangeable; tasks have different temporal characteristics (rhythms, postponement, etc.); and the year is a succession of work periods that differ in their daily form of organisation. We illustrate with concrete examples how these approaches contribute to helping and guiding farmers in their thoughts about change.

We characterised the livestock-farming management strategies of multiple-job holders and identified which variables contributed most to the differentiation of these strategies. We hypothesised that they would mainly be differentiated by the contribution of the farming income to the total household income and the availability of the household members for farming. The multiple-job holding livestock-farmer’s motivations, decisions and actions about both multiple-job holding and livestock farming were obtained in semi-directed interviews of 35 sheep farmers who held multiple jobs, on farm and off farm. They were synthesised into six variables characterising the diversity of the livestock-farming objectives and management guidelines. Thanks to a multiple factorial analysis, we showed that the diversity of the sheep-farming management strategies of multiple-job holders was better explained by two factors ‘level of motivation of the farmer to get high technical results’ and ‘more personal fulfilling v. the family business conception of farming’, than the factors we hypothesised. Within our sample, the performances ranged from 0.7 to 1.4 weaned lambs per ewe per year. Six sheep-farming management strategies were identified. They illustrated the importance of the level of production objectives and of farming income expectation, which were found to be independent, in explaining diversity. No direct relationship between farm work organisation and sheep-farming management strategy was identified. Explaining the diversity of the livestock-farming management strategies of multiple-job holders appears to require that all the benefits expected from farming and their hierarchy be identified before analysing how they are translated into production objectives and management guidelines.