Amongst other factors workplace bullying has contributed to less productivity, unprofitability, turnover and inefficiency amongst employees in many organisations though most of these incidences of workplace bullying go unreported. These goes on to cost the organisations severely, the study therefore seeks to determine whether or not workplace bullying do exist among the Mobile Network providers' call center operators and supervisors, establish the influence of employee gender orientation on the employee’s workplace bullying proneness and to investigate the role of personality on workplace bullying on the call centre operators and supervisors. Call centre operators are the “face” of cell phone network service providers as they represent the organisations at large when dealing with clients. Their efficiency, loyalty, employee satisfaction and productivity are key to the organisation’s survival hence absence of these might put the competitiveness of these firms at stake. It is therefore important to diagnose and understand the nature of workplace bullying that occurs in their organisations and nip them in the bud as such behaviours can cause detrimental decay to the organisation’s image. However the extend of the damage to the organisations through workplace bullying still needs substantiation. Empirical evidence on the influence of employee personality and or gender orientation on workplace bullying in Africa particularly in South Africa is inadequate and not yet well established. Furthermore, the outcome of immense costs on organisations resulting from personality and or gender related workplace bullying, has not been fairly investigated, particularly in call centres of the major South African cell phone network providers. Bullying is increasingly being documented as a key challenge within most work place environments (Mayhew, McCarthy, Chappell, Quinlan, Barker & Sheehan, 2004). Qualitative research will be utilised, targeting call centre operators and supervisors from MTN, CellC and Vodacom branches in Johannesburg. Using simple random probability and convenience (non-probability) sampling the researcher will interview participants on their availability. A sample of 100 call centre operators and 20 supervisors (calculated using the Raosoft sample size calculator) will suffice the objectives of the study.The instrument will be tested for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. Salin, 2003 have reported that less represented sex seems to be more exposed and vulnerable to workplace bullying. In a work environment where female employees dominate, male employees are more vulnerable and exposed to bullying. Empirical studies (Vartia, 2001; Mikkelsen & Einarsen, 2002) conducted in the Nordic countries have shown that a personality construct, such as neuroticism, is also related to exposure to workplace bullying and that victims act more actively in conflict situations than do others. More so, (Zapf 1999)’s study reported that victims of bullying portrayed personality traits of anxiety and depression even before the onset of bullying. Bullying can severely undermine an individual’s confidence and self-esteem, making it difficult to speak up, especially if bullying is perceived to be part of the workplace culture. This goes on to cause employee turnover unproductivity, unprofitability, poor morale and erosion of employee loyalty and commitment. It is important, therefore, that employers promote a clear message that bullying is unacceptable in the workplace. Employers should also ensure that all the employees are aware that the workplace has established anti-bullying procedures, know the process for the reporting and have an understanding that their reports will be dealt with in a proper manner
