About the IAWBH

OUR HISTORY

The IAWBH is the world's leading authority and international association of academic scholars, practitioners, and policy makers interested in understanding, researching, and addressing workplace bullying and harassment, including by exploring interventions to address these phenomena.  While the IAWBH was officially founded as an association at a scholarly conference in Montréal, Canada, in 2008, there had already been a series of related biennial academic research conferences hosted and conducted by the IAWBH founding group of senior academic researchers in the field of workplace bullying and harassment. These researchers included Charlotte Rayner, Ståle Valvatne Einarsen, Helge Hoel, Duncan Lewis, Angelo Soares, Mona O´Moore, Micheal Sheehan and Annie Høgh. Those earlier conferences included Portsmouth (1998), Brisbane (2000), London (2002), Bergen (2004), Dublin (2006) and Montreal (2008).

The founders met as a group in person for the first time in London in 2002 at a conference hosted by Andy Liefooghie, supported by public funding to host an academic conference. The surplus from this conference was then used to support the delivery of future conferences by providing a degree of security for conference hosts. Since that time the residual conference monies have continued to provide seed funding for future conferences. Essentially, the original funding provided a highly valuable start for this association. While any of the earlier conferences could perhaps have been labelled the first, at the time of planning, none of the founders could have foreseen that their biennial conferences would become a tradition. When Ståle Valvatne Einarsen hosted the Bergen conference in Norway in 2004, he felt labeling Bergen the first IAWBH conference would have been unfair. The Norwegian conference organisers also recognised the large related conference held at the University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK, in 1998, hosted by Charlotte Rayner and attended by many international researchers, with a pre-conference meeting for a group of researchers. This conference saw a special issue in an Australian journal (Proceedings of the 1998 research update conference on bullying at work' Charlotte Rayner (Editor), Michael Sheehan, Michelle Barker) which included papers from Rayner's meeting. In addition, Michael Sheehan then went on to host a conference in Brisbane, Australia, in 2000, which was attended by several the Association's founders.  

Since its conception, the Association has grown to over 300 members from over 30 countries. It continues to coordinate a biennial worldwide conference. Our most recent conference, the 14th IAWBH international conference was held in Huddersfield, UK, in June 2024, as an in-person only event. Our 11th international IAWBH conference was held in Bordeaux, France, in June 2018 while our 12th international conference was held totally on-line in 2020 in Dubai, in the UAE, consequent to the global pandemic. The 13th IAWBH was a hybrid conference held in San Diego, USA in 2022. 

Our 15th international conference will be held in Canberra, Australia, in 2026.

During non-conference years, the Association holds international Masterclasses - in  2019 these were held in London and Israel. In 2024, Masterclasses were held from Australia-New Zealand and the USA. A Masterclass hosted from India is scheduled for September 2025. Our members receive a newsletter and can join and participate in our LinkedIn group.

OUR GOVERNANCE 

From a governance and administrative perspective, the IAWBH is a not for profit organisation run by volunteer board members. The association operated out of Norway for many years and until late 2024, when its operations transferred to Australia. The IAWBH is an incorporated association registered in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

IAWBH purpose

Governance

IAWBH Board