A new report into bullying in the Police force has sparked a debate about the difference between constructive criticism and bullying.

Police released an independent review yesterday after allegations of widespread bullying culture. The report found no evidence of systemic bullying but acknowledged sometimes private behaviour did not match public perception.

The review did find that the term bullying was misused or misunderstood amongst police staff when "in reality they were just having conventional coaching or performance feedback conversations".

Eclipse Life Coaching’s Kris de Jong told Mike Hosking that it has to be taken on a case by case basis, but if employees are mistaken criticism for bullying, they have to understand the difference.

“Bullying is basically misuse of power, misuse of behaviour, intimidation. And a performance review, there may be some criticism involved.”

de Jong says that people given performance reviews need to focus on the performance rather than the person.

He says that, overall, workplace culture has got better in a lot of ways.

• Police expect all recommendations from bullying report to be implemented