Bullying In The Workplace

Workplace bullying is social, psychological, verbal or physical abuse by employers or co-workers. Unfortunately, bullying does not only happen in the playground, but also in many workplaces. Many times, the workplace can feel a lot like high school: gossip, passive-aggressive behavior, and cliques. Bullies definitely exist in the work environment, though they are not easy to spot like the ones in grade school. Bullies in the work environment do not go around stealing lunch money and hitting kids. But their torment can be just as damaging. Whether the bully is constantly criticizing you, stealing work credit, spreading rumors, assigning impossible work schedules, or “forgetting” to invite you for lunch or meetings, his/her goal is always the
same: To tear people down so that he/she can build themselves up (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2011) Bullying is a big issue that needs to be resolved due to it draining nurses of both energy and productivity. Bullying in the health care can have many effects on nurses. Such as, nurses being less successful, less confident in their work performance, increased absenteeism, and staff turnover. Furthermore, bullying can also affect nurses’ lives outside of work. Causing physical signs of stress like sleep issues, backaches, or headaches, along with low self-esteem and confidence (Gaffney, Hofmeyer, Vessey & Budin, 2012) Since the study took place in a virtual setting, permission to conduct the study was granted by the institutional review board (IRB) at a large university in Massachusetts. An Internet web link with an article about bullying and a 30 anonymous e-survey was emailed to the participants. Participants also had the option to include a narrative about their experiences of being bullied in the workplace. Eighty-one narratives ranging from five to 780 words were collected. Some wrote that it too painful to talk about their experience, while others described who, what, where, when, how and the effects of working in an aggressive setting. Before the researchers performed further analysis, they read the introductions to get a sense of the narrative tones and become familiar to the text. After gaining a general understanding of the respondents’ experiences, the researchers used the constant comparative method to look for differences and similarities. After recognizing the similarities and dissimilarities, researchers were able to find connections and linkages, thus allowing them to create several hypotheses about how the categories were related (Gaffney, Hofmeyer, Vessey & Budin, 2012) The qualitative methods used for this research was based on using grounded theory methods.
The qualitative method allowed researchers to uncover the interactions between the organization, individuals, and cultural dynamics that allow and reward bullying. This research study was also part of a bigger survey, whose objective was to identify the displays and rate of bullying among nurses in the United States. The author in this research study was looking to understand how nurses encounter bullying in the work environment and what they do to protect themselves and their patients. The researcher did not explicitly provide questions that were asked to the participants, but instead, the research study provided a table with four categories and 14 subcategories to be used as guidelines so that nurses could share their life experiences in the matter. Categories included in the table that were asked include: (1) Placing bullying events (i) Being the newbie, (ii) Bearing witness, (2) Assessing the situation, (iii) In the bull’s eye, (iv) Nurse interrupted (v) Odd nurse out, (vi) In the penalty box, (3) Taking action (i) Giving/getting support (ii) Speaking up (iii) Moving out of the toxic environment, (4) Judging outcomes (i) constructive-positive (ii) Being ignored and (iii) Destructive-negative (Gaffney, Hofmeyer, Vessey & Budin, 2012). The research questions were related to the problem because it asked nurses to share when they experienced hostility at work, how they felt and what they did in response to it. I believe the qualitative methods were appropriate to answer the research questions because it allowed nurses to describe more in detail their narrative by stating their situation. For example, some described being bullied as new nurses or student nurses, and others stated that they witnessed bullying. Other nurses expressed feeling like they were targets for humiliation and public criticism. Some even struggled with impediments to patient care like, “assignment
manipulation having information withheld, refusal of physical support, being given incorrect or inadequate information, and being accused of incompetence (Gaffney, Hofmeyer, Vessey & Budin, 2012).” Participants also have the opportunity to admit their feelings of humiliation, fear, anger, hopelessness, and anxiety. Nurses also described speaking up through letter to nursing administration, doctors, and others, some resigned and other transferred to different units or hospitals (Gaffney, Hofmeyer, Vessey & Budin, 2012). In the introduction of the research article, the author mentions an article published in The New York Times by Leon Harris in 1909 about how head nurses abuse their high power. Though advances have been made to try to solve this issue, nurses are still being bullied in the workplace. Other than mentioning Charmaz’s practical guide for qualitative analysis, the author does not mention any other studies relevant to the focus of the study. The author does not mention other types of literature because even though bullying in the health care is known happening internationally, numerous institutes rather ignore and sweep its existence and effects on health care workers under the rug. The reference to The New York Times that the author mentioned is from 1909 and although this article is over 100 years old, it is still relevant to today’s issue; many nurses are bullied not only by their coworkers, but managers as well. The author does not mention anything about weaknesses on available studies; only that bullying in the workplace is not being researched as much like it should be. In order to gain a complete understanding of work hostility in the medical field, more research needs to be done. As you can see, bullying in the work place can range anywhere from spreading rumors, publicly humiliating and criticizing to refusing physical support and giving out wrong information. Effects of bullying can leave many victims feeling depressed, lonely, angry and low self-esteem. It is important to keep researching and examining the effects of bullying in the nursing field because not only does it affect nurses, but patients too.