Bullying In The Workplace
Bullying in the Workplace
Introduction For this paper I will be discussing work place bullying. I will address what work place bullying is, why people bully, the effects bullying has on the individual as well as the organization, what you can do if you are being bullied, as well as offer suggestions for organizations to become bully free.
What is Workplace Bullying? Workplace bullying involves unwelcome behaviors that can cause emotional harm or make a person feel isolated in their workplace. Workplace bullying might also involve unwanted physical contact as well. These behaviors are considered bullying when they make up a pattern of behavior in which the bully intends to threaten, insult, shame or demean a specific individual …show more content…
or group of people. Bullying can also be described as the use of aggression in order to control or hurt another person. According to the Canadian Center for Health and Occupational Safety (2005), examples of bullying can include: • spreading rumors, gossip, or innuendo • rejecting someone or isolating someone from other workers • withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information • making offensive jokes or sexually inappropriate jokes • tampering with personal belongings or work equipment.
• intimidation, criticizing or threatening a person consistently over time According to a study conducted by Careerbuilder, bullying affects the life of 27% of American adults. The most harsh forms can lead to a number of stress-related health complications that include high blood pressure, immune system diseases, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Being bullied at work can disrupt a person's productivity at work and can derail a person’s career. Careerbuilder (2011) surveyed more than 5,000 workers and found that about 15% of their sample reported feeling bullied by one of their supervisors, and 12% believed they had been bullied by someone they worked with. Another seven percent identified their bully as someone in the organization than their immediate boss. Surprisingly, seven percent said they had been bullied by a customer. These statistics mean that about 41% of employees had been bullied by someone while at work.
Why do people …show more content…
bully? The reasons people bully others are similar to causes of bullying at school. These reasons include things such as personality, experience in early childhood, underdeveloped communication skills, and intolerant believes about ethnic or other minority groups (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2003). Although some of the research on workplace bullying finds that males and females are equally likely to bully, some other studies find that women are not reported as bullies as often as men are (Rayner, Hoel, & Cooper, 2002). Studies on bullies have shown that these individuals have strong sociopathic tendencies, which ascertain their targets with persistent intent and employ in ‘serial bullying’ (Zapf, Einarsen, Hoel, & Vartia, 2003). There is also evidence that the victims of office bullies have personality differences between those who get bullied and those who do not. Studies suggest that victims of bullying are less independent, less extraverted, less emotionally stable and more concerned about their job (Coyne, Seigne, & Randall, 2000). Personality traits may contribute to workplace bullying, however studies have shown that there are strong links between bullying and the workplace environment (Salin, 2003). Research has shown that high occurrences of bullying are often linked to highly stressful and unpredictable work environments as well as those that are overworked. Peyton (2003) also highlights the importance of workplace influences and describes the type of organizational culture that promotes bullying as: • a fiercely competitive environment • a major change in the organization • a climate of uncertainty • a strong autocratic of management • an authoritarian organizational structure • low levels of staff contribution or discussion • disproportionate workloads • a lack of procedures to keep bullying from occurring According to Peyton (2003), most people are capable of becoming an office bully and may display those behaviors in arenas when they become intolerant and aggravated by the actions of others. Accidental or unintentional bullying may occur when individuals are facing excessive organizational metrics. These individuals’ response may be to micro-managing and be over-controlling in their behavior towards others in an attempt to meet organizational goals. Heightened anxiety and uncertainty about job security can occur from downsizing, restructuring and organizational change that can increase the amount of work a person is responsible for, increased ambiguity in role, and heightened anxiety. Consequently, people may become more concerned about their own job status, causing them to become jealous about others work assignments or overly harsh in their criticism about the work of others. Additionally Peyton (2003) says bullying is partly caused by the strong individualism inherent to Western culture and its organizations that are driven by winner-take-all competition among employees. Salin (2003) likewise asserts that promoting an autocratic style of management in organizations can openly or covertly encourage bullying. Research by Hoel and Cooper (2000) found a significant and strong correlation between an autocratic managed environment and the occurrence of bullying. Organizations with rigid, top-down structures that stress positional power and autocratic leadership, can directly or indirectly reward some forms of bullying by either rewarding the bullies for high performance of their employees, or by preventing bullied members from challenging the authority of the supervisors.
The Effects of Bullying on Workers and the Workplace Workplace bullying is a form of emotional sadism.
The targeted employee begins to feel belittled and powerless, especially if employers do not have operational policies in place to deal with these situations. Bullied employees may experience greater and greater frustration and anxiety. They may start to suppress rage. Or they may begin to avoid the workplace as much as possible (Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 2005). Some possible symptoms of being bullied are headaches, nausea, and lack of sleep (Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 2005; Zapf et al., 2003). The target’s ability to concentrate or be productive at work properly may become an issue. There have been advanced cases of bullying, where employees needed to be placed on short-term or long-term disability leave. Not only is the targeted employee affected, the workplace as whole can suffer (Zapf et al., 2003). The company my experience increased absenteeism, reduced morale and productivity, increased risk of accidents, and greater employee turnover can result if the company does not intervene.
How Workers can Handle
Bullying There are some tips for employees that are the targets of bullying at work (Peyton, 2003). It is suggested that those who are being bullied should keep a detailed written account of every time it occurs. The log should include specific information like who, where, when and how the bullying occurred. By doing this, it will demonstrate that these are not isolated incidents and that this harassment has been ongoing. These details help people report bullying in an objective way making it harder to question the seriousness or the accuracy of the report. If a person is just going by memory, it could be easy to make a mistake about a detail that is proven incorrect making the entire report look false or made-up. It is important to report the bullying to an immediate supervisor. If a supervisor is the bully, report the bullying to the supervisor’s boss. Another suggestion is to avoid the bully when possible. You may want to sit away from the bully in the meetings and eat your lunch at a different time and place. This may help the target to be bullied less if the opportunity doesn’t present itself. When avoiding the bully is not possible, do what you can to walk with a friend to meetings, lunch and other workplace settings. You are less likely to be bullied when you are with someone else. Bullies target those they think are weaker than themselves, so walk confidently, with your head up, to convey self-confidence. If the bully thinks you are equals, she or he is less likely to target you.
Ways the Workplace Can Reduce/Prevent Bullying Because an organization cannot always look over the shoulder of every employee at all times, it is probably impossible to eliminate workplace bullying totally. However, there are several things that the experts suggest might help create conditions that reduce the prevalence of bullying in organizations. 1. Promote a supportive culture, and promote open communication with both peers and leaders. Research by Law, Dollard, Tuckey, and Dormann (2011) found that a work climate in which managers show concern for the health and safety of employees reduces the incidence of bullying. 2. Companies need to develop specific, zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies increasing awareness of appropriate work behavior. The content of the policy is very important. It should cover the definition of what bullying is, who bullying should be reported to, explain procedures for investigating complaints, as well as a statement of consequences of not complying your company’s standards. Include staff from all areas of your company to help design your policy, and increase awareness and acceptance of it throughout the organization. Law et al. (2011) found that bullying is reduced when employees have a role in designing and implementing anti-bullying policies and procedures. The policy will not only be for the potential victim of workplace bullying, but are also for managers, to give them the appropriate cause of action about how to deal with bullying. 3. The company should include training sessions with managers on how to identify and deal with bullying behavior. 4. Companies need to create a sense of trust and collaboration among employees. Having some kind of conflict mediation or conflict resolution procedure for employees is one of the keys to developing this climate. Reducing conflict and employees’ believing that everyone is treated fairly helps reduce bullying (Salin, 2003). 5. Bullying in organizations may start with poorly trained leaders, so leadership training in ethics and assertive instead of authoritarian style can help a lot. According to Hague, Skogstad, & Einarsen (2007), workplace bullying is linked to the management style of high-level managers. Submissive, distant, and indifferent senior managers lead to increased reports of bullying in the workplace. In contrast, employees who see their managers to be more ethical tend to report less bullying.
Conclusion
In conclusion, workplace bullying is increasingly recognized as a threat to the well-being of employees and management, and to the profitability of the organization as a whole. The identification the problem of workplace bullying is now motivating workers and organizations to find solutions to this problem. These changes include increasing awareness of bullying in both supervisors and their supervisees. More employers are creating education strategies that stress the problems cause by bullying along with a zero-tolerance attitude toward bullying.
References
Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (2005). Bullying in the workplace. Retrieved January 30 2012 from: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/bullying.html.
Chulik, A. (2011). Workplace bullying and your employees: What can you do? Retrieved January 31 2012 from: http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2011/04/20/workplace-bullying-and-your-employees-what-can-you-do/.
Coyne, I., Seigne, E. & Randall, P. (2000). Predicting workplace victim status from personality. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 9, 335–350.
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D. & Cooper, C.L. (2003). Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice. London: Taylor & Francis.
Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A., & Einarsen, S. (2007). Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study. Work & Stress, 21, 220-242.
Hoel, H., & Cooper, C. L. (2000). Destructive conflict and bullying at work. University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Retrieved January 31, 2012 from http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/11088.pdf.
Law, R., Dollard, M. F., Tuckey, M. R., & Dormann, C. (2011). Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43, 1782-1793.
Peyton P.R. (2003). Dignity at work: Eliminate bullying and create a positive working environment. London: Routledge.
Rayner, C., Hoel, H. & Cooper, C. L. (2002). Workplace bullying: What we know, who is to blame, and what can we do? London: Taylor and Francis.
Salin, D. (2003). Ways of explaining bullying: A review of enabling, motivating and precipitating structures, Human Relations, 56, 1213–1232.
Zapf, D., Einarsen, S., Hoel, H. & Vartia, M. (2003). Empirical findings on bullying in the workplace. In Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D. & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.), Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice (pp. 103-126). London: Taylor & Francis.
Introduction For this paper I will be discussing work place bullying. I will address what work place bullying is, why people bully, the effects bullying has on the individual as well as the organization, what you can do if you are being bullied, as well as offer suggestions for organizations to become bully free.
What is Workplace Bullying? Workplace bullying involves unwelcome behaviors that can cause emotional harm or make a person feel isolated in their workplace. Workplace bullying might also involve unwanted physical contact as well. These behaviors are considered bullying when they make up a pattern of behavior in which the bully intends to threaten, insult, shame or demean a specific individual …show more content…
or group of people. Bullying can also be described as the use of aggression in order to control or hurt another person. According to the Canadian Center for Health and Occupational Safety (2005), examples of bullying can include: • spreading rumors, gossip, or innuendo • rejecting someone or isolating someone from other workers • withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information • making offensive jokes or sexually inappropriate jokes • tampering with personal belongings or work equipment.
• intimidation, criticizing or threatening a person consistently over time According to a study conducted by Careerbuilder, bullying affects the life of 27% of American adults. The most harsh forms can lead to a number of stress-related health complications that include high blood pressure, immune system diseases, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Being bullied at work can disrupt a person's productivity at work and can derail a person’s career. Careerbuilder (2011) surveyed more than 5,000 workers and found that about 15% of their sample reported feeling bullied by one of their supervisors, and 12% believed they had been bullied by someone they worked with. Another seven percent identified their bully as someone in the organization than their immediate boss. Surprisingly, seven percent said they had been bullied by a customer. These statistics mean that about 41% of employees had been bullied by someone while at work.
Why do people …show more content…
bully? The reasons people bully others are similar to causes of bullying at school. These reasons include things such as personality, experience in early childhood, underdeveloped communication skills, and intolerant believes about ethnic or other minority groups (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2003). Although some of the research on workplace bullying finds that males and females are equally likely to bully, some other studies find that women are not reported as bullies as often as men are (Rayner, Hoel, & Cooper, 2002). Studies on bullies have shown that these individuals have strong sociopathic tendencies, which ascertain their targets with persistent intent and employ in ‘serial bullying’ (Zapf, Einarsen, Hoel, & Vartia, 2003). There is also evidence that the victims of office bullies have personality differences between those who get bullied and those who do not. Studies suggest that victims of bullying are less independent, less extraverted, less emotionally stable and more concerned about their job (Coyne, Seigne, & Randall, 2000). Personality traits may contribute to workplace bullying, however studies have shown that there are strong links between bullying and the workplace environment (Salin, 2003). Research has shown that high occurrences of bullying are often linked to highly stressful and unpredictable work environments as well as those that are overworked. Peyton (2003) also highlights the importance of workplace influences and describes the type of organizational culture that promotes bullying as: • a fiercely competitive environment • a major change in the organization • a climate of uncertainty • a strong autocratic of management • an authoritarian organizational structure • low levels of staff contribution or discussion • disproportionate workloads • a lack of procedures to keep bullying from occurring According to Peyton (2003), most people are capable of becoming an office bully and may display those behaviors in arenas when they become intolerant and aggravated by the actions of others. Accidental or unintentional bullying may occur when individuals are facing excessive organizational metrics. These individuals’ response may be to micro-managing and be over-controlling in their behavior towards others in an attempt to meet organizational goals. Heightened anxiety and uncertainty about job security can occur from downsizing, restructuring and organizational change that can increase the amount of work a person is responsible for, increased ambiguity in role, and heightened anxiety. Consequently, people may become more concerned about their own job status, causing them to become jealous about others work assignments or overly harsh in their criticism about the work of others. Additionally Peyton (2003) says bullying is partly caused by the strong individualism inherent to Western culture and its organizations that are driven by winner-take-all competition among employees. Salin (2003) likewise asserts that promoting an autocratic style of management in organizations can openly or covertly encourage bullying. Research by Hoel and Cooper (2000) found a significant and strong correlation between an autocratic managed environment and the occurrence of bullying. Organizations with rigid, top-down structures that stress positional power and autocratic leadership, can directly or indirectly reward some forms of bullying by either rewarding the bullies for high performance of their employees, or by preventing bullied members from challenging the authority of the supervisors.
The Effects of Bullying on Workers and the Workplace Workplace bullying is a form of emotional sadism.
The targeted employee begins to feel belittled and powerless, especially if employers do not have operational policies in place to deal with these situations. Bullied employees may experience greater and greater frustration and anxiety. They may start to suppress rage. Or they may begin to avoid the workplace as much as possible (Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 2005). Some possible symptoms of being bullied are headaches, nausea, and lack of sleep (Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, 2005; Zapf et al., 2003). The target’s ability to concentrate or be productive at work properly may become an issue. There have been advanced cases of bullying, where employees needed to be placed on short-term or long-term disability leave. Not only is the targeted employee affected, the workplace as whole can suffer (Zapf et al., 2003). The company my experience increased absenteeism, reduced morale and productivity, increased risk of accidents, and greater employee turnover can result if the company does not intervene.
How Workers can Handle
Bullying There are some tips for employees that are the targets of bullying at work (Peyton, 2003). It is suggested that those who are being bullied should keep a detailed written account of every time it occurs. The log should include specific information like who, where, when and how the bullying occurred. By doing this, it will demonstrate that these are not isolated incidents and that this harassment has been ongoing. These details help people report bullying in an objective way making it harder to question the seriousness or the accuracy of the report. If a person is just going by memory, it could be easy to make a mistake about a detail that is proven incorrect making the entire report look false or made-up. It is important to report the bullying to an immediate supervisor. If a supervisor is the bully, report the bullying to the supervisor’s boss. Another suggestion is to avoid the bully when possible. You may want to sit away from the bully in the meetings and eat your lunch at a different time and place. This may help the target to be bullied less if the opportunity doesn’t present itself. When avoiding the bully is not possible, do what you can to walk with a friend to meetings, lunch and other workplace settings. You are less likely to be bullied when you are with someone else. Bullies target those they think are weaker than themselves, so walk confidently, with your head up, to convey self-confidence. If the bully thinks you are equals, she or he is less likely to target you.
Ways the Workplace Can Reduce/Prevent Bullying Because an organization cannot always look over the shoulder of every employee at all times, it is probably impossible to eliminate workplace bullying totally. However, there are several things that the experts suggest might help create conditions that reduce the prevalence of bullying in organizations. 1. Promote a supportive culture, and promote open communication with both peers and leaders. Research by Law, Dollard, Tuckey, and Dormann (2011) found that a work climate in which managers show concern for the health and safety of employees reduces the incidence of bullying. 2. Companies need to develop specific, zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies increasing awareness of appropriate work behavior. The content of the policy is very important. It should cover the definition of what bullying is, who bullying should be reported to, explain procedures for investigating complaints, as well as a statement of consequences of not complying your company’s standards. Include staff from all areas of your company to help design your policy, and increase awareness and acceptance of it throughout the organization. Law et al. (2011) found that bullying is reduced when employees have a role in designing and implementing anti-bullying policies and procedures. The policy will not only be for the potential victim of workplace bullying, but are also for managers, to give them the appropriate cause of action about how to deal with bullying. 3. The company should include training sessions with managers on how to identify and deal with bullying behavior. 4. Companies need to create a sense of trust and collaboration among employees. Having some kind of conflict mediation or conflict resolution procedure for employees is one of the keys to developing this climate. Reducing conflict and employees’ believing that everyone is treated fairly helps reduce bullying (Salin, 2003). 5. Bullying in organizations may start with poorly trained leaders, so leadership training in ethics and assertive instead of authoritarian style can help a lot. According to Hague, Skogstad, & Einarsen (2007), workplace bullying is linked to the management style of high-level managers. Submissive, distant, and indifferent senior managers lead to increased reports of bullying in the workplace. In contrast, employees who see their managers to be more ethical tend to report less bullying.
Conclusion
In conclusion, workplace bullying is increasingly recognized as a threat to the well-being of employees and management, and to the profitability of the organization as a whole. The identification the problem of workplace bullying is now motivating workers and organizations to find solutions to this problem. These changes include increasing awareness of bullying in both supervisors and their supervisees. More employers are creating education strategies that stress the problems cause by bullying along with a zero-tolerance attitude toward bullying.
References
Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (2005). Bullying in the workplace. Retrieved January 30 2012 from: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/bullying.html.
Chulik, A. (2011). Workplace bullying and your employees: What can you do? Retrieved January 31 2012 from: http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2011/04/20/workplace-bullying-and-your-employees-what-can-you-do/.
Coyne, I., Seigne, E. & Randall, P. (2000). Predicting workplace victim status from personality. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 9, 335–350.
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D. & Cooper, C.L. (2003). Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice. London: Taylor & Francis.
Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A., & Einarsen, S. (2007). Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study. Work & Stress, 21, 220-242.
Hoel, H., & Cooper, C. L. (2000). Destructive conflict and bullying at work. University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Retrieved January 31, 2012 from http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/11088.pdf.
Law, R., Dollard, M. F., Tuckey, M. R., & Dormann, C. (2011). Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43, 1782-1793.
Peyton P.R. (2003). Dignity at work: Eliminate bullying and create a positive working environment. London: Routledge.
Rayner, C., Hoel, H. & Cooper, C. L. (2002). Workplace bullying: What we know, who is to blame, and what can we do? London: Taylor and Francis.
Salin, D. (2003). Ways of explaining bullying: A review of enabling, motivating and precipitating structures, Human Relations, 56, 1213–1232.
Zapf, D., Einarsen, S., Hoel, H. & Vartia, M. (2003). Empirical findings on bullying in the workplace. In Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D. & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.), Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice (pp. 103-126). London: Taylor & Francis.