Bullying in the Workplace
Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, and physical abuse, as well as humiliation.
This type of workplace aggression is particularly difficult because, unlike the typical school bully, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society.
In the majority of cases, bullying in the workplace is reported as having been done by someone who has authority over the victim.
However, bullies can also be peers, and rarely subordinates. Research has also investigated the impact of the larger organizational context on bullying as well as the group-level processes that impact on the incidence and maintenance of bullying behaviour.
Bullying can be covert or overt. It may be missed by superiors; it may be known by many throughout the organization. Negative effects are not limited to the targeted individuals, and may lead to a decline in employee morale and a change in organizational culture. It can also take place as overbearing supervision, constant criticism, and blocking promotions.
Because it can occur in a variety of contexts and forms, it is also useful to define workplace bullying by the key features that these behaviours possess.
•Bullying is characterized by:
•Repetition (occurs regularly)
•Duration (is enduring)
•Escalation (increasing aggression)
•Power disparity (the target lacks the power to successfully defend themselves)
•Attributed intent
What bullying is and is not
Bullying may be described as behavior that is:
•threatening or intimidating
•abusive or offensive
•cruel or vindictive
•humiliating or degrading
Bullying will inevitably erode its victim's confidence and self-esteem and is often linked to a persistent abuse of power, position or knowledge.
The difference between bullying and a ‘strong’ management style It is natural that people find it difficult to be on the receiving end of criticism or disciplinary action, or to be instructed to do something that they do not want to do. These things are, however, part of every manager's and supervisor's responsibilities, and do not of themselves constitute bullying.
Some key differences between bullying and a strong management style when dealing with conduct or performance are that:
•A strong management style would involve:
•tackling any problems about employee's conduct or performance promptly and directly
•telling the person plainly and in factual terms (but not aggressively) what the problem is and why it is a problem
•remaining calm and adopting a reasonable manner and approach
•listening actively to what the employee has to say on the matter
•working with the employee to ascertain what can be done to improve conduct or performance
•demonstrating to the employee that the manager is on his/her side
Bullying, in contrast, might involve:
•getting emotional (for example, showing anger)
•throwing insults at the employee
•not explaining the reasons why the employee's conduct or performance is unsatisfactory, or how it impacts on others
•refusing to listen to any explanations put forward by the employee
•shouting or swearing
•focusing on alleged personality defects rather than on facts
•blaming the employee for whatever has gone wrong, rather than adopting a team approach
•making generalised accusations, such as: ‘You're always late with your work’.
Frequently, there is a manager/subordinate relationship between the person doing the bullying and the victim. Examples of bullying behaviour could include:
•aggressive, intimidating or threatening behaviour
•insulting people or putting them down, especially if done in front of others
•direct verbal aggression, especially when accompanied by swear words
•deliberately imposing grossly excessive or unachievable workloads or impossible deadlines on individuals in order to put them at a disadvantage
•deliberately impeding someone's progress at work, for example by intentionally withholding important information
•victimizing people by giving them only unpleasant or exceedingly trivial or menial tasks to do
•ostracising or openly ignoring an employee
•sending rude, intimidating or offensive messages to someone by e-mail
•repeated unfair and destructive criticism.
Legal action against workplace bullying is available if the bullying fits the definition of harassment under federal law. However, federal employees can bring workplace bullying lawsuits only after they have followed the steps to make an administrative complaint with the federal EEO office.
Despite this, anti-bullying in the workplace has gained quite a bit of traction in the states. In fact, three states have laws specifically on bullying in the workplace. Utah, Tennessee and California all have passed laws regulating workplace bullying.