Discuss about the Bullying In the Workplace for International Labour Organization.
Bullying is a very big problem in the workplace currently especially in the medical profession (International Conference of Labour Statisticians, & International Labour Organization, 2008). Bullying is essentially a repeated, inappropriate or unreasonable behavior directed towards an employee or a group of employees that in one way or the other creates a risk to health and safety (Balcerzak, 2015). Unreasonable behavior, in this case, comprise of behaviors that a reasonable person having regard for the circumstances would see a humiliating, victimizing undermining or threatening. This paper will focus on the definition of workplace bullying, features of workplace bullying, common categories of workplace bullying, what cannot be considered as workplace bullying, effects of workplace bullying as well actions that should be taken to reduce workplace bullying.
Workplace bullying is the less favorable treatment of an employee usually by one or more employees which intimidates, harms, threatens, degrades, ridicules, insults or humiliates an employee or employees whether in front of co-workers, visitors, clients, customers or alone. There are several features the characterize workplace bullying (Brohl, 2013).
It can be direct where the employee openly insults or humiliates another employee or it can be covert where the bullying is secretive and it is done through rumors and gossip. Examples of direct bullying consist of abusive remarks, abusive behavior towards another employee, offensive or aggressive language as well as constant unreasonable or unconstructive remarks. Covert character includes unreasonably ignoring the employee, deliberate exclusion or alienation of the employee from normal work interaction as well as the allocation of demeaning jobs that are below the employee’s level of qualification (Jenkins, 2013).
It can be between co-workers. This form of bullying is also called lateral bullying. It occurs among colleagues. Workplace bullying can be intentional or accidental. Accidental bullying is whereby an employee unintentionally erupts and frightens colleagues but they soon apologize and vow never to repeat again. Intentional bullying in the workplace is whereby an employee deliberately harms or intimidates another employee repeatedly (Quigg, 2015).
It can be face to face or through technology. Face to face bullying involves intimidating or harassing another employee directly. Another bully may opt to use social media, for example, whatsapp or Facebook to spread rumors to humiliate or tarnish the name of a colleague (Needham, 2003).
Workplace bullying can be downward or upward. Downward bullying involves superiors who bully their subordinates while upward bullying involves workers bullying the managers (Quigg, 2015).
Common categories of workplace bullying comprise of a threat to professional status, personal attacks, social isolation, work related harassment as well as spreading rumors. Examples of threats to professional rumors include public belittling, humiliation, attempts to humiliate in front of colleagues, undermining of work as well as removal of areas of responsibility without any consultation. Personal attacks can be in terms of vilification, verbal abuse as well as all forms of intimidation including throwing things, invasion of personal space, physical violence as well as reading information without permission. Social isolation involves acts like exclusion for social events such as team building seminars. Withholding of information which may be fundamental for the employee to do his or her work effectively is also classified as social isolation. Work related harassment involves assigning of meaningless tasks, unrealistic workloads, and timeframes as well as sabotaging or taking credit for someone else’s hard work. Spreading rumors involves acts like spreading malicious gossip, innuendo as well as sarcasm (Brohl, 2013).
There is a thin line between what can be considered as bullying and what is not. This is important so as to prevent accusing a fellow employee falsely which can be very damaging to his or her career. Some poor behaviors or skills deficit can be interpreted as bullying for example interpersonal skills, communication skills, coping skills as well as leadership skills. Constructive criticism is also most often confused with bullying (Quigg, 2015).
Interpersonal skills are tools which are employed by an individual for the purposes of interacting with others properly for work to be as expected. Individual exhibiting poor interpersonal skills in the workplace cannot be considered a bully. When a supervisor lacks these important skills then chances are the subordinates will feel like they are being bullied hence creating an unfavorable environment in the workplace (White, 2013).
Communication is the art of transferring information from one place to another. Possessing effective communication skills in the workplace ensures that an employee is able to convey information to people clearly and simply in such a way that everybody understands what is expected to be done. Poor communication skills lead to errors as a result of failure to understand and when employees are reprimanded as a result of the errors, they tend to feel like they are being bullied (Caponecchia & Wyatt, 2011).
Poor coping skills can also be misinterpreted as bullying. Coping skills are essentially ways that people use to deal with their various stressors. Each and every person has his or her own way of dealing with stress. The human nervous system is equipped in such a way that it can handle a certain amount of stress without any symptoms showing and once again this amount varies from person to person. The moment these levels are surpassed, then and individual immediately starts to experience the physical and emotional effects of stress. This experience automatically changes a person’s behavior. Coping strategies can be constructive or destructive. Destructive coping strategies hurt social relationships, result in new stress-related injuries, make preexisting problems worse or even put pressure on the relationship between co-workers. The destructive strategies usually involve behaviors and communications that may be misinterpreted as bullying (Brohl, 2013).
Poor leadership skills cannot be considered as bullying. Leadership is all about influencing people for the purposes of achieving certain objectives. Good leadership skills in the workplace are those who look beyond their own self-interest and encourage others to do the same, instill trust, create and communicate positive and realistic vision as well as respect and maintain personal and organizational values. A leader who does not possess these fundamental qualities will tend to exhibit behaviors almost similar to those of a bully. If an employee does not feel that she is getting enough tangible support and information for work to be done. Then he or she may be compelled to conclude that he or she is being bullied (Needham, 2003).
Constructive criticism cannot also be considered as bullying. Positive criticism involves measuring an employee’s performance again a fair criterion, counseling him or her when performance goes down as well as taking disciplinary measures when an employee breaches workplace policy. An employee who goes through this kind of process may feel like he or she is being mistreated by the management officers but in reality, it is just a process to ensure that employees are accountable for their actions while in the workplace (Quigg, 2015).
Workplace bullying has effects on the victim, co-workers, bully as well as on the workplace. As far as the victim is concerned, bullying affects the person physically to such an extent that he or she may suffer from stress related illnesses. The victim also suffers mentally because he or she is always in constant fear of being humiliated in front of fellow colleagues.in fact, an employee is a target of bullies, starts each week with a pit of anxiety and he or she cannot wait for the weekend so that he or she can get away from the workplace. Emotionally, the victim feels nervous, ashamed, afraid and his or her self-esteem goes down significantly. The social life of the victim is also affected primarily because he or she may withdraw from social interaction and activities. Some victims end up engaging in harmful activities like use of alcohol or drugs thinking that all they will forget all them workplace troubles and stresses permanently. Employees who have been victims of workplace bullying tend to suffer get ulcers, high blood pressure and usually have trouble sleeping (White, 2013).
Bully also has a significant effect on co-workers. Some of the victim’s colleagues may feel guilty as a result of watching the constant bullying being directed at their colleague since they know very well there is nothing they can do to help him or her. They may feel a lot of anger towards the organization’s management allowing the bad culture to continue without any action being taken gain the perpetrators of bullying. The rest of the employees may express signs of fear since they can as easily be bullied without any action being taken. Primarily because of constantly watching other employees being bullied, co-workers may have the physical, emotional, mental as well as social responses that are similar to those of the victim (Rayner, Hoel, & Cooper, 2002).
The bully may not realize the effect he or she is having on others. They may also lack communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills as well as coping skills (Quigg, 2015).
Workplace bullying also affects an organization negatively. In an institution where bullying is rampant, the performance of the institution goes down since the employees lack peace of mind which is needed for success to be realized. Bullied workers not only lose motivation, they also lose time since they are mainly preoccupied with networking for support, trying to defend themselves, ruminating about the situation, planning how to deal with the situation as well as avoiding the bully. Accidents and incidents also increase in the workplace. Absenteeism, lateness, as well as employee turnover, becomes the order of the day (Oade, 2009).
There are many reasons why workplace bullying is common. First, there are very few laws that address this issue. The laws that exist that touch on bullying are not enough to protect victims of bullying. The laws that exist are not clear enough to ensure that the consequences harsh enough to compel bullies to abandon their vice (Quigg, 2015).
Secondly, people do not talk about the issue. It is usually embarrassing and humiliating to be bullied and very few individuals would want to relive the experience by talking about it. Most of the victims prefer to forget about the bad experience. The bystanders are also powerless since they cannot do anything so everybody ends up not talking about it (Needham, 2003).
Thirdly, there are no channels designated purposely for reporting bullying. In most organizations, bullying is not considered an issue so the management of the organization does not feel the need to create a channel for victims to report bullying cases. This has contributed to the vice increasing since the bullies know that they will not be accountable for their actions (White, 2013).
The economy has also contributed to the spread of bullying. Many economies in the world are not doing very well so it becomes very hard for people to secure jobs and those few who do prefer to tolerate bullying since they are aware that chances of getting another job are very slim.
For bullying to be reduced in the workplace, then relevant laws should be made for the purposes of protecting the victims in the workplace. Stiff penalties and jail time will ensure that bullies tone down their bad behaviors significantly (Suffolk University., Campaign against Workplace Bullying & Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, 2000).
Organizations should ensure that there are proper channels designated for reporting bullying. This will ensure that those who bully others in the workplace are punished for their actions and the victims get the necessary help (White, 2013).
Organizations should make efforts to eliminate this vice by education their employees on the negative effects of bullying on the victim, workplace as well as co-workers. By creating awareness then people will discuss its negative effects and eventually it will start decreasing until it is eradicated entirely (Randle, 2006).
All in all, workplace bullying continues to be a very big problem in the workplace. Bullying can be direct or covert, intentional or incidental, face to face or via technology, downward or upward as well as between co-workers. However, having poor communication, coping, interpersonal as well as leadership skills cannot be considered as bullying. Constructive criticism is also not bullying. Bullying has negative effects on the victim, co-workers, bully as well as on the workplace. The main reasons why bullying is common in the workplace place is because of lack of proper channels of reporting, lack of proper bullying laws that protect the victim as well as harsh economies. For workplace bullying to be reduced, organizations need to create better channels for reporting bullies and create awareness of the negative effects of bullying. Governments should also make efforts of coming up with laws aimed at protecting the victims of bullying and punishing perpetrators of bullying.
References
Balcerzak, J. G. (2015). Workplace bullying: Clinical and organizational perspectives.
Brohl, K. (2013). Social service workplace bullying: A betrayal of good intentions. Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books.
Caponecchia, C., & Wyatt, A. (2011). Preventing workplace bullying: An evidence-based guide for managers and employees. New York NY: Routledge.
International Conference of Labour Statisticians, & International Labour Organization. (2008). International Labor Organization report: 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians : Geneva, 24 November-5 December 2008. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Jenkins, M. (2013). Preventing and managing workplace bullying and harassment: A risk management approach.
Needham, A. W. (2003). Workplace bullying: A costly business secret. Auckland, N.Z: Penguin Books.
Oade, A. (2009). Managing workplace bullying: How to identify, respond to and manage bullying behavior in the workplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Quigg, A.-M. (2015). The handbook of dealing with workplace bullying.
Randle, J. (2006). Workplace bullying in the NHS. Oxford: Radcliffe.
Rayner, C., Hoel, H., & Cooper, C. L. (2002). Workplace bullying: What we know, who is to blame, and what can we do?. London: Taylor & Francis.
Suffolk University., Campaign Against Workplace Bullying (Organization), & Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. (2000). Workplace bullying. Boston, Mass: Suffolk University Law School, Advanced Legal Studies.
White, S. (2013). An introduction to the psychodynamics of workplace bullying. London: Karnac Books.
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