Discuss about the Policy Analysis for Prevention and Management of Workplace.
The policy of anti-bullying measure in the workplace has enough depth as it correctly has identified the issues of workplace bullying in the health sector of Australia. The policy to be analysed here is Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in NSW Health which was published in the year 2011 (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2011). This particular policy is one of the most important to ensure the fundamental concern for respect of all the human beings. The concept of bullying in the healthcare is an important issue to discuss. This can lead to psychological harm as well as negatively influence the process of healthcare. Bullying id confused with harassment violence and aggregation which may lead to suicide among the patients as well as healthcare employees (Erdogan & Yildirim, 2017). This is due to the fact that various racial as well as ethnic issues greatly influence the perceptions, behaviour of the employees in the healthcare sector of Australia and late or incompetent response to interventions have increased the issues more (Ross, 2017). The patients of the hospitals have been found to be mistreated by the doctors based om their race. The evidence of biasness and harassment among the employee relation and management have been recorded due to migration and different cultural background This policy has mandated the health organisations to develop and manage a supportive workplace which will provide clear regulations of the organisational expectations of their staffs in respect to their behavioural conduct so that these do not constitute the examples of workplace bullying and breach any of the organisational policies regarding rights of the employees. This policy has enough depth because it assures that the victims of workplace bullying will have a failure chance to lodge their complaints against any managers and employees who support discrimination. Finally, the initiates of taking a punitive measure against them who will conduct breaches of this policy is important.
Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in NSW Health policy is distributed to the Public Health System, Government Medical Officers, Health Associations Unions, NSW Ambulance Service, Ministry of Health and Tertiary Education Institutes. This policy is implemented to bring all these agencies under control and direct the according to the strategies prescribed by the Minister for Health or the Director-General of Health. This policy aiming to prevent bullying is applicable to all the persons who are employed in any of the capacities in the NSW health service and department of health, all the persons engaged by the public health organisations for example the visiting practitioners as well as volunteers along with the students.
There are many reasons for choosing this policy. First of all, workplace bullying is one of the most significant issues in this changing global context (Salin et al., 2018). It is one of the most persistent patterns of mistreatment in the workplace. Secondly, these issues of workplace bullying have far more intensive effect on the physical as well as mental health. This includes psychological, verbal, non-verbal humiliation and physical abuse (Chaplin, 2017). Thirdly, dealing with such organisational aggression is quite difficult because this type of bullying operates within the well-established rules of the organisation. Fourthly, the efficiency of management with such issues is more difficult as the evidences are often not clear as the victims do not get cooperation from the management or colleagues. This is because the issues of confidentiality emerge which often cause psychological and metal harm to the victims (Ross, 2016). Finally, negative effect of bullying is not only limited to the targeted individuals or the patients under the governance of healthcare system of Australia but lead to the declination of employee morale which ultimately affect the organisational culture. The reason of choosing this policy also includes the efficiency and emphasis on maintaining dignity of the employees in the health sector of Australia.
The purpose of this policy is to provide a safe place for working and maintain equality for all the staffs in the originations where the values of each staff will be respected. Under this policy the NSW government will not be tolerating any type of workplace bullying under any circumstances. This policy Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in NSW Health aims to prevent as well as fight workplace bullying in the health workplaces. This policy will be assisting the managers to fulfil their responsibilities for eliminating the risks of workplace bullying in the health organisations of this region (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2011). They will take all initiatives to minimise the instances of bullying and manage all the complaints associated with bullying. By providing the staffs with all types of information about their right and responsibilities so that they can lodge their complaints.
This policy has some mandatory requirements where the staffs are expected to underwrite to maintain a professional as well as productive workplace culture (Health.nsw.gov.au, 2011). The policy mangers are responsible to maintain such a workplace which is free from bullying. They must be treating the complaints about bullying with more sensitivity, seriously and unbiasedly then take a prompt action. The managers of the organisations are responsible to identify risks related to complaints which they will assess and act upon. The associated agencies will be documenting each and every information from the very first information as well as initial assessment (Lamberth, 2015). The employees or managers who will be identified to support workplace bullying or harassing the patients on the bias of racism or other reasons will be recognised as potential guilty of breaches of this particular policy and will be managed in accordance with NSW Health policy for dealing misconduct.
Despite the fact that the government of New South Wales has initiated to solve the issue of workplace bullying seriously, there are some gaps in the policy which need to be eradicated or transformed so that more effective results can be achieved. These issues are mainly political, legal and social. The problem of workplace bullying in the healthcare sector has become a social challenge it has directly affected the legal factors (Sheehan, McCabe & Garavan, 2018). The opponents of the governments particularly try to find out the issues which may lead to failure of this policy. This is the reason why the government needs to have proper investigation of the gaps present in the anti-workplace bullying policy (Althaus, Bridgman & Davis, 2013). This particular policy applies to-
Workplace bullying in the healthcare sector directly connects the community involvement as the basis of such misconduct is on the ethnicity, gender, culture and age. Here one of the most important issue could have been the religion as many of the religious categories can be found in the New South Wales. In addition to this, the employees are often bullied due to their diseases such as cancer and HIV (D’Cruz, Noronha & Lutgen-Sandvik, 2018). The impact of the interest groups in the healthcare sector for addressing any identified workplace culture issues, work practices or supervisory arrangements that may contribute to bullying need to be incorporated. The policy does not cover the necessity of leadership training about the cultures with which the organisations can maintain diversity in the healthcare workplace (Rockett et al., 2017). The work conditions and physical work environment are to be strategized which this policy does not refer. The actions of the interest groups like Australian Human Rights Commission can influence the issue of unclear job description and the alternative work locations in healthcare sector which may not be possible as solution always.
The equality issue which the government policy wanted to impose on the healthcare organisations needs the agreement among the political advisors (Namie & Namie, 2018). Therefore, the persons which have been victimised need perfect protection from the similar things that may be happened again (Althaus, Bridgman & Davis, 2013). Moreover, what the policy have suggested as the risk originated from workplace bullying and its response, has not cover the important of security from physical threats or violence which lead to distress (Einarsen et al., 2017). There is no factor of media reception which will increase awareness and refer to the past cases of bullying in the Australian healthcare sector. Moreover, the government parties did not come to a negotiated settlement where the consequences of such complaints may take legal turn.
The administrative and constitutional framework of the country prescribes for legal initiatives to be taken in such cases (Chadwick & Travaglia, 2017). The complainant is needed to be permitted for taking the matter to court so that a legal decision may be taken against the person guilty of bullying. In this case the court will be providing a remedy, including compensation where appropriate but the policy only speaks for notifying the person against whom the compliant has been made (Althaus, Bridgman & Davis, 2013). The temporary suspension from work which will not have a desired effect to prevent bullying ion the workplace and maintain equality (Ramely & Ahmad, 2017).
Early identification of bullying is one of the most important factors that help the managers to prevent such incidents in the healthcare sector which is closely related with mental and physical health (Einarsen et al., 2017). This issues of workplace bulling can be linked to a long term health issues. turn to emotional attacks to humiliate or undermine their targets. This is the reason why the policies need to have some changes.
To the experts, there cannot be one single initiative that can cater all the issues (Althaus, Bridgman & Davis, 2013). Therefore, a whole organisation approach to prevent and manage workplace bullying can be recommended. Some individual components which are related with WHO benchmarks are 1) human resource development, training and education; 2) planning; 3) legislation and policy; 4) funding; 5) vulnerability assessment; 6) information systems; 7) surveillance; 8) absorbing and buffering capacities and responses; 9) patient care; and 10) coordination (Searo.who.int, 2018).
The policy mandates to complete the investigation process to complete the initial assessment process with in the time frame of 3 days after which the investigation process will be initiated and completed. Therefore, this policy needs time to be imposed and proper feedbacks will be taken so that the gaps can be identified. The changes will be brought after thirty months of policy implementation so that the gap areas can be more implicit.
The priority areas will definitely be the victims of workplace harassments who will be able to discuss their experiences to the others. The management of the organisations will identify the employees from different cultures, religion, age group and gender and take more care of these potential victims of workplace bully.
Best practice to deal with workplace bullying is to maintain a workplace culture which will have trust and openness in all of the organisations (Johnstone, 2017). No policy or procedure is a substitute for such a positive work culture in the healthcare sector Australia.
Expert opinion states that there should be clarity of processes to the resolution of the victims, transparency of the process timelines, high level of early closure will help the organisations to mitigate such problems (Sheehan, McCabe & Garavan, 2018). The inclusion of bullying in NSW healthcare sector as a risk together with the policies will mitigate such issues. The risk inclusion should be mandatory in every employer’s Safety Statement. The Health and Safety Authority of the healthcare organisations will be charged with ensuring that these are effectively enforced.
The Labour Relations Commission will be the single State Agency which may be charged with the management of specific allegations of workplace bullying. The Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Labour Court will be the court of appeal for decisions of a Rights Commissioner. These lobby groups will take care of the policies so that these can have effective implementation in maintaining the workplace culture and do not infringe the patient care system. The Human Rights department of the country can be the effectively lobbying to bring necessary changes in the policies.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that the workplace bullying is one of the most important issues which the organisations must be concerned with. This not only lead to the harm of the mental health of the employees but also harm the culture of the workplace. Due to the issues of bullying the workplace, the employees of different race and culture have been suffering from depression which finally harm their emotional and mental health. The managers are responsible to monitor these issues and accept any complaints, based on which they will be taking immediate actions. Within a given time, the investigations will be completed and the policy mandates punitive measures to the guilty employees. Despite of maintaining such importance vigilance on the employees to prevent the case of workplace harassments, there are some gaps in the process of implementing the policies in the organisations. This is because the policy Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in NSW Health does not address the religious categories as well as the diseased victims of workplace. As Australia has a great diversity in the race, age, religion and gender, the issues of bullying is very much common. In maintaining positivity in the workplace, the organisation needs to follow the method of training the employees as well as the managers so that they have proper idea of the definition of workplace bullying in one hand and they can take proper decisions when any type pf incident of bullying take place before them.
For preventing workplace bullying in the healthcare sector and maintaining the equality in the organisations, the policies need to have more mature initiatives so that the peers or colleagues build contact networks (Dollard et al., 2017). This will be acting as a trusted point of contact for the employees. This will also help in the early identification of problem behaviours.
According to the policy, there is no importance given on the anonymous complaints but these are important in order to judge the actual environment of the organisations. Many of the employees who are the victims of workplace bullying cannot expose the situation due to many reasons. These victims need to gain order stage to share their experience therefore, changes in the compliant section need to be changed. Through this, the anonymous complaints will have similar concern to prevent the increasing cases of bullying.
Zero tolerance policy on the workplace bullying will be a method of representative commitment to build a positive workplace culture. A practical standpoint in the meaning of ‘zero tolerance’ will be cleared. The changes in the policies also include the punitive measure which the policies do not strictly implement. Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in NSW Health policy only refers to the suspension and notifying the guilty employees but there must be a strong punishment so that the organisation can set an example for their future operations. The human rights departments, Labour Relations Commission and Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Labour Court can be lobbying to campaign for the proper implementation of the policies so that this issues of workplace bullying can be mitigated and a healthy work culture can be obtained.
References:
Althaus, C., Bridgman, P., & Davis, G. (2013). A policy cycle. In The Australian policy handbook (5th ed., pp. 32-42). Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Budden, L. M., Birks, M., Cant, R., Bagley, T., & Park, T. (2017). Australian nursing students’ experience of bullying and/or harassment during clinical placement. Collegian, 24(2), 125-133.
Chadwick, S., & Travaglia, J. (2017). Workplace bullying in the Australian health context: a systematic review. Journal of health organization and management, 31(3), 286-301.
Chaplin, C. (2017). Chapter Workplace bullying among healthcare workers. WORKPLACE BULLYING OCCURRENCE IN ALTERNATIVE ORGANIZATIONAL MILIEUS, 39.
D’Cruz, P., Noronha, E., & Lutgen-Sandvik, P. (2018). Power, subjectivity and context in workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment: insights from postpositivism. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 13(1), 2-9.
Dollard, M. F., Dormann, C., Tuckey, M. R., & Escartín, J. (2017). Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(6), 844-857.
Einarsen, K., Mykletun, R. J., Einarsen, S. V., Skogstad, A., & Salin, D. (2017). Ethical Infrastructure and Successful Handling of Workplace Bullying. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 7(1), 37.
Erdogan, V., & Yildirim, A. (2017). Healthcare professionals’ exposure to mobbing behaviors and relation of mobbing with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Procedia Computer Science, 120, 931-938.
Health.nsw.gov.au. (2011). Details Page. Retrieved from https://www1.health.nsw.gov.au/pds/Pages/doc.aspx?dn=PD2011_018
Johnstone, R. (2017). The Australian Regulatory Framework for Preventing Harassment and Bullying at Work. In Psychosocial Risks in Labour and Social Security Law (pp. 253-268). Springer, Cham.
Lamberth, B. B. (2015). Workplace Bullying in Healthcare: Part 3. Radiology management, 37(3), 18-22.
Namie, G., & Namie, R. (2018). The Role of the Consultant in Assessing and Preventing Workplace Bullying and Mobbing. Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States [2 volumes], 357.
Ramely, A. B., & Ahmad, Y. (2017). Attributors of Workplace Bullying: Cleaning Workforces’ Perspective. Journal of Administrative Science Special Edition: Socio-Economic Issue, 14(3).
Rockett, P., Fan, S. K., Dwyer, R. J., & Foy, T. (2017). A human resource management perspective of workplace bullying. Journal of aggression, conflict and peace research, 9(2), 116-127.
Ross, J. (2017). Taking Bullying Out of Health Care: A Patient Safety Imperative. Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, 32(6), 653-655.
Salin, D., Cowan, R. L., Adewumi, O., Apospori, E., Bochantin, J., D’Cruz, P., … & I?ik, I. (2018). Prevention of and interventions in workplace bullying: a global study of human resource professionals’ reflections on preferred action. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-23.
Searo.who.int. (2018). The Benchmarks. Retrieved from https://www.searo.who.int/entity/emergencies/topics/benchmarkstool/en/
Sheehan, M., McCabe, T. J., & Garavan, T. N. (2018). Workplace bullying and employee outcomes: a moderated mediated model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-38.
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