BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE According to Forbes website, 75 percent of workers are affected by bullying in 2016. Many people have quitted their job because they have been bullied at their workplace. But before we begin talking about bullying in the workplace, we have to ask our self what is bullying in the workplace. According to Linda Laws, bullying in the workplace “is a term used to describe disruptive behaviors that negatively affect the collaborative working environment” (2016). This behaviors can include continuous criticism, humiliation, intimidation, negative comments or insults on a person’s work, personality, race, gender and other. In fact, bullies at the workplace practice a negative action called psychological violence. What they …show more content…
Due to the health problems targets of bullying might have, the would experience emotional, psychological and sometimes physiological impairment which cause them to be absent due to sickness. (Hershcovis, Reich, & Niven, 2015). On the other hand, targets who continue to attend the work can’t perform their jobs at their best capability. They might have issues making decisions, they might be incapable to concentrate at the work, and they would have lower productivity. Adding to it, targets are not only lack of motivation but they also waste their time because sometimes they are worry about avoiding bully, they try to defend themselves, and think about or find a way to deal with the situation. (Bullying in the Workplace, …show more content…
They are also responsible to create culture where respect is mandatory and create policies of zero-tolerance for bullying. The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) argues several primary ways or intervention to deal with bullying in the workplace. One way is focused on preventing occurrence of bullying in the workplace is by implementing programs or policy of communication, stress management training, and negative behavior awareness training. (Hershcovis, Reich, & Niven,
The article provide five table illustrations. Table one is about the demographic characteristic of the targets of the workplace bullies. The table displays the characteristics of social workers ranging by age, gender, and demographic. Table two is about organizational settings and roles of targets. The table displayed supervisors, colleagues, subordinates, and clients were all identified as bullies. It showed that women were more than twice as likely (67%) to be identified as bullies as were men (33%). Table three is about the most troubling bullying behaviors. It showed that verbally and covertly hostile actions were the most troubling bullying behaviors in the workplace. In addition, being treated with disrespect and having work de-valued as the hardest aspects of being bullied at the workplace. Table four was the summary characteristics of bullies. The study showed the characteristic were either passive or assertive by the Coping Scale. The passive behavior had a ranging score of 24 and assertive was of 60. The median and mean scores were 42.5, and a multiple modal score. Table five was the classification of responses to coping scale as passive or assertive
Workplace bullying is a widespread issue in which people need to be educated on in order to put an end to it. Its causes are complex and multi-faceted and yet preventable. Workplace bullying puts unnecessary strain on the employees It is the employer and organizations responsibility to provide a bully free environment for their employees. Employees should have the right to feel safe in their work environment and be free from workplace bullying. Employers need to be held accountable and have a plan in place to protect the employees from this type of violence. Unfortunately that is not always the case, in some instances the employer is the one doing the bullying. Workplace bullying carries many definitions in which will be
Recent statistics propose that workplace bullying is common and prevalent when bullying behavior is kept silence. According to a 2010 Workplace Bullying Institute's U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, it is estimated that 35 percent of American workers have reported that they have witness some form of bullying behavior in the workplace; 40 percents of target American workers who has keep silence about being bullied; 62 percent of bullies are believed to be men; 58 percent of targets are believed to be women. While some studies have reveal that young people and minorities are the most targeted for workplace bullying, the 2010 Workplace Bullying Institute's U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey reports that, 69 percent of bullying cases is associated with the same gender bully and target; however, studies show that women account for 80 percent of bullying against other women; and 43 percent of bullying behavior is carried out by co-workers, while 36 percent of workplace bullying is initiated by supervisors,12 percent of workplace bullying comes from clients, and 5 percent is initiated by assistants and 4 percent comes from others in the workplace. The Workplace Bullying Institute's U.S. (2010) developed and customized Zogby International to obtained data for the second representative study of Americans associated with workplace bullying. The Workplace Bullying Institute's U.S. was the first to conduct the national study on workplace bullying 2007. The concluding results are included in the graphs below in this assignment. Based on the study, two essential surveys were developed, one in 2010 and one in 2007. However, the 2010 survey was used to make a through comparison to the 2007 Workplace Bullying Institute's (WBI) Zogby prevalence. The information includes; surveys prevalence of workplace bullying, gender and workplace bullying. Based on the studies
The two practical ways the organisations could adopt in ensuring bullying at the workplace are build good relationships work environment and anti-bullying policies. By building a good relationship at workplace it will lead to organisational success and well being of staffs, and creating an environment that builds good relationships also prevents bullying at workplace. It is much easier than dealing with bullying once it occurs. When staff have a clear picture of what an organisation wants to achieve, they are more likely to engage with the common goal. Likewise, a clear guidelines for expected behaviour, work culture and values means unreasonable behaviour is less likely to
Even though there are a few things that sound like they are bullying they are not considering bullying. Bullying not only affects the one being targeted, but the whole family. There are many health issues that come with being bullied. There are many ways to stop bullying. One thing they need is support from family. There are also many ways a company can stop bullying in the workplace. The employer should consider this because of the cost to the employer. There are many websites and materials that an employer can use to start these policies. Being taught about bullying is one way to stop it. The more employers and employees learn about bullying the faster it can be stopped. This will only help the bottom line of the business to take part in
Today’s economy is changing, not only in this country, but around the world as well. People today are struggling to find steady employment, maintaining their employment and still having a difficult time to make ends-meet. Looking for a job, especially while unemployed and running low on money, has to be one of the most stressful times of a person’s life. However, there is another issue in regarding to today’s workforce. We can assume that most of us have experienced some type of bullying while in our younger years. Unfortunately, bullying exists in one’s adulthood as well, especially within the work environment. Additionally, workplace bullying is one of the biggest complaints from both employers and
According to Murray (2009), "Workplace bullying has been defined as any type of repetitive abuse in which the victim of the bullying behavior suffers verbal abuse, threats, humiliating or intimidating behaviors, or behaviors by the perpetrator that interfere with his or her job performance and are meant to place at risk the health and safety of the victim” ( p. 273). There are three types of bullying and they are defined as physical, verbal, and social bullying. Physical bullying can cause short term or long term damage such as causing bodily harm to a person or harm to their property. Verbal bullying is when you're teasing, name-calling, and threating to cause harm to an individual. Verbal bullying can start off as harmless but can escalate to another level which can affect the intended target. Social bullying is a type of bullying that can ruin someone's reputation such as telling lies and spreading rumors about the individual. In order for something to be considered as bullying, the behavior must be forceful such as physical strength, having control over others and having some type of embarrassing information on that individual. Sabotaging their work and setting them up to fail, taking credit for the individual work, and interfering with their ability to work can also be considered behaviors of bullying.
Several online dictionaries and articles describe the term “bullying” as a verb, an action – the act of intimidation or domineering behavior. According to Ron Maurer, author of the article “Workplace Bullying Laws on the Horizon”, published in 2013, he describes it as “bullying includes work interference or sabotage that prevents work from getting done.” According to CareerBuilder.com, in a survey concluded that approximately 25% of the workforce has experienced workplace bullying – therefore one
When a nurse is bullied, she often develops the feeling associated with disappointment in regards to being a nurse and their ability to handle the bully. The feelings of failure manifest into actions. The nurse’s productivity decreases, which leads to actions of incompetency. Workplace bullying causes physical and emotional illnesses in the victim. Workplace bullying is a stressor. A stressor is defined as anything that generates stress. The body responds to stress by either distress or eustress. Distress is harmful to the body and triggers a somatic response to release glucocorticoids, cortisol, into the body. Nurses can experience memory loss, spikes in emotions, and difficulty maintains positive relationships under high levels of stress over an extended period of time. Studies ran by Khoshknab et al showed that “Humiliation, abuse, ridicule, and insults were the most common forms of verbal violence and held a significantly more severe negative effect on the victim’s mental health than other forms of workplace bullying” (Khoshknab, et al., 2015).
Bullies are like chameleons. What they do and say may not always be visible, but their words and actions still impact another person’s life. Bullying does not stop once you graduate; however it continues on into the workplace. This must be stopped. Workplace bullying is inappropriate and it produces unbearable environments that lead to negative workplace atmospheres. The main people involved in the situation, the harmful and destructive effects on the victim and the chance to prevent bullying all tie the fact together that bullying should and can be stopped. Mistreatment is preventable and the amount of suffering it causes is unnecessary. Taking these points into consideration, it will overall show how the bullies, bystanders and victims all play a role in abolishing workplace bullying.
Researchers believe that there has been an increase in workplace bullying over the past few years. Is this true? Maybe more acts perceived as bullying. Recently, depression has been becoming more and more common, and " Individuals who are depressed, for example, may perceive situations differently" (Fleming). In other words, depressed individuals could see and report situations they see as bullying that are not actually so. Depression could also cause workplace bullying if the depressed person lashed out. Everyone has lousy days, but depressed individuals may be in such an atrocious state about their self-worth that they "lash out at those they feel are stealing the spotlight" (Neall). Overall, a probable cause of workplace bullying is
More than one in five students between the ages of 12 through 18 have reported being bullied. In college, 15% of students reported being bullied and 22% students reported being cyber bullied. In the workplace over 60 million workers in the United states have claimed been affected by workplace bullying. Bullying is something that everyone is susceptible to experiencing in their life whether its in a school setting or at a work one. Bullying is such a widespread problem in all levels of life yet we do seemingly nothing about it. First we must identify what bullying is. According to stopbullying.gov which is managed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services “ … current definition acknowledges two modes and four types by which
The frequency and duration of bullying are two aspects to consider to make a definition for this behavior. Despite few decades of research, the researchers still have not agreed upon the extent of frequency and duration to define bullying. More on the definition, the values and norms of the workplace need to be included as these influence how the employees perceive bullying. Cowie et al. explored three methods—the insider’s experience on bullying, the outsider’s experience, and the multi-method approach of both inside and outside perspectives. The researchers recommend future psychologists to apply the multi-method approach to assess, and mediate the
Workplace bullying is a prevalent issue in today’s society. With its huge effects on workers and organisations, it is important to raise awareness and take action against workplace bullying. A large number of media sources do exactly this. Websites, reports, surveys, and more have all been created to inform on and prevent workplace bullying. These sources are all a valuable and effective way of making changes to current workplace bullying and progressing towards safer working
Bullies might not always be aware of the severe consequences of their actions but this cannot condone the sorrow and pain they inflict upon the victims. Bullying often evokes psychosomatic illnesses. Victims complain about headache, heart diseases, dizziness, nausea and sleep disorder. Bullying becomes the dominating part of their whole life; they cannot do anything without thinking of the horror of the next workday. Weakened as they are, victims become an even easier target for people who want to harm them. It is a vicious circle, hard to break out for those terrorized by bullying. Many of them think of committing suicide as the last way out.