Introduction
One major issue businesses around the world face in today’s society is workplace bullies. In almost every workplace there is a bully. In today’s world there are so many different life styles, and there is usually that one person that believes it is their job to push others around. What is workplace bullying? What makes these people become a bully? Who are the bullies and the victims? How do we prevent bullying? Those are some questions I will answer in this paper.
Personally I don’t think there is room for bullies in the workplace. Everyone comes to work for the same reasons and that is to make a living. We go to work to support our loved ones and ourselves. No one should have to go into work and deal with a bully.
Businesses survive a lot of battles everyday. Maybe a bully won’t completely destroy a business, but it will hold them back. Just think about how you feel the next time you have someone poking fun at you, calling you names, or pulling pranks. It doesn’t feel good and may even make you angry. Then you take that feeling and go address customers, it is a trickle down effect and we need to rind a resolution to the problem. Now that I have your attention, let’s take a deeper look into workplace bullies and follow the key points compared with a current situation in my workplace.
What is Workplace Bullying?
“Name-calling, taunting and being made fun of for no reason other than the fact that you existed was often a rite of passage for most kids. Unfortunately for many adults, the bullying tales of yesteryear have managed to extend well beyond school hallways and into the boardroom (Balch, 2014).”
According to Latricia Wilson, workplace bullying is the same as bulling for a child, they treat othe...
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Cornelius Frolik. (2014, Jan 20). Workplace bullies face new scrutiny: Calls for legislation increase after incident involving NFL player. Dayton Daily News, pp. A.1.
Daniel, T. A., Books24x7, I., Ebrary, & Society for Human Resource Management (U.S.). (2009). Stop bullying at work: Strategies and tools for HR & legal professionals. Alexandria, Va: Society for Human Resource Management.
Parris, T. (n.d.). Business Costs of Bullying in the Workplace. Business Costs of Bullying in the Workplace. Retrieved May 2, 2014, from http://www.overcomebullying.org/costs-of-bullying.html
Wilson, L. (n.d.). Workplace Bullying: Analysis of Workplace Bullying. Workplace Bullying: Analysis of Workplace Bullying. Retrieved May 9, 2014, from http://www.overcomebullying.org/workplace-bullying-article.html
Chapovalov, O., & Van Hulle, H. (2015). Workplace bullying in nursing part 1: prevention through awareness. OOHNA journal, 20-25. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
I chose the article Workplace Bullying: Considering the Interaction Between Individuals and Work Environment by Al-Karim Sammnani and Parbudyal Singh. In this article authors Sammnani and Singh, (2015) did a review of multiple studied on bully behaviors. Realizing that most research on bullying behavior is focused solely on the target, Sammnani and Singh propose a “more complex and integrated approach to workplace bullying” (p. 1). Sammnani and Singh, pitched the idea that “no comprehensive model of workplace bullying would be satisfactory without also including personality and other individual factors of both the perpetrator and victim” (p. 2). Rather than focusing solely on the bully the bullied, Samnani and Singh suggest that researchers employ what they call “an integrationist approach in empirical research” (p. 2). This approach they believe will better show the relationship between the bully (perpetrator) and the bullied (target).
Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)
In the 10 years Mazey had been employed with Hudson, he was observed throwing things which barely missed employees, yelling at subordinates “in a rage” and making “derogatory and demeaning remarks” possibly regarding ethnicity or origin, among other inappropriate behavior (Yemen & Clawson, 2007). Mazey can be considered as a workplace bully. Hocker and Wilmot (2011) define bullying as “repeated and persistent patterns of negative workplace behavior that is ongoing for six months or longer in duration” (p. 175). The excessive bullying behavior Mazey displayed created interpersonal tension that affected productivity. Hudson associates were hesitant, or refused to work with Mazey due to prior...
This case study will focus on the psychological and physical effects of being bullied in the workplace both in person and through social media outlets. Until recently, I feel like workplace bullying has been seen as playful teasing. But people are now realizing that bullying is bullying and it is unacceptable regardless of one’s age or occupational position. This bullying ruins people’s lives and tears their confidence down. People are driven to quit their jobs or even go as far as committing suicide because of this harassment. Workers’ health is not the only thing affected by workplace bullying. Companies suffer because their employees are preoccupied with other worries and this causes them to be less productive. Unfortunately, there are no current policies specifically addressing workplace bullying, but I do believe that solid laws will be formed soon enough.
Workplace bullying is defined as any as any type of repetitive abuse in which the victim of the bullying behaviour suffers verbal abuse, threats, humiliating or intimidating behaviours, or behaviours that interfere with his or her job performance and are meant to place at risk the health and safety of the victim (Murray, 2009). Bullying can take many forms, some blatant, others more subtle. Researchers ha...
Downplaying bullying, saying things like “He was just joking around”, and “Don’t take things so seriously” can have serious repercussions. Some people are more fragile than others and react to this type of treatment with anger or violence. On the other hand, there are managers who rule with an iron hand and sometimes this pressure can cause an employee to crack.
Bullying has been a part of schooling for as long as children have been congregating. To some it seems like a natural, though uncomfortable, part of life and school experience, while to others it can mean terrifying experiences which spoiled and characterized otherwise happy years in school. Dan Olweus, a pioneer in bully behavior research documented that 2.7 million children are affected as victims, and that 2.1 children act as bullies (Fried, 1997, as cited in Aluedse, 2006). With bullying cited as the reason for violent, gun-related crime in the past few years, school districts as well as national governments have put anti-bullying policies in place. Bullying is a complicated phenomenon, involving more than one child demanding lunch money from a smaller child. It is a worldwide epidemic hitting schools everywhere. Virtually everyone has seen or experienced bullying. With technological advances, bullying is even hitting the internet. Parents, teachers, students and governments agencies alike are attempting to put a stop to bullying practices.
In the analysis, the essential problem of the bullying behavior cycle in today’s society is the leaders of irresponsible power. The companies number one employment policy is to respect one another dignity and pride, yet many bosses are the first and main ones to neglect it in supervising the employees. They are also the primary influences of the bullying behavior who favor workers they can identify themselves with. Who would not want to be favored by their boss and have a sense of job security? Where are the Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) in all this mess? However, since employees are awarded for the bullying behavior, they feel a sense of righteousness and their children model the mentality. No wonder the school’s bullies are furious when they are punished for their behavior.
workers report they have experienced or witnessed some kind of bullying—verbal abuse, insults, threats, screaming, sarcasm or ostracism. One study by John Medina showed that workers stressed by bullying performed 50% worse on cognitive tests. Over the past ten years, research investigating workplace incivility has estimated that prevalence rates may be between 75% and 100%, meaning that nearly all employees have experienced some level of incivility from their coworkers, supervisors, or customers/clients. The exceptionally high frequency of occurrence for incivility is cause for concern because research has consistently demonstrated that the effects of incivility can compound over time. As a result, incivility has been shown to lead to a host of deleterious effects on employee and organizational well-being.
Bullying is defined as instances where an employee is repeatedly exposed to negative acts from coworkers, supervisors and/or subordinates over a period of time (Incivility, social undermining, bullying, 2010). A few examples of negative acts related to bullying are constant abuse, ridicule, social exclusion, and stating offensive remarks/teasing. Bullying within the workplace may be portrayed in many different ways, for instance, it can be a manager being the perpetrator or another coworker. A few examples of how a manager can act as a bully are by purposely giving one employee more work than another due to disliking the individual, giving unrealistic deadlines or tasks, denying employees necessary time off or even denying access to information needed to perform the job properly. A coworker could bully another coworker by telling rumors about the victim to others in return influencing others not to talk to them, taking full credit for work done in a group setting, or constantly tormenting and putting down the individual. Bullying within the workplace is a significant problem in today’s society. In fact, according to the 2017 WBI U.S Workplace Bullying Survey nineteen percent of working individuals are bullied within their place of work. The study also concluded that sixty one percent of Americans are aware of this abusive conduct in the workplace, yet do not say anything to the perpetrator. Bystanders often do
7 Signs of Being Bullied at Workplace Socializing at workplace can seem quite a challenging task since you are expected to be professional as well as approachable and friendly at the same time. Hence, it can happen that senior authorities exert undue pressure and indulge in unfair activities on junior employees to show their superiority. Termed as bullying, this involves irrational behavior by a person on others and is aimed at hurting the other individual verbally, socially, psychologically or physically to indicate supremacy at the workplace. While the main aim is to prove dominance over the individual being humiliated, the perpetrator can sought help from colleagues and resort to different actions to belittle the target person. Though
Workplace Bullying and Impacts on Organizations Weidmer (2010) defines workplace bullying as “a pervasive practice by malicious individuals who seek power, control, domination, and subjugation” (p. 35). The bully can be a range of people from direct managers to co-workers to a stranger online. Workplace bullying, therefore, not only comes in many forms it can be caused by leaders and contribute to negative impacts on an organizations which therefore entails using specific techniques to prevent and stop it.
Bullying has always been a problem within the past century and has become an epidemic. However, because of social media people are becoming more aware of the issues associated with bullying and how it has become a trend in today’s society. You turn on the news and you are hearing about kids being bullied and the end result is suicide. Bullying is occurring worldwide. Not only is it happening in our schools and social networks, but also in the work place. The various types of bullying that exist and the attempt to entirely eliminate them is not achievable because of individual and environmental factors.
What is workplace bullying? According to the Workplace Bullying Institute “ 35 per cent of the U.S workforce repor...