Workplace bulling is abusive behavior that creates an intimidating and uncomfortable work environment that affects another person or persons safety or well-being (Qualia Soup, 2014).
The article Workplace Bullying: Costly and Preventable by Wiedmer, T. L. (2011) discusses work place bullying and its effects on productivity and the work environment. Workplace bulling is malicious behavior by a person or group of people that causes others to be uncomfortable, fearful, and sometimes threatened.
Ultimately, it affects the person’s ability to be productive. As stated in the article, bullying can take many forms. Verbal abuse and offensive conduct can cause employees to feel less confident, humiliated, threatened, and alienated. These feelings will cause employees to be less productive, eventually affecting organizational productivity and profits (Wiemer, T. L. , 2011).
The bully tends to act in this manner to gain control, destroy a person’s credibility, and cause harm to the individual and the working environment.
Workplace bullying activities resulted in the targets reporting stress related health problems such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and even posttraumatic stress (Workplace Bullying Institute, n. d. ) The article describes surveys that were done to measure the extent of bullying that happens in the workplace. The WBI-Zogby survey is the largest scientific study of bullying in the United States. The survey was an online survey conducted in August of 2007 and had 7,740 responses (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2007).
The Term Paper on Business and Work Environment
Business and Work Environments A trade union is a cohort of people involved in similar work or working in the same industry who have banded together for their mutual benefit in matters connected with work. Trade unions exist to collectively represent and protect workers by improving the quality of their working lives. In the workplace, both employees and employers have rights and responsibilities ...
Some of the startling results of the survey were: Most bullies are bosses (72%), 57% of targets are women, 62% of employers ignore or worsen the problem, 45% of targets suffer stress-related health problems, 40% of bullied individuals never tell their employers, and only 3% of bullied people file lawsuits (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2007).
Because bullying affects an organizations ability to run a healthy environment, institutions such as the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) were created.
The WBI is the first and only U. S. organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that combines help for individuals, research, books, public education, training for professionals-unions-employers, legislative advocacy, and consulting solutions for organizations. (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2014).
The institute has helped through thousands of interviews to confirm what types of employees bullies usually target. The bully usually focuses on skilled employees that have the ability to be successful and who are usually brighter than the bullies.
The principal weapons that bullying bosses and coworkers employ were alienating the targets from social interaction and withholding validation forcing other coworkers to separate themselves for fear they will become targets (Workplace Bullying Institute, n. d. ).
A situation that was observed several years ago was an example of a male employee by the name of Mike being bullied by his female employer, Susan. Her dislike for Mike was evident to the rest of the team.
She would use nonverbal cues when he spoke in meetings to show her distaste for him. He would work harder than anyone else would on her team, yet he had the worst performance appraisals and rarely received a merit increase. Susan followed many of the behaviors descried in the article such as consciously undermine Mike’s position, set unrealistic timelines, and misrepresent or distort anything Mike said or did (Wiemer, T. L. , 2011).
Finally, Mike became depressed and developed high blood pressure.
The lack of respect he felt and the way his health was declining forced him to speak to Susan’s superiors regarding her behavior. Unfortunately, her superiors chose to make excuses for her behavior and ignored the proof that Mike provided. Mike’s productivity and health continued to decline. Eventually, Mike decided that his well-being was more important than a paycheck and he resigned from his position. It was a loss to the company because Mike was a valuable employee that had to be replaced by two people to perform his same job functions.
The Term Paper on Health And Safety Restaurant Employees Workplace
Introduction According to Bohle and Quinlan (1999: xii), the cost of workplace injuries and disease is in excess of $20 billion dollars per year. Obviously, these figures are alarming and would suggest that OHS would be a top priority for management. However, a survey from Queensland manufacturer revealed that many companies had no written policy regarding occupational health and safety? and? 48 ...
Hiring the replacement employees ended up costing the organization double the amount of Mike’s salary and they are less productive. Because bullying can have effects on both employees and a company’s return on investment, organizations must have policies in place that describe what an acceptable work environment is and what behaviors will and will not be tolerated. Polices must be put in place regarding punishment of intolerable behavior. Disciplinary and legal consequences should be clearly stated.
Documentation of workplace policy and procedures should be defined and accessible to all employees. It should be part of training i. e. new employee orientation to ensure all employees are given the policies to review (Wiemer, T. L. , 2011).
Another tool employers can put in place is a resource where bulling activities can be reported. The resource should be available for employees to be able to report when they are being harassed or bullied (EHow, 2014).
The awareness of workplace bullying has increased dramatically.
As statistics show, 56% of companies now have anti-bullying polices because more than 1/3 of U. S. workers have experienced bullying by their boss or Coworkers. Eight states are working to pass anti-bullying legislation but many companies fear the laws are too broad and invite frivolous claims from poor performing employees that are appropriately disciplined (Fox News, 2014).
Employees can take action to ensure their accusations are taken seriously. The first step is understanding the definition of workplace bullying.
They should research and use sources i. e. The WBI to understand their rights. The employee should take note of each incident, gather evidence and documentation, and report the incident to the appropriate individual or department. If necessary, the employee may need to take legal action. Employees have a responsibility to report incidents of workplace bullying. Employers are responsible to ensure the workplace environment is a healthy, positive, bully free place for employees to work and be productive.
The Essay on HR Employee Development & Workplace Learning
Human resource development and knowledge is extremely essential for the success of an organization because HRD reflects upon the objectives and goals of the business which can be achieved through proper human resource planning and management activities and also through implementing the most effective human resource learning theories such as behaviorism theory and situated theory of learning which ...
