addition to workplace bullying

8/6/2019 Addition to Workplace Bullying

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Legal Consequences Of Bullying-

One of the examples which can be considered as devastating with respect to workplace bullying

involves case of workplace bullying which led to the process of litigation in the geography of

Indiana in the year 2001. In this case it was not the incident of bullying that captured all the eyes

and attention but it was also the fact that bullying expert was called to testify.

Thus, almost all the organizations now have various types of policies in place to prevent such

type of harassment as well as bullying activities as associates are the most distinguished,

competitive as well as significant asset that any organization has in todays environment.

Thereby today organizations resort to various kinds of policies which help the organization to

retain associates for a longer time period as well.

In case of bullying at workplace, it is also an agreed fact that the person who exhibits bullying

activities is also one of the highly creative associates in the organization as well. But in this case

the workplace bullies seem to deploy their creativity and ingenuity in negative aspects. If the

organization is able to come up with any kinds of HR policies that are able to divert creativity of

workplace bullies in to positive direction, then it can do wonders for the organization as well. In

this case establishing priorities is a must. It is also a lesser known fact that workplace bullies may

appear very charming on face but behind the scenes these are the people who deploy harshtactics and bully other associates who may be co-worker or subordinates as well.

Workplace bullying is adding up to the serious problem of increasing attrition rate in the

organizations and now management of the organization has to take some serious steps to devise

an effective viable framework to deal with such issues. In fact as per one of the research studies,

almost 70 percent of the respondents agreed to the fact that they have been victims of bullying in

their career at some point or other in their life. Workplace bullying sometimes also is responsible

for excessive stress, anxiety and depression in serious cases. Bullying may be verbal or physical

as well. Verbal bullying involves insults to humiliating sarcasms too with an obvious intention to

hurt the other person or group of persons who are being bullied.

In many cases victims are so much intimidated that they are not even in the condition to report

such kind of abusive activities to management as well which also aggravates the problem to a


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higher degree. This also gives the required encouragement to workplace bullies who go on one

step further which may not only lead to losses on individual level but also cause serious losses on

organizational level which may be for a long term or a short time period.

It is also to be borne in mind that bullying damages business in a nasty manner as it amplifies the

attrition rate as well as employee absenteeism rate. This in turn negatively affects organizational

productivity as well as consumes major chunk of associates positive energy which he/ she could

have otherwise deployed to accomplish various tasks. Thus it causes loss to the organization not

only in financial terms but also in terms of non-financial parameters.

Thus, if organization has to mitigate and fight with the problem of workplace bullying, then

organization should undertake some of the below mentioned steps such as-

1. Stating as well as making it very clear to one and all that organization will not bear andtolerate any kind of bullying at workplace

2. Carving out specific anti-bullying practice in written which should be an important partof employee handbook

3. Forbid various actions such as tantrums, screaming, threats etc4. Making complaint making mechanism easy and feasible especially in case of bullying so

that organization gets timely reports and is able to take the required action without gettinglate and thereby curbing the practice at initial level

5. Have frequent consulting at workplace so that associates are open to share their feelingsand experience

6. Monitoring all the associates keenly which may indicate whether an associate is a victimor workplace bully or is working as per specifications?

7. Monitor absenteeism of associates8. If organizational management spots workplace bullies, then action should be immediately

taken

9. If feedback is given to bully, then focus should be on behavior rather than personality10.Ensuring that workplace bully understands the fatal consequences of bullying and related

practices

11.Documenting the conversations


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12.Remember that management should act as role model for all the associates in theorganization.

Old Views on Domestic Violence Current Views on Workplace Bullying

Its a private affair. What goes on behind

closed doors is no-one elses business

"I dont care how you manage them just

get the results"

Police turn a blind eye to reportsHR and senior management turn a blind

eye" to management practises

Courts adopt a conciliation role based

upon the understanding that domestic

violence was somehow a problem between

two people that could be resolved by

counseling

Employment Relations Authority adopt a

mediation first policy. This is again based

upon the understanding that all

employment relations problems are

somehow problems between two people

Victims often partly blamed for the abuse

based on the assumption that they

somehow provoked it

Targets often partly blamed for the abuse

based on the assumption that they

somehow provoked it

Victims accept they are responsible for the

violence because (in the eyes of their

Targets believe they are responsible for

the bullying because (in the eyes of their


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partner) they have not been supportive

enough, efficient enough etc.

supervisor) they have not performed well

enough or because they have stressed out

their supervisors

Victims afraid to report it because nothing

effective will be done

Targets afraid to report it so they leave

without compensation

Results in further victim trauma and

support for the perpetrator

Results in Workplace Bully remaining in

the organisation and more good people

targeted and leaving

Violence becomes part of the family

culture and is spread from generation to

generation as the parents role model the

patterns of violence and acceptance of

violence to the children

Workplace Bullying becomes part of the

workplace culture, even institutionalised in

some cases. It remains unchallenged and is

maintained through management

acceptance and refusal to challenge it

addition to workplace bullying

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