Jim Augustine

www.sc.edu/ombuds

2 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Incivility (n.) (1) the quality or state of being

uncivil (2) a rude or discourteous act (3) Synonyms: discourteousness,

disrespect, disrespectfulness, impertinence, impertinency, impoliteness, impudence, discourtesy, inconsiderateness, inconsideration, insolence, rudeness, ungraciousness

Definition

3 www.sc.edu/ombuds

“How we treat one another is what civility is about.”

"A big part of our incivility crisis, stems from the sad fact that we do not know each other or even want to try; and, not knowing each other, we seem to think that how we treat each other does not matter.“

Stephen L. Carter (1998) Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy. [William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at

Yale, where he has taught since 1982.

Our “incivility crisis”

4 www.sc.edu/ombuds

a. Individual acts of incivility

5 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Instructors identify various student behaviors as annoying, rude, and disruptive.

These may be classified on a scale of relative severity: Annoyances, minor disruptions—arriving late and leaving

early, talking on cell phone, reading newspaper, side conversations, packing up noisily before end of class

Dominating discussion —student who won’t let anyone else talk.

Aggressive challenges of teacher — student who takes up class time questioning your authority, expressing anger about grading, or generally undermining your ability to teach.

Disputes between students; demeaning comments —When classroom discussion gets out of hand, or a student uses demeaning or stereotyping language.

UC-Santa Cruz (2009) Classroom Civility http://teaching.ucsc.edu/tips-civility.html

b. Classroom incivility

6 www.sc.edu/ombuds

c. Faculty incivility ‘Lately it seems that people in academe have

become less civil to one another.’ “Incivility in all of its forms is on the rise.” This book addresses the prevalence of

faculty incivility and the rise of an academic bully culture in higher education.

A central tenet of this book is that bullying and other forms of incivility in the academy are often hidden and regularly denied. (p. 51)

Twale, DJ, DeLuca, BM (2008) Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to Do About it. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

7 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Twale and DeLuca define faculty incivility as “bullying, mobbing, camouflaged aggression, and harassment in the academic workplace”

Related terms include: abusive treatment, persistent and enduring hostility, threatening and demeaning behavior, systematic and prolonged mistreatment of others.

We will use the term “bullying” for this type of behavior in the rest of this presentation

c. Faculty incivility (more)

8 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Bullying is… Repeated (prolonged, persistent; over extended period of time –

at least 6 months) Unwelcome and hostile Directed - at one individual at a time Escalating process

Inescapable - usually taken in circumstances where the victim has difficulty defending themselves or in circumstances where others are unwilling to come to the aid of the target

Involves humiliation, offense, and distress to the victim Draws in others beyond the initial bully-target

There is often a power imbalance between the bully and the target

9 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Profile of a bully Lewis (2006) says bullies tend to be:

Highly manipulative Socially skilled with the ability to develop

social support for their behavior The greater the social support for behavior,

even negative behaviors, the more resistant the behavior is to modification

Some bullies project charming personas in public situations to cover their covert vindictiveness (Twale and De Luca, 2008).

They are very good at self-promotion Bullies have zero respect for their targets

10 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Categorization of bullying behaviors 1. Threat to Professional Status: Questioning competence, belittling opinion,

professional humiliation in front of colleagues, negative comments about intelligence, questioning a person’s ability to other colleagues; spreading rumors or gossip. These are primarily active behaviors.

2. Threat to Personal Standing. Name-calling, insults, verbal abuse, tantrums, intimidating behaviors, devaluing with reference to age, gender, race/ethnicity or appearance, hostile gestures. These are predominantly active behaviors

3. Isolation. Exclusion from departmental gatherings, silent treatment, withholding information, ignoring contributions, not taking concerns seriously, preventing access to opportunities or promotion, poisoning others against the target. These behaviors tend to be passive in nature.

4. Overwork / Unreal Expectations. Undue pressure, impossible deadlines, unnecessary disruptions, setting up to fail, unreal or ambiguous expectations; more so than for others in the same environment.

5. Destabilization. Others take credit for work; assigning meaningless tasks, removing responsibility, denied raise or promotion without reason; excessive monitoring.

Workplace Bullying. What to Do if You Are the Target of a Workplace Bullier (2011) Workplace Ethics Advice http://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2011/07/workplace-bullying.html

11 www.sc.edu/ombuds

The incidence of bullying - 1 First representative study of workplace bullying among adult Americans

(2007) 37% of the U.S. workforce (about 54 million Americans) report being bullied

at work; an additional 12% witness it. That is a total of 49% of workers. Most bullies are bosses (72%) More perpetrators are men (60%) than are women(40%) Most Targets (57%) are women Women bullies target women (71%); men target men (54%) Bullying is 4 times more prevalent than illegal discriminatory harassment 62% of employers ignore the problem 45% of Targets suffer stress-related health problems 40% of bullied individuals never tell their employers Only 3% of bullied people file lawsuits Survey results are © 2007 Workplace Bullying Institute. Survey carried out by

Zogby International.

12 www.sc.edu/ombuds

The incidence of bullying - 2 In a representative sample of over 7000 US workers

(Lutgen-Sandvik, Namie, & Namie, 2009) 12.3 % of respondents indicated they had witnessed others being bullied at work in the previous 12 months.

Adding to this the 12.6% who said they had been bullied during this same period, almost 25% of the American working adults are exposed to and affected by workplace bullying in a 12-month period.

These rates refer to general working populations. Exposure may be higher or lower in different

organizations and occupations. In short, workplace bullying is part of many adults’

working lives.

13 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Incidence in academic settings First hand experience with bullying: Finland, 1994 – 20.5% Wales, 1999 – 18% UK, 2004a – 18% UK, 2004b – 25% UK, 2005 – 42% New Zealand, 2006 – 67.7% Average about 32% [25% without NZ] Cited in: Keashly L, Neuman JH (2010).

Faculty experiences with bullying in higher education: Causes, consequences, and management. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 32(1), 48-70.

14 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Incidence in US academic settings

Fox, S. (2009). Bullying in academia: Distinctive relations of power and control. Loyola University, Chicago.– experienced in prior 5 years = 36.6% [Cited in Keashly L, Neuman JH (2010)]

Keashly, L., & Neuman, J. H. (2008). Workplace Behavior Project Survey. – experienced in last 12 months = 32% [Cited in Keashly L, Neuman JH (2010)]

University of Iowa Ombuds: 22% of 502 visitor complaints involved disrespectful behavior; 5% complained about workplace bullying (2011-2012)

15 www.sc.edu/ombuds

The cost of bullying

Individual costs Source of stress, physical symptoms (loss of

appetite, sleep), mental health problems (anxiety, depression, burnout, irritability), absence from work (avoidance); social impact (partners, colleagues, families, friends)

Institutional costs Sickness, absence from work, staff and faculty

turnover, reduced productivity, second-hand effect on colleagues (often have to take sides), cost of potential litigation

16 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Final thoughts…

Author C. K. Gunsalus describes the problem in academia as "low incidence, high severity," analogous to research misconduct.

She identifies the aggressors' misuse of the concepts of academic freedom and collegiality as a commonly used strategy.

The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (2006)

17 www.sc.edu/ombuds

“Civility, Stephen Carter reminds us, matters. Its foundations is in the heart and in our love and respect for our fellow human beings. Our

institutions, culture, communities, and country cannot long survive the loss of this

basic and essential ingredient of civilization. Nor can any of us.”

Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

Our “incivility crisis”

18 www.sc.edu/ombuds

Questions?

19 www.sc.edu/ombuds

References Carter SL (1998) Civility: Manners, Morals and the Etiquette of Democracy. Basic Books, New

York. Center for Teaching & Learning (2009) Classroom Civility. UC-Santa Cruz. Gunsalus CK (2006) The College Administrator's Survival Guide. Harvard University Press. Joyce C (2011-2012) 26th Annual Report. Office of the Ombudsperson, University of Iowa. Keashly L, Neuman JH (2010). Faculty experiences with bullying in higher education: Causes,

consequences, and management. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 32(1), 48-70. Lewis MA (2006) Nurse bullying: organizational considerations in the maintenance and

perpetration of health care bullying cultures. J Nursing Management 14:52–58. Lutgen-Sandvik, P., Namie, G., & Namie, R. (2009). Workplace bullying: Causes, consequences,

and corrections. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing. (pp. 27-52). New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis

Twale, DJ, DeLuca, BM (2008) Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to Do About it. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Workplace Bullying Institute (2007) U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, the first national survey by WBI.

Workplace Bullying Institute (2010) Second National Survey Workplace Ethics Advice (2011) Workplace Bullying. What to Do if You Are the Target of a

Workplace Bullier.