Managing bullying and harassment in the workplace - By Mitchell Formica

Our early days as a child on the playground may unearth memories of bullying and harassment by our peers; those memories are now being re-lived by a new bullying and harassment phenomenon that is making its way into the workplace. Nowadays it is estimated that “as many as 53 per cent of UK employees have been bullied at work at some point during their working life”, (Anas Khan, Riad Khan, 2012), and others have estimated more. On top of this, “some studies have revealed that nearly 95% of employees have had some exposure to general bullying behaviours in the workplace over a 5 year period” (A.-K. Samnani, P. Singh, 2012). This profound evidence demonstrates the seriousness for action and a growing problem that is emerging in the work environment for all employees. The issue needs to be recognised in the workplace as a serious problem and one that needs to be dealt with in a number of ways. This will help to ultimately stop bullying and harassment in all forms of working life. 

Bullying and harassment comes in many forms. It may be through the use of emails, social networking, day to day communication with peers, and may even arise from autocratic management styles, all of which can be seen as an issue in today’s business world. Simple interactions with other co-workers can cause bullying and harassment issues. But what is bullying and harassment and how can we stop it? These are the un-answered questions that need to be identified before we can start to solve the issues. Bullying “involves negative acts that occur repeatedly, regularly (systematically) and over a period of time, and the person targeted has difficulties in defending him/herself. In some definitions, the aim of harming the target or intentionality of the behaviour is included”. (Maarit Vartia-Väänänen, 2013). Bullying and harassment are much the same in many ways, although harassment differs from bullying in some instances. Bullying mainly refers to the negative acts by co-workers, supervisors or managers or subordinates, while harassment arises when one or more worker or manager are repeatedly and deliberately abused, threatened or humiliated in circumstances relating to work. So how do we manage workplace bullying and harassment and what are the rules that clearly define where they are taking place?  These are the underlining factors that need addressing in every workplace today.

The role of the Human Resource Manager is to undertake the management of the employees that make up the organisation. “Soft HRM places an emphasis on managing employees as humans instead of resources, suggesting that employees need to be treated with “consideration and a personal touch” in order to attain favourable outcomes” (Carson, 2005; Truss et al., 1997).

“It emphasizes the ability of HRM to satisfy employees’ needs, which is hypothesized to generate favorable HRM outcomes (e.g. commitment) and subsequently improved organizational performance" (Elise Marescaux, Sophie De Winne, Luc Sels, 2013). Employees can use this human resource as a way of speaking out about an issue in the workplace.

In the case of John McPhilbin who appeared in the article “A Slow Poison” by Jane Faure-Brac, workplace bullying is an everyday activity. (Jane Faure-Brac, 2012) John spends his day talking to people like him that are victims of workplace bullying and harassment, he tries to get an understanding of their situation and help them in any way he can. McPhilbin was bullied at work and knows how these people feel, he can associate himself with them and tries to get an understanding of their issues and helps them in any way he can. Although John’s efforts seem admirable, the reality is that “Roughly one in three employees in the workplace has experienced some form of bullying or poor behaviour and one in two has witnessed it” (Jane Faure-Brac, 2012). As a result, more and more people are becoming increasingly aware of the issue in the workplace and are implementing strategies to combat it.

In today’s global economy, managers are gathering employees from all parts of the world, with different cultures and characteristics. While this may seem like a bad thing, in reality, diversity has impacted the workplace in a positive manner. Diversity allows for a change in the vibe of the workplace, it exposes people to new cultures and beliefs for people to understand and accept. It also encourages a fair working environment where all employees can work together towards a common goal. On the negative side, sometimes different characteristics can make people stand out and thereby create a target for others to perpetrate their bullying tendencies towards.

An “employee experiencing the status inconsistency can become either a perpetrator or a target”; “researchers have found that the feeling of uncertainty resulting from status inconsistency can produce aggression in employees” (A.-K. Samnani, P. Singh (2012). This leads to workplace bullying or harassment and for the targets this means that they are consequently bullied because of a difference in characteristic or personality. For effective diversity workplace practices to be successful there needs to be policies and practices in place for the employees so that rules can be follow accordingly. This will help to prevent people from becoming the perpetrator or the target in any given situation. These policies and practices will shape the culture of an organisation and provide employees with the guidelines for proper etiquette in the workplace.

While the business world today may have a greater understanding of the effects on people that are bullied or harassed, there is still a lot of work to be done on the issue. The overall awareness of the problem has not filtered into every industry, with some HR departments not even bothering to look into and follow up on employee’s complaints. Larger organisations are taking on board this issue as a serious matter as they see the value of cultural differences and how they can help with the survival of their business. These organisations are generally watched more closely by the public and therefore would suffer negatively if unsafe environments were provided. Smaller business are more likely to be able to ignore disgruntled employees and may choose to ignore bullying or harassment complaints as they are less exposed to public opinion. If there is going to be a change for the future, it will require all employers and employees to gain knowledge of the detrimental effects of bullying and harassment in the workplace and to see how they can work together to solve this important issue.

Reference list:

Jane Faure-Brac, 2012, A Slow Poison, http://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/05%20About%20Parliament/53%20HoR/537%20About%20the%20House%20magazine/46/PDF/Poison1.ashx

A.-K. Samnani, P. Singh / Aggression and Violent Behaviour 17 (2012) 581–589http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1359178912000912/1-s2.0-S1359178912000912-main.pdf?_tid=0481b1ce-0f7e-11e3-bef6-00000aab0f26&acdnat=1377652146_d28eea41c15dd5d3dba6c587d8fed152

Anas Khan and Riad Khan, 2012, Understanding and managing workplace bullying, pg. 85 http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=0019-7858&volume=44&issue=2&articleid=17019188&show=html&PHPSESSID=6q6c74vnjlq086ketaa6fm7d94

Maarit Vartia-Väänänen, 2013, Workplace Bullying and Harassment in the EU and Finland http://www.jil.go.jp/english/reports/documents/jilpt-reports/no.12.pdf

Elise Marescaux, Sophie De Winne, Luc Sels, (2013) "HR practices and HRM outcomes: the role of basic need satisfaction", Personnel Review, Vol. 42 Iss: 1, pp.4 – 27 http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=0048-3486&volume=42&issue=1&articleid=17068391&show=html

Truss, C., Gratton, L., Hope-Hailey, V., McGovern, P., Stiles, P. (1997), "Soft and hard models of human resource management: a reappraisal", Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 34 No.1,.

pp.53-73