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:
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
