Workplace Bullying: Not just kids play

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Workplace Bullying Not just kids play

• Sara Branch
• Key Centre for Ethics,
• Law, Justice and Governance
• Griffith University

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Why talk about Workplace Bullying?

• Workplace bullying can have severe impacts on
• those who experience it and their families,
• those who witness it, and
• the organisation as a whole
• But still it seems to be misunderstood

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What is Workplace Bullying?

• Queensland Government Workplace Bullying
  Taskforce definition
• Workplace harassment is repeated behaviour,
  other than behaviour that is sexual harassment,
  that
• Is directed at an individual worker or group of
  workers
• Is offensive, intimidating, humiliating or
  threatening
• Is unwelcome and unsolicited and
• A reasonable person would consider to be
  offensive, intimidating, humiliating or
  threatening for the individual worker or group of
  workers

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What is Workplace Bullying?

• "when one or more individuals, repeatedly over
  a period of time, are exposed to negative acts
  (be it sexual harassment, tormenting, social
  exclusion, offensive remarks, physical abuse or
  the like) conducted by one or more other
  individuals. In addition, there must exist an
  imbalance in the power-relationships between
  parties. The person confronted has to have
  difficulties defending himself/herself in this
  situation"
• (Einarsen, 2000, pp. 383-384)

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Prevalence of Workplace Bullying

• Prevalence of workplace bullying depends on the
  criteria upon which it is being measured
• Strict criteria of serious bullying acts that
  occur weekly 1-4
• Less strict definition is used prevalence
  increases to 8-10
• Negative social behaviour in general 20
• (Zapf, Einarsen, Hoel, Vartia, 2003)
• There has been no Australian research that has
  surveyed the general population, therefore
  reliable figures on the number of Australians
  experiencing workplace bullying is not available
  and estimates must be made based on research from
  Scandinavia and the UK
• Estimating Australian prevalence suggests that
  10-15 of the Australian workers will experience
  workplace bullying in any given year

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Workplace bullying behaviours

• Workplace Bullying can be both overt and covert
• Examples of Workplace Bullying behaviour can
  include
• withholding vital information,
• ridiculing people,
• keeping a constant eye on anothers work,
• questioning anothers professional ability,
• spreading damaging rumours,
• constantly changing the expectations or goals,
• isolating people from others,
• explosive outbursts which are irrational,
• and threats
• (Bassman, 1992 Rayner Hoel, 1997 Zapf
  Einarsen, 2001)

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Identifying Workplace Bullying The difficulties

• Covert behaviours are difficult to describe and
  observe
• Workplace bullying is not just about what someone
  does to another but it can also include what
  someone does not do
• (Rayner et al., 2002)
• For example the withholding of information from
  someone, not letting them know about a meeting

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Identifying Workplace Bullying The difficulties

• Often recipients of workplace bullying may not
  label the behaviour as bullying
• Midwives often do not label behaviour as bullying
  but use other terms, such as aggression,
  harassment and intimidation
• (Hadikin ODriscoll, 2000)
• Workplace bullying may be normalised within
  workplaces
• This is the way we do things around here
• (Archer, 1999 Hadikin O'Driscoll, 2000
• Rayner, 1997, 1999 Salin, 2003)

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Impact of Workplace BullyingIndividual Targets

• The consequences of bullying at work can range
  from physical harm through to an increase in
  psychological stress for the recipient
• (Hadikin O'Driscoll, 2000)
• Physical and Psychological symptoms include
• (Einarsen, 2000)

• Fatigue
• Muscular complaints
• Lack of self-esteem
• Sleeplessness
• Depression

• Feelings of abuse and victimisation
• Nervousness
• Psychosomatic complaints

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Impact of Workplace BullyingWitnesses or
Bystanders

• Workplace bullying can also impact on witnesses
  or bystanders
• (Einarsen Mikkelsen, 2003)
• In a British study of 761 public sector trade
  union members
• 73 of witnesses of workplace bullying reported
  an increase in their stress levels, and
• 44 of respondents were concerned about being the
  next target
• (Rayner, 1999)

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Impact of Workplace BullyingOrganisation

• Workplace bullying can impact on the organization
  through
• Loss of productivity
• Increase in absenteeism
• Increase in turnover, or intention to leave
• Cost of intervention programs
• (Einarsen, 2000 Hadikin O'Driscoll, 2000
• McCarthy Barker, 2000 McCarthy et al., 1995)
• costs of workplace bullying when hidden and
  lost opportunity costs are considered could
  either be
• Between six and 13 billion dollars every year
  using a conservative prevalence estimate of
  workplace bullying (3.5),
• Between 17 and 36 billion dollars per year,
  using a higher prevalence estimate of 15
• (Sheehan, McCarthy, Barker and Henderson, 2001)

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Who is bullied and by whom?

• Bullying occurs at all levels within an
  organisation
• Majority of research has identified supervisors
  or managers as the perpetrators of workplace
  bullying
• Recent research has focused on bullying by
  colleagues, and suggests that bullying by
  colleagues is just as frequent as bullying by
  supervisors or managers
• Gender differences
• Women bullied by co-workers
• Men bullied by immediate supervisors or managers
• (Vartia Hyyti, 2002)

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Who is bullied and by whom?

• The media may have amplified the common
  perception that bullying occurs only when a
  worker is being bullied by someone in a
  managerial capacity (Zapf, Einarsen, Hoel,
  Vartia, 2003)
• Managers being bullied?

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Dependency and Workplace Bullying

• The targets dependency on the offender can
  produce a power imbalance Keashly Jagatic,
  2003 Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, Cooper, 2003
• Staff rely on management for direction,
  motivation, resources and rewards and managers
  are dependent on staff to be productive Cook,
  Yamagishi, Donnelly, 1997
• Due to a dependency on their employees,
  organisations and managers can be at the mercy of
  those employees Mechanic, 2003
• A managers dependency on their staff provides
  staff with a form of power that can be abused
  Keashly Jagatic, 2003

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Positional Power

• A managers positional power is limited by
  whether, and to the extent that, staff perceive
  their claim to power as legitimate French
  Raven, 1959
• Claim to power can be diminished if one or more
  of the central/guiding social and cultural values
  are violated (i.e. Cultural, Social Structure,
  Legitimizing Agent) French Raven, 1959
  Mechanic, 2003
• A managers positional power may be limited due
  to another person(s) lack of acceptance or
  recognition of their power

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Personal Power A Source of Power for Staff

• Staff acquire most of their power from personal
  sources, such as
• Information, expertise, networks Porter, Angle,
  Allen, 2003 Yukl, 1989
• These sources of power could be mis-used against
  a manager especially if they see the managers
  claim to power is illegitimate Mechanic, 2003
• For example, staff members who have access to
  sources of power such as expert power could
  withdraw their information or knowledge as a form
  of punishing their manager
• This power may be used by staff against a manager
  who they see as breaking the unwritten rules of
  the workplace Salin, 2003

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Methodology

• Interview Study
• Two one hour unstructured interviews with 24
  managers (12 male 12 female)
• Supervisors to Senior Managers
• Either experienced or witnessed upwards bullying
  or spoke generally about the work environment
• Explored causes, behaviours, impact, management,
  strategies for prevention or management
• Formal analysis of the interviews using NVivo

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Change as a trigger

• New manager
• Change in work practices
• Wider Organisational change
• pay back
• I was the person doing it to him not the
  organisation, he didnt think the organisation
  was doing it it was me!

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Subtle and overt behaviour

• Failure to attend meetings, meet deadlines, snide
  comments and spreading gossip
• manager bashing
• dripping tap
• Threats of going to their supervisor/Union or
  physical threats
• an hour later when I left to go home from work,
  he was standing in the car park near my car,
  waiting for me.... He then made serious threats,
  we were the only two there, and (he) threatened
  me with physical violence, fist clenched, and was
  trying to intimidate me

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Impact

• Health Impacts
• Physical impacts - general ill health, eczema,
  shingles, and migraines
• Psychological impacts - increase in stress,
  anxiety symptoms such as shaking and
  sleeplessness, anxiety attacks, nervous
  breakdown, clinical depression
• I was on anti-depressants at one stage I would
  get close to work and Id start to get the
  shakes, and feel sick and everything like
  thatand sometimes Id start crying.

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Impact cont

• Managers Behaviours at Work
• Impact on the managers confidence
• Impact on managers ability to fulfil their day
  to day duties
• I was having trouble maintaining my direction of
  thought and was getting paranoid I guess in that
  I was constantly wondering what I would be told
  off for next or what problem would arise next, I
  was constantly double checking myself and always
  in fear of what was going to happen next.

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Impact cont

• Concern for Career
• Concern how vexatious grievances or accusations
  may impact on their career
• It will impact on me, with my credibility with
  senior managers
• Im very scared, particularly of the effect its
  going to have on my career
• Often easier to give in
• most managers walk before it gets too far for
  their own career protection

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Managers Responses

• As a result managers are wary of taking action
  against individual staff members
• The manager ignoring the issue or the
  organisation moving the staff member on is often
  seen as an easier option
• Ill tell you what it does do though. It does
  make you a bit gun-shy in terms of tackling,
  trying to clean up that kind of thing next time.
• Next time Im just going to turn a blind eye,
  Im going to sweep that under the carpet. Im
  just going to ignore it and hope it goes away.

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What can be done about it?The Organisations Role

• Organizational environment
• Changes in culture (Einarsen, 1999 Rayner et
  al., 2002)
• Work conditions and workloads (Einarsen et al.,
  1994 Hoel Cooper, 2000)
• Job design (Einarsen et al., 1994)
• Long Term approach, which takes time
• Conduct an audit to identify places and people at
  risk, may act as an educational tool
• (Barker, Murphy, Branch, Cameron, Sheehan, 2005)

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What can be done about it?The Organisations Role

• Develop Dignity at Work Policy or Similar
• Education and Training
• What is Workplace Bullying?
• Interpersonal Skills and Emotional Intelligence
• Assistance programs
• Provide/refer to mediation, counselling, medical
  or support services
• Guidelines ensure specific organizational
  interventions to improve the well being of entire
  workforce (quality of work life)

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What can be done about it?The Individuals Role

• You do not need to deal with this alone
• Seek support from a trusted colleague or manager
• Seek professional support and advice from a
  counselling service or HR for both targets and
  alleged perpetrators
• Document what is happening

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Conclusion

• Workplace bullying is not just kids play
• At its minimum, it can undermine a persons
  confidence
• At its worst, it can lead to depression and
  inability to continue in the workplace
• The impacts are widespread, impacting on
  colleagues, families and organisations