Question

In a research paper, what can be done at a workplace for eliminating bullying at workplace?

A depth analysis taking account the factors that contribute to the conflict, the root causes, the policies and processes that are in place to deal with this issue or lack thereof, and suggestions for a more effective conflict resolution system.

Answer 1

Bullying is an aggressive manner of behaving and imposing upon others by an individual or a group of individuals. It is an unacceptable behaviour and causes a lot of misery and harassment to the victims. It is found everywhere, at home, school, offices and so on.

Workplace bullying a commonest form of workplace harassments, managers and other higher grade employees bully the lower grade employee in many ways. Sometimes even employees of the same grade bully other employees for their own personal gain. Bullying may be explicit or implicit. It may be well supported by all around such that the victim may feel the dual pressure of bullying as well as the pressure of the society around. It will lead to a loss in the employee motivation to work, in many cases organisations may lose some of the finest employees to bullying.

Factors ( roots ) that lead to bullying :

1. Weakness of character : The ability to stand up to one self is often perceived as a factor that contributes to workplace bullying. The employee who has been unable to stand up and fight for ‘self’, who is not assertive in dealings and has self doubt which is amply seen by other employees around , is most vulnerable to bullying.

2. It has negative impact on the employee productivity and adds to wastage of resources for the company. Sometimes bullying may be a group act whereby a certain person or a group is targeted and not allowed to grow productively in the organisation. The victims are repeatedly targeted and made to feel ‘guilty’ of deeds that they never committed. This leads to further abuse of the victim , the victim feels intense pressure and psychological and I n some cases even bodily harm is done to the victim.

3. The victim might feel that the other person or party is going all out to defame his or her activities. In such cases it is bullying in its purest form. The bully has nothing better to do and is concentratedly spying on the victim to observe him keenly. This robs the victim of his or her privacy.

4. Bullies , often have ‘character’ issues with themselves. They are a basket full of insecurities that are crowded in their minds bullying is one form of trying to prove their ( non existing) character strength. The bully, internally , is a scared person. The bully tries to cover up the insecurity by imposing on other persons especially those whom he perceives as a weaker lot. In the melee the bully does not bother about the physical and mental damage that he is doing to the society around.

5.Undermining a person’s ability to perform a task effectively and deliberately forcing the person to under perform, either by threatening or by not passing on relevant work related information to the person is also a form of bullying. The victim may not be able to complete a given task, may miss a project deadline and may even not be promoted to the higher rungs in the organisation because of such acts.

6.In most cases work place bullying happens when one or a few employees feel that there is another employee or a team that is better placed and efficient than themselves. This may lead to deliberately ‘playing down’ the other party so that the bully is able to gain his motive or climbing up the corporate ladder, trampling other efficient people. In case of bullying by clients of firm employees, it may even affect to a deviation in the organisational goals and may even be resorted to as an act of defaming the organisation in the market.

The competitors of the firm may find it easier to win over market segments citing the firm and its ‘bully’ policies as unfair practices adopted.

Policies and measures to over come bullying :

1. Team coordination activities are very important to recognise the bullies and subtly ‘pass on the message’ that they are only a part of a larger team. They should be repeatedly told that they are responsible for the overall objectives of the organisation and cannot pursue the ‘ valued goals’ by bullying themselves around the work place.

2. Whenever any important work related information especially in case of priority information that ahs been deliberately kept away from the employees or victims of bullying, such tactics have to highlighted and immediately brought forth to the notice of the higher ups in the organisations.

   In cases where the management itself resorts to such tactics then it is important that the employees raise a ‘social ‘ concern and awareness though media so that others in the community are made aware of the tactics of the management.

3. The stakeholders of the organisation have to be involved if the bullying is done on a massive scale by the management or the top executives of the firm. In most cases, the bully would not like to be noticed or exposed about his acts of bullying, he may want to cover up his acts and hence when publicly exposed and defamed the bully might resort to more decently and acceptable behaviour in the organisation.

4. Destressing activities, recreational activities, personality building seminars, motivational speeches are all methods through which the victims can realise that bullying can be tackled with ease. The various tools to tackle bullying should be consistently adopted and character building should be a continuous process.

5. The victim should keep in mind the larger goal of the organisation and aim for his personal growth within the company. Bullying should be tackled in a planned and consistent manner, always consciously undermining the bully’s tactics and highlighting them subtly in the public.

6. Suitable records and evidences of bullying should be kept in hand, these are most important evidences of being bullied and can stand as a very important method of exposing the bully to his unacceptable behaviour. Often bullying has its way due to lack of proper evidence or support to oppose the acts of bullying.

7. Its important to create an awareness about the bullying—objectionable -behaviour on part of the bully to the relevant higher authorities. In many cases an efficient human resource manager will be able to tackle bullying very effectively and wherever needed may even suggest that the bully be removed from the organisation, a move taken in the larger interest of the organisation.

8. Relaxing, destressing, trying to exercise and keep fit physically and mentally are all tactics that should be actively pursued by the victims. Many times keeping a large social network of friends and relatives as well as support groups will also help keep the bully at bay ! Consistently working on strengthening one’s ability to perform better and keeping efficiency and productivity as one’s goal will be a better course to recuperate from bullying.

  9. The openness of the management in being more proactive and understanding the causes and the unproductive consequences of bullying, creating a more transparent workplace atmosphere, working on building organisational ethics and workplace attitudes that add more to the efficiency of work place have to asserted by the management . Such key messages will act as signs to bullies that they cannot always get through with their inefficient acts.