Workplace Bullying

DR.Manisha Agarwal.
Astt.Prof. University college of commerce and management Studies
.Udaipur (raj) INDIA
.

All Human Beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence,
not to attacks upon his honor and reputation

We spend more of our waking lives at work than we do with our friends or
family.Therefore,the quality of our work lives has the most direct consequence on our
quality of life as a whole than any other factor .The biggest factor that affects the
workers’ happiness is the equality of their immediate boss ( supervisor ) .If worker are
tormented by a supervisor who employs fear ,intimidation and “bullying” in his
management methods then the quality of life for both the workforce and the company
gets depreciated greatly.

Bullying is the misuse of power to intimidate somebody in a way which leaves them
feeling hurt, angry vulnerable or powerless. It includes “all types of mistreatment at
work.”

Workplace Bullying is one of the most insidious and destructive problems ; it is the
least documented and the most tolerated .Bullying at the workplace as an issue
came to prominence in 1990’s.
Unwanted behavior whether physical or verbal which is offensive, humiliating
and viewed unacceptable to the recipient.
-Marks and Spencer
It constitutes unwanted, offensive, humiliating, undermining behavior towards an
individual or group of employees. It affects working conditions, health and safety,
domestic life and the right to equal opportunity and treatment.

Bully’s Behavior (offender)

Known as bullies, jerks or tyrants. Bullying follows a pattern of behavior which includes
harassment, emotional abuse and targeted aggression. Some of them are:
• Yelling or ridiculing a co worker or sub ordinate publicly for disagreeing.
• Undermining an individual or a group with humiliating words
• Stalking and other forms of intimidation
 • An implied threat of physical attack especially in blue collar environment.
• Excessive dumping of work or assignment of unpleasant jobs.
• Threatening the individual's work status.
• Threatening personal standing (e.g. ageist or sexist comments).
 Isolating the individual from information, giving opportunities, outings, etc.
 Undermining the individual such as demeaning their standard of work,
Not giving credit, setting up projects to fail, reminders of mistakes.

Bullying is intended to affect people psychologically. In some settings it is directly

structured as test of belonging and a (misguided) way to ensure that unsuitable people
are quickly identified and excluded from that culture.

According to Social Psychologist and professor Loraleigh keashly, abusive behavior

includes:
 Aggressive eye contact, either by glaring or meaningful glances;
 Giving the silent treatment intimidating physical gesture including finger pointing
and slamming or throwing objects ,yelling, screaming and cursing at the target;
 Angry outbursts or temper tantrums
 Nasty, rude behavior and hostile behavior.
 Accusations on wrong doing
 Insulting or belittling the target often in front of other workers
 Spreading false rumors about the target.
 Breaching the target’s confidential
 Withholding needed information.
Gary Namie an industrial psychologist says:
Bullies target; nice people because nice people are unlikely
; Vulnerable people
; bold, best and the brightest.
Bully’s characteristics(offender)
• Need to control others
• Quicker to anger
• Little empathy for the problems of others
• Exposed to the model of aggressive behavior
• Chronically repeat the aggressive behavior
• Angry and revengeful
• Parents are poor role models
• Find only aggression as the way to preserve their self image
• Have many family problems
 • Suffer physical and emotional abuse at home
• Exhibit obsessive or rigid actions.
• Psychosomatic disorders.

Effects of work place Bullying (on The Victim)

Psychological effects:
 Stress.
 Depression
 Mood swings
 Loss of sleep
 Feeling of shame
 Guilt
 Fatigue feelings
 Embarrassment
 Most severe effect could be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if left
untreated, may cause an individual to react violently against either the bully or
anyone else who happens to be in the vicinity. Three signs of PTSD are:
 Hyper arousal
 A feeling of constant anxiety and over vigilance
 Obsessive thoughts concerning the Trauma
Physical Effects:
 Reduce Immunity to infection
 Stress Headaches
 High blood pressure
 Digestive Problems
 Angina and Heart problems
 Insomnia or sleep disorders
 Allergies
 Anxiety
Business Effects:
 Direct cost: a significant increase in medical and workers compensation claims
due to work related stress and the cost of lawsuits arising from abusive work
situations.
  Indirect cost: Fear and mistrust resentment hostility feeling of humiliation, with
drawl strategies, hiding mistakes. Anxiety and fear stifle creativity, High turnover
poor customer relations, act of sabotage and revenge.
A bullying boss cause serious health effects on his staff which elevates an
organization’s cost in health insurance, premiums and absenteeism due to stress
related illness

 Opportunity cost: workers may disengage from their workplace committing

themselves to outside activities. Spending excessive time on the job talking
about how poorly they are being treated .Abusive work environment results in a
worker’s effort falling between the maximum effort of which one Is capable and
the minimum effort one must give in order to avoid being fired.

Research Support
An internet project conducted completely online received 157 responses reveled that
most prevalent effects were stress and anxiety(79%)
,depression(65%),exhaustion(64%);insecurity and self doubt(59%);shame,
embarrassment and guilt(58%) Obsessive thinking and nightmares (58%) poor
concentration (56%) and helplessness (53%).

Mika sleKivimaki,PhD interviewed 5,500 hospital workers and founded that

50% were suffering from workplace bullying and fell isolated devalued and physically
threatened. Some 66% had chronic disease compared with only 49% among non
victims. Hospitals plagued by bullies often suffered from reduced employee motivation
and compromise patient care.

Overcoming workplace bullying

Workplace bullying is not a tempest in a teapot, but e real endemic curse in the
workplace and that is indeed worth examining further. Some victims of bullying pay
the ultimate price by taking their own lives.

Individual Role (Victim)

 Doing nothing
 Confronting the bully
 Using silence to combat the bully
 Using informal methods to get help like going to the boss, personnel, union or
staff association
 using occupational health
  Using volunteer networks
 Making a group Complaint
 Leave the scene for time being
 Going to the Law
 Leaving the organization
Organization’s Role (Offender)
 Create an environment which could encourage to speak about bullying
 Educating the supervisors and employees to cope better with the organizational
change
 Reviewing the physical layouts of the worksite
 Awareness of the interaction between an alleged bully and target
 Company wide training to heighten the awareness about what is bullying.
 Training the people who are repeat aggressors on the use of soft skills including
stress management and rehabilitation opportunities to help them.
 Interpersonal communication and dealing with different people.
 Implementing an anti harassment policy, carefully monitoring bullying at work
 Tackling pockets of bullying
 Finally auditing the process to ensure it is under control.

Conclusion

Thus it can be seen that if the workers are tormented by a supervisor who employs fear
intimidation and bullying in his management methods, the quality of life for both the
workforce and the company gets depreciated greatly. Based on the above study
organizations have a financial, legal, and moral obligation to stamp out this behavior
when observed and prevent it from ever occurring in the first place