Workplace Bullying

Symptoms and Solutions

Noreen Tehrani

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136474163
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Is bullying really that bad? Why do some people just watch it happening? How do you know if it is bullying or strong management? What kind of leaders are able to create positive working environments?

The effects of bullying on organisations and individuals can be devastating and can adversely affect both the workers themselves and the productivity of the organisation that they work for. This book explores the impact of bullying from the perspective of both the employee and the organisation in which they work. In addition to describing the negative outcome of bullying, Workplace Bullying also looks at ways to promote resilience and the opportunity for growth and learning to take place.

Divided into four sections, this book covers:

• the impact and symptoms of workplace bullying
• individual interventions
• organisational interventions
• underlying causes and future considerations.

Workplace Bullying is essential reading for anyone with responsibility to help and support workers involved in bullying as a victim, supporter, or investigator. It offers organisations a chance to create an environment that will not only build a more resilient workforce, providing appropriate and effective interventions, but also provides solutions that will lead to the possibility of individual and organisational growth and development.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Workplace Bullying

Noreen Tehrani

Introduction

Human beings have the potential to abuse one another with physical violence, verbal abuse, threats of violence, back-stabbing, undermining and a range of other bad behaviours. History is littered with examples of the individual and group cruelty meted out on unfortunate victims by victorious armies, vicious leaders, violent masters and vindictive family members. However, attitudes and responses to these behaviours are strongly influenced by the culture, social climate and meaning of the behaviour to the target. In this chapter we look at the names that people have used to describe negative interpersonal behaviours, the history and development of the construct of bullying in the workplace, the features of individual, group and organisational bullying and ways to differen-tiate between healthy conflict, strong management and workplace bullying.

What’s in a Name?

‘When I use a word,’ said Humpty Dumpty in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

(Carroll, 1998)

Harmful interpersonal behaviours have largely been defined by people who perceive themselves as targets or victims of this behaviour. Adjectives such as abused, victimised, coerced, harassed, terrorised, mobbed, undermined and bullied are everyday descriptions of how these negative behaviours are experienced by victims. The phenomenon of workplace abuse has been give a number of names. Generally these negative behaviours are divided into two groups: (a) harassment for behaviours involving discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, age, language, social origin or other status (UN, 2008); (b) the more generalised behaviours that can affect anyone are called emotional abuse or petty tyranny by the French (Bukspan, 2004), bullying in the English-speaking world (Lewis et al., 2008), while in other countries, particularly Scandinavia, Germany and Italy, there is an additional term used to describe bullying involving a number of people attacking an individual (Leymann & Gustafsson, 1996).

Evil by Nature or Intent?

It is not surprising that people having experienced bullying use terms like evil, bully, tyrant and oppressor to describe the person they view as having treated them harshly or unfairly. Whilst it is possible that some people get pleasure out of hurting others (Vickers, 2002), people should recognise that not everyone who engages in bullying is wicked or evil. Damasio, a neurobiologist, has studied the interactions between the body, emotions and feelings and suggests that positive social behaviours have significant evolutionarily benefit and without these altruistic attitudes humankind would have become extinct long ago (Damasio, 2003). Instead of regarding the person who bullies as intrinsically evil, a more useful approach would be to see their behaviour as an aberration caused by an absence of positive attributes and an arrested state of development (Esselmont, 1980).

Workplace Bullying

It is difficult to be precise in identifying the origin of workplace bullying. There are early descriptions of coercive and destructive behaviours within armies, monasteries, households and guilds. However, it is only with the industrial revolution and the move away from the cottage industries to labour intensive factories, foundries and offices that bullying has had the opportunity to develop within the workplace. Some of the earliest working communities were attached to the monasteries; 1500 years ago St Benedict recognised the negative effect of bullying and cautioned the following: ‘If a brother, without the abbot’s command, assumes any power over those older or, even in regard to boys, flares up and treats them unreasonably he is to be subjected to the disciple of the rule’ (Benedict, 1982). Roman legions were well known for dealing with soldiers harshly, with floggings, breaking of bones and death sentences being used to enforce discipline, particularly among those in lower ranks (Fields, 2006). In the sixteenth century Machiavelli (2001) wrote his influential political treatise The Prince, dealing with the acquisition and maintenance of power. Machiavelli posed the following question: ‘Is it better for a leader to be loved or feared?’ His response was ‘It is far safer to be feared than loved when one could not do both.’ In Britain, Mrs Beeton (2000) provided nineteenth-century women with advice on how to manage their households. She criticised the abuse of servants and advised her readers that servants should be treated as reasonable human beings with no excuses being made for their shortcomings. At the beginning of the twentieth century Robert Tressell (2008) described the plight of a young woman in domestic service as a series of petty tyrannies, insults and indignities and years of cruelly excessive work which began two or three hours before the rest of the household were awake and only ended when she went exhausted to bed, late at night. Tressell also drew on his own experiences of working as a house painter in his description of bullying and oppression suffered by building workers where the older workers were constantly in fear of losing their jobs. An even more extreme bullying was found in the experiences of children working down mines, in textiles and other manufacturing industries. Interviews undertaken in the mid-nineteenth century by the Earl of Shaftsbury showed that the children were regularly beaten and bullied as they toiled by day and often at night in conditions of Dickensian squalor (Barkham, 2007). Up to 50 years ago fear was still a predominant feature of working life, with workplaces being hierarchical and autocratic, exposing workers to demeaning and oppressive behaviours with impunity (Snook, 2008). It is only during the past 30 years that western society has begun to recognise that bullying in the workplace is unacceptable and a cause of distress, illness and reduced productivity (Vega & Comer, 2005).

Bullying Defined

Throughout this book the term bullying is used to cover the range of negative interpersonal behaviours observed in the workplace. There are many definitions of bullying, but one of the most useful was developed by Einarsen and colleagues:

A Definition of Workplace Bullying

Bullying at work involves repeated negative actions and practices that are directed at one or more workers. The behaviours are unwelcome to the target and undertaken in circumstances where the target has difficulty in defending him or herself. The behaviours may be carried out as a deliberate act or unconsciously. These behaviours cause humiliation, offence and distress to the target. The outcomes of the bullying behaviours have been shown to cause clinically significant distress and impairment in social, occupational, and other areas of functioning.

(Einarsen et al., 2003: 15)

In this definition of bullying there are four main features: (a) the behaviours need to be perceived as negative and unwelcome; (b) they have to be persistent and long-term; (c) they need to involve an imbalance in power; (d) they do not have to be intentional to cause bullying to have taken place.

Negative Behaviours

The negative behaviours found in bullying fall into four main types:

1. Personal derogation: this includes the use of humiliation, personal criticism, ridiculing or demeaning comments to undermine the standing or integrity of the target.
2. Intimidation: where threats of physical violence or psychological intimidation, the misuse of power or position are used to create a situation where the victim feels unable to defend themselves or to take other forms of action.
3. Work-related bullying: in which the withholding of information, removal of responsibilities, work overload or where the credit for work undertaken is ‘stolen’ or not recognised as being undertaken by the target.
4. Social exclusion: where the target is cut off, isolated, scapegoated or sidelined by other employees.

Persistent and Long Term

To be classified as bullying the negative behaviours need to be repeated and persistent. Whilst it is unpleasant to be the target of someone’s occasional aggressive behaviour, occasional behaviours are generally excluded from the bullying criterion. However, a single incidence of extreme bad behaviour can be regarded as bullying when the intimidating behaviour is of such a severity that the target is left in a permanent state of fear and anxiety. In some instances the bullying is subtle. Whilst it may be reasonable for a target to ignore or forgive an occasional expression of unwarranted irritation, when this occurs on a regular basis it should be regarded as bullying. As most of the bullying behaviours are commonplace it is not unusual for some bullying behaviours to continue for weeks or months before their true nature is recognised.

Imbalance of Power

Whilst two or more workers of equal power having a difference of opinion may experience the exchange of views as a conflict, it is unlikely that this exchange would be regarded as bullying. However, when there is an inequality in the balance of power and this is used by the more powerful individual or group to undermine or subjugate another individual, this is bullying. Managers tend to be the main source of power in an organisation. However, there are more sources of power including the following:

• Positional power: this power is derived from the person’s role or position. Managers and supervisors can abuse their power to impose unfair restrictions or rules affecting one or more people.
• Relationship power: this power relates to groups which may be established in order to usurp the rights and freedoms of workers outside the group. In some situations this group will be based on characteristics such as race, gender or ideology.
• Resources power: having access to resources is important, be it having the required technology, contact with senior management or the time to complete a piece of work. Removing scarce resources essential to the achievement of objectives can be an abuse of power.
• Psychological power: some people have the power to recognise a target’s psychological vulnerabilities and then to exploit this knowledge to the target’s detriment.
• Knowledge power: the abuse of this power can be observed when important information is delayed or withheld.
• Delegated power: this is an abuse of power at second hand. The abuser uses the power of their relationship with a second person to persuade them to undermine and/or threaten a target by proxy.
• Personality power: some people have a personality and presence which makes it difficult for others to challenge them or their behaviours. These personality-driven behaviours can then be used to bully and intimidate.

Intent

The decision on whether bullying has taken place is not determined by the intention of the offender but rather by the nature of the behaviour. The defining principles used in establishing whether bullying has occurred are (a) was the behaviour unacceptable by normal standards of behaviour? (b) has this behaviour been disadvantageous or unwelcome to the target? However, intentionality does become relevant in understanding the impact of the behaviour on the target and in choosing the most effective intervention for the offender and target. There are three levels of intent:

• Wilful intent: where the behaviour was directed at the target with the intention of causing actual occupational, physical or psychological harm.
• Instrumental intent: where the negative behaviour was an unintended side-effect of a behaviour that was directed at achieving another goal.
• Unintentional: where the offender has a lack of sensitivity or awareness of the negative impact of his or her behaviour.

On occasions, the bullying associated with instrumental behaviours can be intentional. In these circumstances, the offender may attempt to hide his or her personal responsibility for the negative behaviours by blaming it on organisational policy or procedures or on other factors.

Individual Bullying

Much of the literature on bullying, particularly that produced by support groups, has focused on individualised bullying involving a single bully bullying and one or more targets. In these accounts the descriptions are written by people who perceive themselves as being the innocent targets wit...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Illustrations
• Biography
• 1 Introduction to Workplace Bullying
• PART I Impact and Symptoms
• PART II Individual Interventions
• PART III Organisational Interventions
• PART IV Other Wisdoms
• Index