Workplace Bullying: Literature Review
Workplace Bullying
Table of Contents
Introduction:
Aim of This Study:
Background for this Study:
The Research Problem
1. Defining the effects of bullying
2. Sensitivity of the subject
3. Categories of bullying behaviour
Methodology
Literature Review:
Does Workplace Violence Encompass Physical as well as Emotional Violence?
How Bullied Persons Are Seen:
What is a Bully Like?
What Does Bullying Do to An Organization?
Bullying and Workplace Violence:
Fundamental Features and Categories of Bullying:
Features of bullies:
Types of Bullying:
Bullying at Schools:
Bullying at Workplaces:
Cyberspace:
Effects of bullying:
Analysis:
Negative Behaviors:
Nature of Bullying:
Causes of Bullying:
Workplace Environments:
Personality of an Individual in Relation to his or her Workplace:
Bullying Negates Productivity at the Workplace:
Can A Manager Be A Bully?
Dictatorial Management Cannot Achieve the Best Results:
Survey Results:
Conclusion:
References:
Appendix:
People in this modern world have generally become more aware of their surroundings and the ways that they should be treated. They are generally more aware of their self-esteem and their value in society than they were in the past. One reason for this may be because in recent decades there has been more emphasis on things like human rights and equality of all individuals. With particular emphasis on working conditions, people are generally aware of how they should be treated and what sorts of conditions they should be allowed to work in. From a general viewpoint, one may think that this only refers to working conditions such as the physical environment that should not have any hazards in it. The reason for this thought is due to the fact that there have been several cases in the past in which employees were given hazardous conditions to work under. In contrast to this, people are more aware of these past problems, and probably would not hesitate to object to any hazards in workplaces today.
In contrast to having asserted the awareness that people might have regarding workplaces hazards, there are several individuals who may not realize that they are still facing workplace problems and end up not objecting to problems around them. Also, some individuals who are aware may not be able to oppose these forces, and thus, are compelled to work under these conditions. Some working conditions may not necessarily be hazardous in the conventional sense, but they may be considered as inappropriate for employees if they suffer stress because of them. One particular type of workplace hazard is known as ‘bullying’, and may be carried out by superiors as well as colleagues[1]. Statistics reflect more than 2 million people at work feeling bullied (Andrea Adams Trust 2005). One in four people say that they have been bullied at least once in the past 5 years. With these statistics, it is further said that workplace bullying results in a loss of 18.9 million working days and ?4 billion[2]. This is because those being bullied tend to be absent from work more often.
In addition to loss experienced in industries in terms of days and revenue, there is evidence of high levels of stress in individuals being bullied. Yet, it is not easy to evaluate workplace bullying, and this is because of the difficulty in precisely defining what workplace bullying is.
There are several definitions of ‘bullying’, but none are agreed on. However, some of these are interesting and do help to gain significant insight to the problem. According to Stale Einarsen (1999), it is suggested that …“bullying occurs when someone at work is systematically subjected to aggressive behaviour from one or more colleagues or superiors over a long period of time, in a situation where the targets finds it difficult to defend himself or herself or to escape the situation…”[3]
According to the above definition, bullying might be described as a process through which individuals feel intimidated by someone who uses their strength and power to hurt and frighten them. The presence of this person makes them feel vulnerable and uncomfortable to the extent that it stresses or de-motivates people at their work. In other words, it is a systematic approach through which an individual corners another, and there is no escape unless one escapes the system.
Recent research in the UK conducted in the form of surveys and UK cases have highlighted the importance of exposing ‘bullying’. This is because there is significant evidence to prove that it causes anxiety that leads people to suffer physical and mental distress. These are believed to be direct results of bullying in the workplace.
It is estimated that in the UK, six million working days are lost annually due to stress caused by bullying, job insecurity, shift work and long hours[4].
According to Cary Cooper (2000), people that reported being bullied had the poorest health, the lowest work motivation, the highest absenteeism figures as well as the lowest productivity compared with those who were not bullied. In addition to this, based on research in Sweden, Heinz Leyman (1993,1996) firstly introduced the concept of mobbing (bullying) as a relentless form of harassment in organisations. Theoretically, it could be asserted that bullying is an extreme type of social stressor at work that works in a system. It may be then said that bullying is a long lasting harassment, systematically aimed at a target person.[5] Having acknowledged the tremendous loss that bullying causes an industry, the UK Government believes that employees should have the rights to work in an environment without being bullied and harassed. In order to combat bullying in the workplace, the UK legal framework gives employees the rights, which protect them from any form of unreasonable treatment within the work place.
Keeping the above statistics in mind, this project is concerned with the effects of bullying in workplaces on individuals. It will also explore the nature and causes of bullying at work.
Most studies regard bullying as a unified phenomenon, in spite of the fact that different kinds of behaviours are involved.[6] It may be asserted here that these behaviours make individuals feel intimidated and occur in different situations and cross gender, age, and race of individuals. The intimidation and anxiety caused by bullying creates stress and stress related illnesses.
The aims of the proposed study are outlined below:
What type of negative behaviours that makes individuals feel bullied at their workplace?
Explore the nature and causes of workplace bullying.
Examine the effects of bullying on individuals.
According to Andrea Adams in “Bullying at work” published in 1992 bullying at work is like “a malignant cancer and the disturbing manifestations of adult bullying”… (Adams et al 2000, p.9) Andrea Adams, broadcaster and journalist, was the first person to recognise the significance of workplace bullying, and her book “Bullying at Work”, remains a landmark in this field. Adams suggests that bullying occurs when “professional abrasiveness becomes tainted with an element of personal vindictiveness” (Adams et al 2000, p32). Bullying is a sustained form of psychological abuse and often radiates from a senior person taking what they feel is strong management. However, bullying may not always come from a senior person in the workplace. It is thought that individuals may be singled out by a number of colleagues for various reasons.
Debrah Lee (1998), who has been researching workplace bullying, argues the emergence of workplace bullying as being a problem or whether it should be considered to be an interpretation for an existing problem. She demonstrates that workplace bullying is an interpretation for a range of unfair work practices. She identifies workplace bullying as:
…”Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviours, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions which makes the recipient feel upset, threatened or humiliated or vulnerable, which undermines their self confidence and which may cause them to suffer stress…taking credits for another persons idea, ignoring or excluding an individual by talking only to a third party to isolate another, spreading malicious rumours, persistent criticisms…[7]. Therefore, it could be said that bullying encompasses various kinds of negative behaviors.
There have been a range of debates around the nature and causes of workplace bullying. Stale Einarsen (1999) suggests that bullying may be used in a joking manner describing good natured horseplay or refer to minor events of aggressive behaviour that tend to be easily accepted and tolerated.
In this scientific study, the concept refers to rather specific phenomenon where hostile or aggressive behaviour, whether physical or non-physical, are factors of stigmatisation and victimisation of the recipient.[8] However, Dieter Zapf (1999) categorises five different types of bullying behaviour. They are:
Work related bullying which may include changing your work tasks or making them difficult to perform;
social isolation
personal attacks on your private life by ridicule, insulting remarks, gossip or the like;
verbal threats of such violence
Physical violence or threats of such violence.
(Adopted for use quoted in Zapf 1999; source Stale Einarsen 1999)
Zapf (1999) argues theoretically that bullying is an extreme type of social stressor at work. It is a long lasting escalating practice aimed at a target person. There is inadequate research and it is difficult to prove the causes and effect of bullying. It emerges that multiple causes of bullying have to be taken into consideration, and that bullying can be caused for various reasons.
1. Defining the effects of bullying
One of the main problems of finding out the effects of bullying is “stress”. Estimates of the cost of stress and stress related illnesses range from ?5 billion (TUC) to ?7 billion (IPD) to ?12 billion (CBI) each year. Stress can be caused from a variety of reasons. (www.bullyonline.co.uk) (11/11/05) Christine Hudson (2001) defines stress as:
…”literally a pressure of force exerted on an object. The emotional state that occurs when an individual believes that they do not have the resources to deal with a situation or series of events”… (Hodson 2001, p: 144).
Beehr & Franz (1987) suggest that “stress” has commonly been defined in three ways: as an environmental stimulus often described as a force applied to the individual, as an individual’s psychological or physical response to such an environmental force (Warr 2002, ch: 8 p: 204). If the cause of stress could actually be pinpointed to an individual’s workplace, it would be convenient to study how s/he may have been bullied.
2. Sensitivity of the subject
Bullying is a sensitive topic and people may be in denial or embarrassed because of the fact that they are being bullied. Not everyone will admit that they have a problem and some may not be aware that they are being bullied. Hence, it is a very sensitive area. Precautions must be taken when research is carried out.
3. Categories of bullying behaviour
Different theorists have different perceptions of categories of bullying behaviours. Also, individuals have different perceptions of defining what negative behaviour is. The literature review and analysis will help to reveal what authors have to say about different categories of bullying.
The method selected for this research paper consists of a quantitative as well as a qualitative approach. Both approaches will help to collect as much data as possible. Qualitative data will be obtained though pertinent journals, books, studies, magazines and newspapers, all presented in a literature review that will be analysed.
Quantitative data will be obtained through a survey consisting of 50 participants. A range of questions will be presented to them, and the accumulative answers to these questions will be analysed. In addition to this, the quantitative data will be discussed with regard to the literature review as well. This quantitative method has been selected because a questionnaire will provide the opportunity to seek answers to questions in a larger quantity.
Advantages:
Questions are designed so that answers from the individuals’ interviews can be added together to produce results, which apply to the whole sample.
The research is based on interviews with a representative sample of respondents.
The questions are designed to be unbiased
Large survey can often be broken down
Surveys lend themselves to future replication.
Disadvantage:
Data becomes the main focus of the research issues.
The data provide snapshots of points in time rather than a focus on the underlying process processes and changes.
The researcher is often not in a position to check first hand the understandings of the respondents to the questions asked. Issues of truthfulness and accuracy are thereby raised.
The survey relies on breadth rather than depth for its validity. This is crucial issue for small-scale researchers.[9]
Making use of primary data (Surveys, focus group interviews) and secondary data (journals, databases, case studies, books, newspapers etc.), the client’s aim is to find out what types of negative behaviours make people feel bullied at the workplace. This data will also help to reveal the nature and causes of workplace bullying.
Analyzing the survey data against the reviewed literature and the analysis will prove interesting. It is through this comparison that one will be able to tell whether the literature reviewed has any similarities shared with the results of the survey. It is expected that there would be similarities, and it is interesting to observe how significant these similarities are.
Bullying at a workplace can very easily be likened to bullying in schools. The difference between the two types of bullying is that each of them takes place in different age brackets. Bullying at a workplace is similar to bullying at school because it takes place within an institution that works as an arena within which bullying can be sustained. It is often thought that bullies at schools tend to do the same thing at workplaces when they grow up. This is perhaps because their behaviors may have been ignored by superiors and cheered on by classmates. As a result, the will to dominate continues as they grow up.
Some bullies target their victims because they feel the need to control a situation or an environment while others have a natural urge to dominate without any specific reason. Whether bullying takes place at the school level or in a workplace, it has often been noted that insecure individuals exemplify these behaviors.
Does Workplace Violence Encompass Physical as well as Emotional Violence?
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) (1999), one of the severest problems being faced at workplaces is physical as well as emotional violence. The ILO defines workplace violence as: “any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. These behaviors would originate from customers, co-workers at any level of the organization. This definition would include all forms or harassment, bullying, intimidation, physical threats/assaults, robbery and other intrusive behaviors.”[10] This definition is also said to encompass bullying.
According to CUPE’s National Health and Safety Survey of Aggression Against Staff (1994) a similar definition to the previous one is observed, verbal aggression and harassment in its definition of violence is: “Any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened or assaulted during the course of his/her employment. This includes the application of force, threats with or without weapons, severe verbal abuse and persistent sexual and racial harassment.”[11]
Definitions such as this one may also encompass bullying. In order to establish a connection between these definitions of physical and emotional violence, and bullying, the following case is important.
An employee of OC Transpo in Ottawa (April 6 1999) shot 4 employees dead, after which he shot himself. It was said that the employee had suffered from workplace harassment. The definition of workplace violence that had to be included in the coroner’s examination had to include definitions of physical violence as well as psychological violence[12]. Psychological violence or emotional violence includes acts such as bullying, mobbing, teasing, ridicule or any word or deed that could psychologically harm or single out an individual person in the workplace.
From the inclusion of emotional violence in the definition of workplace violence, it can be asserted that definition is very broad. Such a definition has helped to encompass several behaviors that are objectionable and are recognized as harmful to employees (Einarsen, 2002, 25-30).
How Bullied Persons Are Seen:
Usually, those who are bullied are seen as weak individuals or individuals that are different and singled-out. As opposed to the way that bullied person might be seen generally, s/he might well be a capable person, and one that handles his or her work independently. Quite often, such individuals are also well liked by their co-workers. However, bullies may pick on such individuals who may have a non-confrontative interpersonal style. Bullies may see the target as a threat, and set out to cut the target down. A bully of this kind may be a superior or even a co-worker. A co-worker may bully another worker because the target is considered one that is capable of excelling in his or her duties. A superior on the other hand may want to bully an employee in order to keep the target’s personality in check. This may be done in order to create or reinforce an impression of the superior being in control. Some superiors do take pleasure in bullying their employees in order to, in typical terms, show them who is the boss.
What is a Bully Like?
Bullies are usually insecure individuals, lacking social skills. The have little compassion for individuals in general, but tend to be harsh on individuals whom they decide to target. Bullies generally try to turn their insecurity outwards by targeting others. They take pleasure in knowing that they can throw their weight around. They use their positions to attack fully capable individuals around them by subjecting them to undue criticism. A bully may also tend to humiliate, ignore and isolate a target in front of others[13].
If the bully is in a senior position, s/he may make things difficult for the target or victim to work through. This would include setting up tasks that cannot realistically be achieved[14]. A bully may also take away important tasks from a target and replace them with demeaning ones. No matter what a bully does to intimidate a target, the basic idea is to control situations and environments.
What Does Bullying Do to An Organization?
Bullied employees tend to waste anywhere between 10 to 52 % of their work time. Many of them spend time preparing themselves against bullies, searching for support, thinking over the situation, and suffering stress and demotivation[15]. Many of them also do not show up for work regularly due to stress and stress-related illnesses caused.
A work environment in which employees are bullied is poisoned with lack of morale, anger, fear, depression, and related feelings. All this results in an employer suffering: loss of efficiency, absenteeism, high turnover of staff, and lawsuits[16].
Not only does an employer suffer because of bullying in a workplace, but bullying has an impact on the target’s family and friends as well. The daily stress that an individual suffers is carried to relatives and friends. A target’s marriage is also likely to suffer as well with long-term stress. Friendships too come under strain because a target may become possessive (Badzmierowski & Dufresne, 2005).
The damages caused by bullying also impact the healthcare system. This is because those who suffer stress through bullying tend to receive medication and counseling for coping with the problem, and these could last for significant periods.
Bullying and Workplace Violence:
Workplace violence is a practice that might be physical or emotional. This means that the tactics used in the process may be physical or emotional. Bullying is one of the tactics considered under workplace violence. Encompassing the emotional tactics used in workplace violence are: bullying, incivility, disrespect, psychological abuse, and emotional harassment. All these tactics may also be referred to as ‘psycho terror. Whichever way one chooses to define and describe these various aspects of workplace violence, they all have the same impact. This is to say that they all result in work time being lost, demotivated employees, medical claims, legal fees, and ultimately, company decline. Quite obviously, there are tremendous losses experienced in terms of both financial loss and in quality of life (Badzmierowski & Dufresne, 2005).
Focusing more on bullying as a tactic of emotional workplace violence, it can be asserted that bullying is any form of negative behavior that shows disregard for other workers. It might be asserted here that along with there being several definitions for bullying presented by various scholars, there are also several behaviors that may coincide or overlap bullying behaviors. However, it can also be asserted that bullying and other overlapping practices are emotional workplace violence. Bullying is thought to consist of some of the following negative behaviors:
Harassment
Incivility
Teasing
Gossiping
Purposely withholding business information
Overruling decisions without a rationale
Sabotaging team efforts
Demeaning others
Verbal intimidation (Badzmierowski & Dufresne, 2005)
In addition to the above types of bullying, there are several more that may be included.
The different types of bullying that can occur do so in an organization that tolerates incivility. Though organizations may be aware of the damages that bullying does to an organization, responses to the problem are insufficient. Many managers ignore incivility because they either do not want to get involved or they simply believe that it is too much of a waste of time getting involved. Managers sometimes like to keep their slates as clean as possible. So they would rather avoid getting themselves into any interpersonal conflict.
In addition to managers not wanting to get into interpersonal conflicts, many of them may not even hear of any problems in the workplace. This could be for various reasons. Perhaps their co-ordination is insufficient and the opportunity for employees to bring up these kinds of problems does not arise. Some employees might feel that they would be going way beyond expected territory if they were to take complaints forward (Badzmierowski & Dufresne, 2005).
Another reason why managers may not hear about bullying at the workplace is because employees are afraid to bring these issues up even if the opportunities do arise. Employees may be afraid to bring bullying matters up because there are organizations that would regard these complaints as personal disputes and they may not be seen as the concern of the management. It might be asserted here that this could occur because managers know that employees would not take these matters too far even if they were to get serious. However, targeted employees have been known to bring lawsuits against companies for bullying. In the UK, there is legal support for employees that feel bullied, as the UK suffers a loss of several working days and revenue due to workplace bullying. The matter is a serious one, and so is the legal protection of targeted employees in the UK.
Though there is legal protection available for targeted employees, there are organizations that permit or even reward blatant confrontation among employees. This is done in the name of competition within organizations. However, there are lines that need to be drawn and if rude language and negative behaviors are overlooked, an organization can suffer intensely.
“Research shows that when targets believe that someone at work has treated them disrespectfully, half will lose work time worrying about future interactions with the instigator, and half will contemplate changing jobs to avoid a recurrence. One-fourth of research respondents who feel that they have been treated uncivilly will intentionally cut back their work efforts. A few will steal from their instigators or their organizations. Some will sabotage equipment. Most will tell friends, family and colleagues about how badly they have been treated…in the worst case, some targets of incivility will exit” (Pearson and Porath 2005).
Fundamental Features and Categories of Bullying:
According to common terms, bullying is known as a type of harassment, carried out by one child over another who is seen as weaker. With this common view of bullying in mind, there are three common features in this form of behavior:
It is aggressive and negative, both
The behavior is sustained
There is in inequality in power of the bully and the target, with the bully having more power (Einarsen, 2002, 25-30)
There are also two main categories into which bullying falls. These are:
Direct and
Indirect bullying, which may also be called aggression
Direct bullying is common among males. Indirect bullying is common among females and children. Indirect bullying usually results in the target becoming socially isolated. There are several ways through which this may be achieved. Some of the ways include: gossip, ignoring the target in public, treating those who mix with the target in the same manner, and finding fault with the target’s style of dressing and various other social belonging that the target may have, such as his or her religion, race, disability, etc.
Bullying can take place in almost any type of set up. It is known to commonly take place in schools, colleges, universities, workplaces, in neighborhoods, and even between countries. No matter where bullying takes place, it must be noted that the element of power has an important role to play, and the power structure seems to be of great importance (Einarsen, 2002, 25-30). To observers of a relationship in which bullying takes place, the power a bully has is dependant on the perception a target has of the bully. The target usually is afraid to defend him or herself effectively. In many cases, a target has reason to be intimidated. S/he may fear the bully may carry out threatened actions such as physical/sexual violence, or loss of livelihood.
Features of bullies:
There are few notable characteristics of bullying, particularly in male bullies. These include the need for a bully to feel in control and be powerful, sadism, which is a situation where a bully gets satisfaction at watching another person suffer, complete lack of consideration for others, and a particular pattern according to which they work in order to blame the target (Einarsen, 2002, 25-30).
Quite commonly, an individual’s upbringing is blamed for the way that a bully behaves. It is thought that a bully may have been brought up in an abusive environment where s/he might have been exposed to physical forms of punishment at home, little or no parental concern, and an environment in which violence has been used as a way of sorting out problems.
Other research reveals that aggressiveness and forceful behaviors, perceiving other’s behaviors as aggressive, a drive to preserve one’s image, and demonstration of obsessive actions are also observed[17].
Types of Bullying:
Bullying, whether a male or a female carries it out, may be considered to be an obsessive and compulsive behavior. This behavior has repeated actions or verbal insults that are used in order to have power over a target (Einarsen, 2002, 25-30). There is also a mixture of intimidation and humiliation used against targets. Some examples of bullying techniques are given below:
Name-calling often using the target’s or victim’s names; commonly, the target is accused of being useless in all s/he does
Gossiping about the target
Stealing items that belong to the victim
Unjustly demoting a victim
Use of threats to get a victim to do what a bully wants
Cyberbullying; this includes making use of various information technologies to bully a victim
Physically assaulting a person or his or her property
Blackmail
Framing a victim before an authority figure
Use of insulting remarks against a victim’s family,
about one’s home,
personal appearance,
sexual orientation,
religion,
race,
income level,
or nationality
Ignoring or Isolating a victim
Interfering with a victims personal belongings, and damaging them or using them to mock a victim
Dominating a victim by staring
Insulting graffiti[18]
When bullying occurs in school
