A
common, yet destructive situation that apparently has become
one of the most undocumented and most tolerated problems in
the past years. First, what is workplace bullying?
This is a situation that per Yandrick is a problem that is
least noted, yet apparently is tolerated by most individuals,
mainly the employees, due to the lack of knowledge by those
who are affected. Second, to note the costs of bullying,
a study was performed in 1998 that indicated interesting
conclusion on the effects of bullying. This study was
inclusive of individual targets and witnesses to the act of
bullying. Third, Human Resources can play an important
role in the prevention and "early-intervention"
stages of bullying. James Scaringi reviews eight steps
that if implemented would aid in the reduction of bullying,
end result being the decrease of employee turnover.
Fourth, Yandrick concludes with points referencing the legal
issues that are involved with the act of bullying.
References are made to the avenues that the employees now have
at hand with the various laws so as to protect the employee
environment.
Yandrick utilizes his title of his article well to describe
the situation of the workplace bully - "Lurking In The
Shadows". The situation of the workplace bully does
get ignored in many organizations, which is mainly due to the
lack of education of the employees on how to deal with these
types of individuals. Workplace bullying is a behavior
that can be brought out in various forms such as verbal abuse,
sexual harassment and discrimination. The overall affect
of this type of behavior reflects towards the employees
(targets) in that stress-related illnesses become
common. Other affects include, but are not limited to,
high turnover rates, defective work, decreased creativity, and
over time, the actual targets having their careers destroyed
from the after affects.
Yandrick notes several examples of bullying behaviors, which,
without the employee being educated on these types of
behaviors and how to handle them, would continue for the
tenure of the employment. Human Resources can easily be
able to develop educational programs for the employees so as
to allow them to understand the methods of dealing with these
behaviors and the steps that should be followed in reporting
such. In return, programs such as these might assist the
individuals who apparently have these traits understand how
they might improve their demeanor or even seek other means of
assistance so as to decrease their tendencies to show these
traits. An example of this type of behavior may be
yelling at or ridiculing an employee in public yet in return
showing absolute silence in
private.
Other
examples could be undermining an individual with words or
actions that would in turn humiliate the individual; stalking;
implied threat of physical attack which would apply to males
more than to females per Yandrick. Another interesting
example of bullying might be the supervisor in turn
"dumping" work or unpleasant job assignments onto
the employee.
Yandrick makes mention to comments from Gary Namie,
coordinator of the nonprofit organization Campaign Against
Workplace Bullying, which reference that bullying most often
occurs in a workplace that is continual crisis mode.
This is an excellent reference in the fact that when the
workplace is in this type of mode, the tension/stress levels
of the superiors are reflected downward, in turn, the
employees react at times in a negative manner. This
continual type of behavior will over time bring the
organization to a point of non-production; end results could
lead to the demise of the organization. Namie notes that
if an individual was to attempt to approach the problem
individual, the manager may in turn dictate to the employee to
"Work out the interpersonal conflict between yourselves
because I don't want to get involved." When this
type of statement/attitude is portrayed to the employee, this
then allows the manager in question (the bully) to take the
absolute advantage of the situation and continue with the
bullying behavior. Generally bullying will not result in
any type of open confrontation by the target and any witnesses
to these acts turn toward the mode of silence.
Namie makes excellent reference to a predictable process for
the success of the bully in seven steps. First, the
individual initiates the behavior by using such methods of
making remarks about an individual's competency or
character. Second, the individual will build a base for
support in private by talking to other employees individually
and suggest to them that he is the target himself.
Third, when the co-workers and witnesses begin to learn the
truth, they will begin to pull back due to the fear of
becoming a target themselves. Fourth, relationships
between the target and co-workers diminish outside of the
workplace. Fifth, the co-workers begin to blame the
target for the situation. Sixth, over time the
co-workers and witnesses turn and begin to support the
bully. Seventh, eventually other individuals within the
organization may begin to assume similar bullying behavior.
Namie had performed a research project in 1998 involving
gathering information from targets of and witnesses to
workplace bullying. The results of 154 responses were
quite interesting showing some high percentages in the overall
effects of bullying. The areas that were prominent were
stress and anxiety, depression, exhaustion, insecurity and
self-doubt, shame, embarrassment and guilt, obsessive thinking
and nightmares, poor concentration, and sleeplessness.
Along with Namie's study, Christine Pearson, a management
professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
did a study in 1998 surveying targets of bullying and found
that the targets may actually penalize their employer instead
of seeking retaliation towards the bully. The results
indicated some of the actions that the targets would take such
as changing jobs, intentionally decreasing their quality of
work, decreasing their work efforts, losing work time so as to
avoid the bully.
Rudy M.
Yandrick, "Lurking In The Shadows" HR Magazine,
October 1999, Vol. 44, No. 10 (Online)
