Executive Summary
The given paper is devoted to the description of workplace bullying, its types, and the impact on the people and society. The choice of the topic and its relevance are explained by the fact that today this issue remains especially topical because of the attempts to create a positive environment and ensure that workers might benefit from the appropriate climate in offices.
The paper offers detailed definitions of various types of bullying, which is vital for an improved understanding of how individuals might depress others or discriminate. The work also focuses on the consequences of bullying for the organisation and individuals as the disregard of this issue has a pernicious impact on various units. The paper follows a traditional structure with the introduction and body paragraphs that provide essential information devoted to the problem, and improve the understanding of the concept of bullying.
Introduction
Today much attention is devoted to the creation of the society deprived of various forms of discrimination. Tolerance and respect are the basic elements of the cooperation between individuals today. It means that the functioning of organisations should also be aligned in accordance with the principles of humanism or mutual respect. For the sphere of business, which acquires the top priority today because of its role in global economics, the creation of a positive working environment deprived of biased attitudes or discriminative patterns. Unfortunately, there are still multiple cases of bullying in the workplace that affect individuals, organisations, and society. An improved understanding of various types of bullying, its main causes, and ways to struggle against it can help to attain success in reducing the cases of inappropriate behaviours among employees and create a better working climate.
Definition
The scope of the problem and its importance for modern society presupposes the existence of multiple definitions. The generalised one states that bullying is the act of mistreatment from others in the workplace that might cause physical or emotional harm (Scopelliti, 2018). There are multiple tactics that might be employed by bullies such as humiliation, nonverbal or verbal attacks, psychological pressure, or aggression (Pelletier, 2018).
As against bullying in other places, workplace harassment presupposes the inappropriate interaction between employees with multiple motifs that might include acquisition of better position, elimination of potential rivals, or other ones. In accordance with the statistics, about 85% of employees have experienced workplace bullying and suffered from it (Pelletier, 2018). For this reason, the problem remains topical for contemporary society and demands specific intervention to ensure that a positive environment is created and employees benefit from it.
Causes
The causes of the appearance of workplace bullying differ from other ones. The recent research states that in the majority of cases, it occurs because of the workplace environment and job design (Pelletier, 2018). Job insecurity, workload, the conflict between managers, cognitive demands, and distribution of tasks and authorities presuppose the appearance of additional stress and attempts to decrease its levels by engaging in aggressive behaviours. At the same time, there is an idea that the personal characteristics of bullies and victims might also precondition the appearance of aggressive behaviours and their development.
For instance, new and inexperienced workers often suffer from bullying because of the lack of confidence and the desire to align relations with would-be colleagues. It might provoke harassment and various abusive patterns. Understanding the leading causes for the appearance of bullying is vital for struggling against it and the creation of a beneficial climate.
Types
The scope of the problem and its complexity preconditions the existence of multiple types of bullying. People can use various approaches and methods to hurt other individuals or make their position vulnerable. For this reason, there are some generalised groups that are used to describe bullying and its peculiarities. One of the broad categories is physical bullying that can be defined as an undesired physical interaction that occurs between two individuals as is aimed at causing some humiliating or negative effect on the victim (Pelletier, 2018). Because of the peculiarities of the working environment, direct forms of physical bullying such as hitting, pushing, or slapping are rare; however, there are some other ways such as damaging personal things or equipment to make the position of a person vulnerable.
Psychological bullying is another form of inappropriate relations between individuals in the workplace. It can be determined as a form of mistreatment that is focused on causing emotional harm to a person with the help of verbal and non-verbal methods. Because of the existence of specific rules and policies that prohibit various forms of violence or discrimination, psychological bullying in the workplace becomes a severe problem as abusers act within these norms and use their authority or some privileged position to affect victims. At the same time, they might employ multiple approaches and tools to make the position of a person complex and isolate him/her from others. In the majority of cases, the cases such mistreatment is hard to prove, which means that bullies might act unnoticed and deteriorate the working climate.
Gossiping is one of the forms of psychological bullying in the workplace. It presupposes the spread of rumours, either real or fictional ones, about a certain person to irritate or disappoint him/her. The working environment provides multiple opportunities for gossiping as employees can share information during coffee breaks, in restrooms, or other areas. For this reason, this form of bullying becomes one of the most popular types that can be found in almost any organisation (Pelletier, 2018).
Performance-related or personal rumours might precondition the deterioration of the victim’s reputation and improve the position of a bully. For this reason, it is often used as a method to struggle against a potential rival or to protect the existing pattern of authority distribution. Gossiping can precondition the emergence of severe psychological problems among individuals and remains a dangerous and undesired form of mistreatment.
Group bullying is another form of harassment and inappropriate behaviour that can often be observed in the workplace. Statistics state that the majority of new employees face its manifestations during the initial periods of their work (Ball, 2015). Groups are an integral part of any collective as they are formed resting on common interests, similar values, views, or positions in the company. For this reason, the appearance of a new member in a collective might presuppose an active response from these groups and their unwillingness to include a new member. Groups’ pressure can be challenging for new workers because of the lack of experience and emotional harassment from several colleagues. Moreover, every group might have its own code of behaviour, and a person who does not follow it might also become bullied.
Speaking about workplace bullying, it is also vital to mention discrimination because of various factors. These might include gender, age, culture, nationality, and race. Regardless of multiple attempts to eliminate all forms of biased attitudes to individuals and create a tolerant society, there are still remnants of the past that affect the functioning of companies, especially multinational ones as representatives of other nationalities or cultures might be treated as inferior to other ones. Additionally, statistics show that gender differences also served as the basis for bullying in about 60% of cases (Bullying in the Workplace, n.d.). For this reason, discrimination in the workplace remains a serious concern for current firms as they face the high risk of penalties and decreased performance because of the poor working climate and absence of aligned cooperation between all members.
Finally, with the rise of technologies, digitalisation of various processes, and the increased importance of social media, such phenomena as cyberbullying have also become relevant. It can be determined as the use of messengers, emails, or platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to cause emotional harm to a person and make him/his unhappy (Emamzadeh, 2018). The main problem associated with this type of harassment is the anonymity of an attacker cause he/she can use fake accounts or other ways to protect his/her confidentiality. In the workplace environment, cyberbullying might occur by using the company’s networks to harass a particular worker or complicate his/her functioning by sending multiple messages with various content. Cyberbullying becomes a serious threat to the effectiveness of workers regarding the increasing role of social media in the lives of individuals today.
Impact on Individuals
In such a way, bullying remains a significant problem that affects all people and results in the appearance of undesired outcomes. Workplace bullying is also dangerous for individuals affected by it, organisations, and society. For instance, research states that employees who face bullying in their functioning are characterised by high levels of stress and anxiety. These two factors might precondition the appearance and development of multiple mental and physical diseases among the population and deteriorate the health of the nation (Emamzadeh, 2018). Additionally, victims might suffer from panic attacks, problematic sleeping, and high blood pressure.
The combination of these factors causes substantial harm to an individual, decreases his/her performance, undermines health, and limits chances for personal and professional development. Additionally, bullying might precondition the development of depression, which is a severe mental disease.
Impact on Organisations
The absence of a beneficial and healthy working environment, which is one of the consequences of bullying, is one of the factors that deteriorate the functioning of organisations and prevent them from achieving particular goals. Thus, there are also significant reputational losses that emerge because of the cases of bullying and discrimination. Deterioration of the brand’s image results in a decreased number of opportunities to evolve and find new partners.
Moreover, the loyalty of clients might also be lowered because of the unfair attitude to employees or their mistreatment. In general, firms or organisations characterised by the existence of bullies and multiple victims might also experience a decrease in income and revenue because of the teams’ inability to cooperate effectively and achieve outlined goals. The disregard of the given undesired behaviour might precondition the collapse of the organisation.
Impact on Society
Finally, bullying might also affect the functioning of society and its evolution. As stated above, victims of mistreatment often acquire such symptoms as insomnia, anxiety, stress, and even depression. It preconditions the gradual deterioration of the health of the nation and the development of severe diseases that affect the functioning of communities. Being not able to perform their duties, individuals become isolated or not appreciated by other members of their group.
At the same time, reduced productivity and lack of motivation might undermine the functioning of the whole society and precondition its gradual decline. Bullying is also closely connected with the concept of social justice, and victims who are not able to punish attackers, might also feel high aggression levels and become dangerous to people surrounding them (Doyle, 2019). The given facts show that bullying is an extremely dangerous phenomenon that might deteriorate the functioning of society, and much attention should be devoted to the introduction of methods to eliminate it.
Ways to Stop
One of the most effective ways to prevent bullying in the workplace is the creation of an environment that encourages teamwork, cooperation, mutual support and respect. Prevention and monitoring of the current situation are more cost-effective than interventions aimed at the discovery and elimination of cases of harassment. For this reason, much attention should be devoted to educating workers about the impossibility of various forms of discrimination and the introduction of severe punishments for those team members who are not ready to follow the code and respect all colleagues. Additionally, because bullying is often associated with the abuse of power, it is vital to provide equal career opportunities for all employees to guarantee the effective succession and replacement of leaders who are not able to cope with existing tasks.
Reference List
Ball, P. (2015) ‘10 types of workplace bullying and how to stop it’, Workplace. Web.
Bullying in the workplace (n.d.) Web.
Doyle, A. (2019) The different types of harassment in the workplace. Web.
Emamzadeh, A. (2018) ‘Workplace bullying: causes, effects, and prevention’, Psychology Today. Web.
Pelletier, P. (2018) The workplace bullying handbook: how to identify, prevent, and stop a workplace bully. Vancouver, BC: aul Pelletier Consulting.
Scopelliti, V. (2018) ‘22 types of workplace bullying behaviour’, Hrdaily. Web.