Bullying In The Workplace

Bullying and harassment within the workplace can be attributed to a myriad of factors. The work

Cleary, M., Hunt, G. E., Walter, G., & Robertson, M. (2009). Dealing with bullying in the workplace. Journal of psychosocial nursing and mental health services, 47(12), 34-41. doi:10.3928/02793695-20091103-03

The article provide five table illustrations. Table one is about the demographic characteristic of the targets of the workplace bullies. The table displays the characteristics of social workers ranging by age, gender, and demographic. Table two is about organizational settings and roles of targets. The table displayed supervisors, colleagues, subordinates, and clients were all identified as bullies. It showed that women were more than twice as likely (67%) to be identified as bullies as were men (33%). Table three is about the most troubling bullying behaviors. It showed that verbally and covertly hostile actions were the most troubling bullying behaviors in the workplace. In addition, being treated with disrespect and having work de-valued as the hardest aspects of being bullied at the workplace. Table four was the summary characteristics of bullies. The study showed the characteristic were either passive or assertive by the Coping Scale. The passive behavior had a ranging score of 24 and assertive was of 60. The median and mean scores were 42.5, and a multiple modal score. Table five was the classification of responses to coping scale as passive or assertive

This paper compares three studies on workplace bullying. The studies were conducted because workplace bullying is an epidemic that needs to be addressed and it needs to be understood to help future organizations prevent workplace bullying.

Bullying in the workplace has always been an issue that has not been given much importance. It is indeed a problem that should be addressed by the concerned personnel because it can result in many health and safety issues, especially when nurses are bullied at their workplace. From the beginning of times, people who are deployed at a senior post to tend to look down upon the students or new people who have just started work. Nursing is also one of the professions in which the fresh graduates or students are bullied to the extent that they feel that they would not be able to face their seniors. They start developing inferiority complex and are unable to perform their job well. When they are taunted by their seniors and preceptors about their lack of knowledge and experience, their confidence is shattered. This implies that when they are handling a case, they are not confident if they are doing the right thing or not. In this tussle, they sometimes do not even perform the task they were really good at and put the health and safety of the patient at stake.

Workplace bullying is a widespread issue in which people need to be educated on in order to put an end to it. Its causes are complex and multi-faceted and yet preventable. Workplace bullying puts unnecessary strain on the employees It is the employer and organizations responsibility to provide a bully free environment for their employees. Employees should have the right to feel safe in their work environment and be free from workplace bullying. Employers need to be held accountable and have a plan in place to protect the employees from this type of violence. Unfortunately that is not always the case, in some instances the employer is the one doing the bullying. Workplace bullying carries many definitions in which will be

Heeman, V. (2007). Workplace Bullying: A Distinct, Interpersonal, and Communicative Phenomenon. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Communication Association.

What I usually tend to look for in an article is facts! The article notes, “13 percent of employees are currently being bullied in the workplace, while 24 percent have experienced bullying from a coworker or boss in the past”, “Bullies aren't always men either: according to the Zogby study, 40 percent of the bullies reported were women, and more than 70 percent of the time, their targets were other women” (Hawkins, K. 2010) These facts have made the article much more relevant and as a reader we want to know how reliable an article is, these facts have proven to be true because it is also supported by an actual experience of a different person.

Bullying influences everyone within an organization, not just those people who are being targeted. It also impacts the families and friend of those being bullied. People who witness bullying are also affected by this behavior. The idea of bullying has been an international matter of concern for the past 20 years. When bullying was first identified, it was called as “mobbing” by Heinz Leymann (1996).

The conclusion kind of made sense, but it did not readdress the question posed at the beginning of the study to remind the reader of what is being studied or researched. The author shared points to ponder on how to address the issue of bullying in the workplace, increasing education of the nurse managers on how to diffuse bullying, and establishing a work environment that has very low tolerance for the undesirable behaviors.

Bullying which is the intentional act to inflict harm, threaten or abuse of others, can range in many ways. Kathryn Hawkins on the article the Office Bully, outlines various issues of this concept. Kathryn states that sometimes people become overconfidence that they left bullies in their past lives maybe high school, but later found out the bullies have ultimately become their bosses. Secondly, bullying may occur when bullies wants to dominate and gain back their powers if they feel endangered. So they tend to overcome their fear by threatening others. Also Kathryn articulates that even the conditions of the workplace can cause bullies to abuse their targets and workplace bully can be difficult to deal with. Although Kathryn has suggested some solutions about these issues, the claim presented does not put up with the issues, rather an encouragement.

Fitness (2000) found that employees bullied by subordinates may be more likely to confront the offenders than employees bullied by superiors. (Trépanier, Fernet, & Austin, 2015) found out that employees who are victims of bullying at work may be able to satisfy their need for being valued and connected to others at work through other means such as confiding to other colleagues about the situation to obtain

As I continued to contemplate each individual topic given in class, I found myself drawn to the topic of bullying in the work environment. I searched through the various bullying articles in the Leatherby Library, which ensured the credibility of the source. When I came across the article Relationships Between Machiavellianism, Organizational Culture, and Workplace Bullying: Emotional Abuse from the Target's and the Perpetrator's Perspective I was immediately intrigued. In reading this article, I found it will be very helpful when writing my research paper. I was able to obtain information on how the culture of an organization can ultimately support aggressive behaviors among employees, if those behaviors are deem to bring about productivity.

Many people attend work every day; because they need the money to take care of their family or a career option for them. In the process, they gain friends, but that can go wrong. In today’s society, workplace bullying is not treated equally to sexual harassment or discrimination. Many people think that colleagues can resolve bully among their self. Similar to conflict, is it healthy for a workplace environment? Will it improve the business? Wiedmer (2010) stated, “Workplace bully is a pervasive practice by malicious individuals who seek power, control, domination, and subjugation,” (p.35). It can destroy a person emotionally, personally, and financially. There no good that comes out of bullying a person. Is fame the answer? Colleagues sometimes feel intimidated by managers because of their title. Bullying causes the defender to question their selves. Before asking the questions, no, the person is not alone, they did not cause the problem, and reputation will not be ruined.

A national concern in various communities, across the globe and has come to the forefront is the term “bullying”. It seems that everywhere on the news you see an incidence relating to bullying. There are organizations that are looking into solutions to combat this epidemic problem whether it may be through implementing training programs in schools or through the legal system. Seems like everyone is being bullied nowadays whether it be in schools, workplace, gays, lesbians, children, adult, transgender youth, LGBT community, everyone seems to be affected in some way or another. I am going to try to tackle this issue specifically “workplace bullying” and who might be affected and why?