Adult bullying at work is shockingly common and very destructive. In an in-depth analysis of 146 organizations worldwide, workplaces evidencing bullying on a relatively routine basis made up 44% of the total analyzed. U.S. studies also suggest alarming prevalence rates. During any given 6 to 12 month period, up to 13 percent of workers are bullied on the job; this increases significantly when counting those bullied anytime during their careers .These numbers translate to millions of workers: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 136 million Americans were employed in July 2008. An estimated 55 million Americans have been bullied at work using the 33% rate. This paper reviews the current literature regarding the history of bullying …show more content…
A decade later, the topic surfaced in England In 1991, a freelance journalist named Andrea Adams, brought the issue to public attention in Britain through a series of BBC radio posts; she labeled the phenomenon “bullying.” As a result of Adams’ work and public concern, interest in and the study of bullying intensified in the U.K. Although Scandinavia and the U.K. continue to lead in this area, bullying and mobbing research now includes, among others, scholars and professionals in Japan, Australia, and Canada.
In the United States the history of adult bullying research has been less straightforward. U.S. psychiatrist Carroll Brodsky conducted one of the first studies of workplace harassment and subsequently published “The Harassed Worker”. Despite the groundbreaking nature of his work, the book stirred little interest at the time. Brodsky’s research was revived in the early 1990s when interest surged in England. Around this same time, the study of human aggression expanded to include aggression at work, research that was centrally concerned with perpetrators. In the early 1990s, nursing professor, Helen Cox, began studying verbal abuse in medical settings when it appeared to be driving away gifted nursing students. Around the same time rare but highly visible occurrences of workplace murder sparked a massive amount of research that extended into the next two. In the late 1990s research with a district focus that
Have you ever been a target of an individual’s cruelty and hatred? It does not necessarily have to be physical, but more like being verbally degraded or publicly humiliated. The effects bullying can have on its victims is something that may last throughout their lives, or something that may end their life(Braithwaite, Hyde, Pope, 2010).We all are well aware of childhood bullying but as evidence shows bullying does not stop on the
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
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
Over the years bullying has become a problem. It affects kids to even adults. Bullying is a problem here a Buhach and the students should be aware of how to handle a bully. Don’t think that it can’t happen to you because bullying can happen to everyone regardless of your age.
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
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
Adult bullying in the workplace has become quite commonplace and its consequences can be far-reaching. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 146 million Americans are employed in the United States, and an estimated 54 million of those are bullied at work (Namie, 2007). These statistics are staggering. Bullying is defined as a combination of verbal abuse and behaviors that are humiliating, threatening, or intimidating and create harm (health, social, or economic) to individuals and may interfere with their productivity at work (Namie, 2007). With a prevalence of bullying taking place in the workplace, it appears that organizations need to better provide a sense of community and psychological support to its employees to address this widespread issue. The appropriate communication within the organization can make all the difference.
Workplace harassment and bullying occurs when an employee subjects another employee to degrading behaviour, whether verbal abuse and threats or actual physical violence. It is an inappropriate expression of power that affects workers and their productivity in an unfavourable way (Spry, 1998). Management, and other types of employees, who occupy high-status roles sometimes believe that harassing their subordinates is within their rights and make demands of the lower-status employees (Langton, Robbins, Judge, 2010, p. 313).
Today’s economy is changing, not only in this country, but around the world as well. People today are struggling to find steady employment, maintaining their employment and still having a difficult time to make ends-meet. Looking for a job, especially while unemployed and running low on money, has to be one of the most stressful times of a person’s life. However, there is another issue in regarding to today’s workforce. We can assume that most of us have experienced some type of bullying while in our younger years. Unfortunately, bullying exists in one’s adulthood as well, especially within the work environment. Additionally, workplace bullying is one of the biggest complaints from both employers and
Bullying in the workplace is a larger than life problem victims are everywhere. The act of bullying comes in many different forms and actions and is an unethical behavior. Have you or someone you know been a victim of workplace bullying? To answer the question, in most cases if not ourselves we know someone that has experienced workplace bullying. The statistical numbers according to Namie (2014), recorded in Workplace Bullying Institute in the section labeled the key findings, the statistics provide the same information in a similar statement “27% have current or past direct experience with abusive conduct at work” (Namie, 2014, para. 2). The description of bullying is defined and recognized as an extreme issue in the
This study also has significance to stakeholders as it examines the impact on physical and mental health of employees and co-workers. How are teams affected by workplace bullying? Consequences of being a target of a workplace bully affect not only the individual but also the teams on which the target is working. Co-workers must pick up the slack for the bullied employees who either don’t come to work or quit because of the circumstances they are
Workplace bullying is a hot button topic in today’s society. Bullying is a subjective term, but is most widely known as using one’s strength to intimidate, control, discourage, or just be plain mean to a weaker individual. There is a huge over-reaction to bullying in today’s society, and it is a manifestation of people in America being too sensitive and easily offended. The purpose of this paper is not to defend or condone bullying, but to explain how it is often exaggerated, taken out of context, and the result of having a victim mentality in the workplace.
The workplace bullying institute (2014) defined workplace bullying as the repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators. Workplace bullying behaviors include verbal abuse, victimization, humiliation, being threatened, physical abuse, work sabotage and professional disregard. Workplace bullying is a prevalent disruptive behavior that creates an unconducive working environment that negatively impacts on the productivity of workers and prevents work from being done. Fox S & Cowan R (2015), the issue of workplace bullying continues to garner much attention in the scholarly, practitioner and public media, yet there is little consensus among professionals and academics of best practices for assessing the prevalence and consequences of workplace bullying. According to a research conducted in 2014 by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 27% of adult Americans have experienced abuse, 48% have been affected either directly or indirectly by it, 72% of Americans are aware that workplace bullying happens and 93% support the enactment of a healthy workplace environment law. Bullying is reported across all levels in the health care sector and the cases keep increasing over time and management should intervene to prevent and control the problem. Dumont et al (2012) report in their study of 950 RN respondents that 82% reported
A bully will never cease from intimidating others; he or she enters the work place and continue to terrorize colleagues with his or her disruptive and hurtful behavior. Almost everyone has succumbed to bullying in life, whether it was in the role as an innocent target, horrible aggressor, or tacit bystander. Thus, recently social media seems to express utter disdain with bullies terrifying innocuous classmates in schools, but many organizations overlook workplace bullying and underestimate its power since it is not a punishable offense. Consequently, almost 14 million American adults succumb to bullying daily, and millions more experience the mortifying consequences of witnessing the maltreatment (Namie, 2011). Therefore, this brief research will discuss the impact of workplace bullying on the organization and answer the following questions:
One of the greatest challenges to understanding and overcoming the phenomenon of workplace bullying is the lack of consensus among employers, researchers, and legislators as to what defines workplace bullying. Definitions of the phenomena overlap with some definitions being described as too broad or too narrow. Some complain that definitions are not precise enough or lack the span necessary to include all forms of workplace bullying. One reason there are so many definitions is because there are many components to consider: frequency, intensity, duration, intent, victim experience, and the effects of bullying, to name a few. Leymann and Tallgren (1989) define bullying as weekly exposure to one of 45 identified negative acts for a period of six months. The emphasis here is on the duration of the acts or behaviors, though other definitions of bullying place less emphasis on behavior. Conversely, Sercombe and Donnelly (2013) view bullying as a type of relationship rather than a set of behaviors. Hallberg and Strandmark (2006) differentiate bullying from routine workplace conflict and define bullying through the frequency and duration of attacks against a person’s dignity. Still others maintain that harm from bullying goes beyond insulting dignity to render the victim powerless to change their position or find peace at work (Sercombe & Donnelly, 2013). As you can see, there is an abundance of variety among definitions of workplace bullying.