The Effects Of Abusive Behavior On The Workplace

There is no standard ‘profile’ of a person who commits workplace violence, and by no means is someone a threat just because they display one of these traits. Employees that exhibit many of these traits, and with increasing intensity, may be a danger and may need some help. Being able to identify these signs and warning signals, and reporting it to management timely can help prevent a workplace violence incident.

Verbal Abuse in the Workplace: Has Civility Disappeared is an article written by Carol L. Walters. The research question that Walters draws to the reader's attention is do nurses know that abuse comes in more than just a physical form and when faced with any form of abuse are the nurses aware of how to report and handle the situation? The purpose of this study is to bring attention to what verbal abuse is, how it should be reported, and how it affects the nurses when it comes to caring for the patient. The statistics that are presented in Verbal Abuse in the Workplace: Has Civility Disappeared are from surveys that were sent out to certain hospitals to receive feedback from the employed nurses. Although the survey was opened to all of the

Safety is an important factor and is a high priority in healthcare. Kelly, Fenwick, Brekke, and Novaco (2015) shared that workplace violence impairs the staff perceptions of safety. However, both patients and staff are affected by workplace violence in many ways, from physical to emotional aspects. There are many reasons why violence occurs, that will be explained later in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to explain the reason and importance of the chosen phenomenon of interest. Moreover, primary and opposing philosophic viewpoints will be discussed, as well as ways of recognizing and utilizing them in nursing. The ways of knowing patterns in nursing and the utilization of these patterns will be explained, pertaining to nursing care.

To identify the abuser, one must know the different types of abusive behavior. Abuse can be between a coworker with a higher position and a coworker with a lower position. The abuser may bully the victim into thinking they are not skilled enough to work there or get a raise. This can lead to lower self-esteem and lower work efficiency. Abusive behavior between coworkers “forms negative interactions at work and reduced employee performance job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors” Another type of

This means that any bullying or harassment by managers needs to be avoided and detected early. Managers should know and should be trained not to bully or encourage bullying or harassment in the workplace. Furthermore, managers should be on the lookout for this behavior at all times. When a worker feels as if he or she is being bullied or harassed, especially by a manager or supervisor, their work, motivation, and productivity will be reduced. Employees may still show up to work each day, but they won't feel as motivated or empowered to do such a good job as

Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,

Lateral violence is defined as acts that occur between colleagues wherein, bullying is recognized as actions or doings enacted by one in a higher level of authority and the occurrences happen over time (Dellasega, 2009). The acts can be inconspicuous or obvious acts of verbal or non-verbal aggression. Relational aggression is one type of bullying demonstrated by psychological abuse. Some behavior indicators that characterize this type of aggression include gossiping, withholding important or pertinent information, shunning, or knowingly keep one in isolation. These behaviors can also extend beyond the walls of the workplace and can occur in face to face situation, an office area, or in cyberspace (Dellasega, 2009).

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

Lateral workplace violence is described as aggressive, destructive, or harassment behavior in the workplace between nurses or other members of the interprofessional team (Yoder-Wise, 2015). This type of behavior can occur within every aspect of life including professional, social, and personal life. The behavior can include gossiping, withholding information, or ostracism extending outside of the workplace and can occur in person or in cyberspace (American Nursing Association, 2011). Lateral workplace violence is very common among nursing students and new graduates due to the lack of confidence and skill set these individuals possess during the learning process. These new nurses are forced to rely on nurse managers and leaders to prevent interprofessional conflict from peers with equal power (Yoder-Wise, 2015).

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.

For the last fifteen years, I worked in the medical field as a doctor’s assistant. I received a call from one of my former co-workers at another clinic in Needham MA. My coworker and I both endured a lot of petty abuse from the practitioners and patients while working at our previous job. Jennifer (my co-worker) and I worked well together, and we had a mutual respect and rapport; we agreed on all common issues in regard to how a medical practice should function. Jennifer recently started a new job as an office manager for an urgent care clinic, and she asked me to join her at the clinic so we could organize and clean-up the practice that were being managed previously by the doctor himself. Jennifer, as a new office manager at this clinic,

Workplace bullying can take on many forms. Lateral violence among nurses is a common example of workplace mistreatment, which affects individual nurses, patient’s care, and the ethical climate of an organization. In 2008, The Joint Commission released a sentinel alert addressing lateral violence, stating, “Intimidating and disruptive behaviors can foster medical errors, contribute to poor patient satisfaction and to preventable adverse outcomes, increase the cost of care, and cause qualified clinicians, administrators and managers to seek new positions in more professional environments” (Joint Commission, 2008). In this brief, ethical issues related to lateral violence are described with two approaches to solving this issue examined.

Most of us have experienced some form of bad behavior that was directed at us. We can all relate to young children being bullied in school and on playgrounds as it brings back memories of our own experiences with unsavory characters. Unfortunately, experiences of incivility cannot be relegated to childhood, because as employees many are faced with a work environment that impedes success and job satisfaction, due to inappropriate and uncivil behavior by peers and supervisors.

Therefore, taking firm and decisive actions against abusive behaviors even if the person who committed this act is a top-performer can have a significant impact on improving morale and increasing performance for the members of the organization (Sutton, 2007). Subordinates can play a pivotal role to survive toxic leaders at work when they develop indifference and emotional detachment, look for small wins and small victories, limit their exposure to toxic individuals (Tavanti, 2011). Also, followers can expose them through whistleblower and other

Bullying in the workplace is the topic that Heeman has addressed and evaluated with the aid of research from additional authors. Communication plays a major role in bullying when brought into the workplace and it can continue for extensive lengths of time if not managed and handled properly. The roles of bullying are included in Heeman’s report which are the bully, the target, and the bystander. The costs on the workplace can be threatening to the staffing, productivity and the overall work environment. Percentages and research are presented proving the amount of bullying that actually takes place in the workplace. Ways to combat the bullying are introduced into the report to include understanding and taking action to stop and prevent the bullying from continuing. Heeman concludes his report by mentioning that researchers need to focus their attention on finding solutions and ways to intercept bullying to lower the statistics and ratios.