What Do We Do With Howard?

Bullying can produce and maintain a poisonous work environment. Nurses who bully can wear down the job satisfaction of their co workers which can result in a loss of productivity and increased absences in the workplace (Stokowski, 2010). Victims of bullying often have a feeling of impending doom and dread when they think about their upcoming work days. Each time the bullying reoccurs, the victims usually

During the conversation between Ron Davis – the relatively new general manager of the machine tooling group at Parker Manufacturing and Mike – a plant manager who reported to Ron, Ron had violated some principles of supportive communication and supportive listening. First of all, Ron had violated Descriptive and Problem-Oriented principles. For example, Ron expressed his thinking and opinion about what Mike did and stated Mike’s personalities: “I think you’re too chummy with some of your female personnel” or “I think you’re creating a substandard impression by not wearing a tie” and “Having things in

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

* Bullying and harassment – sets out how it is dealt with for the staff being bullied or bullying others

As a result Dr Brownlow decided he needed to develop his senior staff by sending them on a training course, he chose Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe for this training. Richard believed the problems lie not with his style of management but by the lack of leadership and management by Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe. Brenda and Judith implemented there ideas but Richard and Fred Windows were negative about it saying that it was just a fad as they had been on these courses and knew more about management and leadership and gained nothing from the courses. Brenda who normally would issue instruction as a manager does, turned herself into a leader my taking on board other ideas from her colleagues and creating working parties to make the working of her department run more efficiently and smoothly. She included Richards’s project staff into her working groups but he was unhappy about this even after Brenda protested and Richard adamantly refused to yield on this matter. Also at the start of the year Richard decided to off load several tasks to his three projects team leaders Ian Campbell, Carole Devlin and Joanne Cassidy. Richard only believed that Carole had the necessary experience and commitment to take on the extra work load issued and he did not consult his other staff nor did he explain the job role that it entailed.

To the public eye, hospitals and nurses are there for them and their work environment seems like one that would promote growth in the work place, but the public doesn’t see what happens behind the curtain at these hospitals. Bullying can be in every company, but the public never really sees it happening just the employees that work there. The definition of bullying according to Terri Townsend, who wrote “Break the bullying cycle”, states that “[b]ullying is defined as repeated, offensive, abusive, intimidating, or insulting behaviors; abuse of power; or unfair sanctions that make recipients feel humiliated, vulnerable, or threatened, thus creating stress and undermining their self-confidence” (Townsend). This bullying greatly affects the employees and makes the work place environment suffer. By using Bruno Bettelheim’s essay “The Ignored Lesson of Anne Frank”, as a reference to compare why these employees put up with what happens to them at work. A very common everyday example where work place bullying/dehumanization happens would be the employees of McDonalds in Barbara Garson’s essay “McDonald’s – We Do It All for You”, which shows what these employees put up with on a daily basis. There is a huge difference in work places from that of a hospital to that of McDonald’s, but the question is why do these employees put up with the abuse? Hospital employees are also scared to stand up to their supervisors, because they don’t want to face the possible consequences that would

“This,” Terrill announced, “is the reason for the lack of productivity in the Sales Engineering division. These are the reports your people require every month. The fact that they sat on my desk all month shows that no one reads this material. I suggest that the engineers’ time could be used in a more productive manner, and that one brief monthly report from my office will satisfy the needs of the other departments.”

This case was prepared by Associate Professor Marc L. Lipson. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2010 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation.

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

Max is a victim of “workplace bullying, a form of harassment that results in employees experiencing mental distress, physical illness, loss of productivity, and a higher propensity to quit to avoid being in a toxic workplace” (Gomez-Melia et al., 2011, p. 490). Max’s peers were constantly talking and spreading rumors about him. His peer, Nicole Ianucci told other peers that he was probably having a mental breakdown because she saw him getting a prescription at the CVS (Roche, 2003). This persistent pattern of “targeting an employee to rumors or gossip with intentions to harm” (Gomez-Melia et al., 2011, p. 491) is an example of bullying behaviors.

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

The CFO Scott Sullivan forced his henchman, David Myers to see to it that accruals were released from various business units including UUNET. When Myers ordered the accrual release from UUNET’s CFO, David Schneeman, he met resistance. Myers got angry with Schneeman and ultimately found another person to complete the accrual release in order to appease Sullivan, who worked for Ebbers (Kaplan & Kiron, 2007). Bullying was another tactic of this company. Workplace bullies typically target independent employees who refuse to be subservient (Weidmer, 2011). For instance, when Cynthia Cooper, an internal auditor, was made aware of a questionable transfer, she brought it up at an audit committee meeting. After the meeting, Sullivan screamed at her and told her to stay away from that account (Kaplan & Kiron, 2007). Additionally, victims of workplace bullying may experience various symptoms such as weight loss and difficulty sleeping (Namie, 2003). This is exactly what happened to accounting manager Betty Vinson. Sullivan bullied Vinson into releasing accruals. Vinson was eager to maintain her status and did as requested, more than once. Vinson began to lose weight and sleep due to the bullying she experienced and the guilt she carried (Kaplan & Kiron, 2007).

In this case, we have really two different points of view: in one side, there is Philip Anderson, the Phoenix branch manager of Stuart & Co., who manages a team with his ways, his idea, his experience but the results do not reach the targets fixed by the firm. In the other side, there is the direction of Stuart & Co., which has opposite ideas to Philip Anderson.

Ted Anderson was worried. Linda Watkins was the best manager he had and he wasn’t sure where to go from here. He asked his secretary to set up a meeting with IS Director Charles Bunke for first thing the next morning. He needed a plan.

The immediate goal for the resort with four weeks to go in Wellands contract is for Humphries to meet with Boddington and Welland within the next week and ensure the rest of the summer seasons operations are completed effectively. That is, with no confrontations between Boddington and Welland. Next, corporate office must ensure that the resorts processes are reviewed, enhanced as necessary, and fully communicated to staff by the start of next season. Finally, through the use of both internal and external training, corporate office through Humphries must enhance Boddingtons managerial skills. Accomplishment of this goal would be based on her performance review by Humphries.