Impact of Bullying and Harassment Stress on Performance and Staff Turnover

The report discusses the impact of workplace bullying and harassment stress on the performance and staff turnover in organizations. It covers factors influencing workplace bullying and harassment, its influence on employee performance, and resolution of the issue. The report also identifies gaps in knowledge and presents research questions.

Running Head: BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF
0
Impact of bullying and harassment stress on the performance and staff turnover
10/25/2018

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Workplace Bullying and Harassment stress of employees........................................................2
Factors influencing Workplace Bullying and Harassment.........................................................2
Influence of Workplace Bullying on Employees performance..................................................4
Resolution of the issue of Workplace bullying and Harassment...............................................5
Identifying gap in the knowledge...............................................................................................6
Research Questions....................................................................................................................6
Limitation of the Study..............................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reflection...................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 2
Introduction
The report brings about the discussion of the research on the topic ‘Impact of bullying and
harassment stress on the performance turnover of the employees, and the critical analysis.
Workplace bullying is verbal, physical, social, or any psychological behaviour at the
workplace by their managers or leaders in the organisation. Workplace bullying is considered
as one of the major aspects of mistreatment of employees or staff in the organisation, which
influences their performance and productivity in a negative manner, thus it must be managed
(Galperin, 2014). Workplace bullying can occur in any type of the workplace, from the
corporate offices, to the shops, restaurants, cafes, workshops, community groups and the
government firms and organisations. Thus, the assignment consists of the description of the
theme with the review on the research papers, and analysing the impact on employee
performance and rate of turnover (Anand and Monika, 2017).
The report in the later part will include a research question, which will be based on the gap
identified through the research, from the multiple perspectives of different authors on the
workplace bullying and the influence on the staff performance in the organisation (Sansone
and Sansone, 2015). The topic is worthy to the readers, as it gives them an understanding of
the workplace safety and healthy environment. In addition, a reader as an employee or an
individual acquires knowledge about the standards and employee rights, which describes how
an organisation or the managers can prevent such things, and enhances the organisational
performance in the long-term (Astrauskaite et al., 2015).
Workplace Bullying and Harassment stress of employees
Workplace bullying is a common issue that refers to the persistent pattern or form of
mistreatment of employees by the managers, leaders, or superiors at the workplace. It can be
of any form, and can occur at any place. Harassment differs in the meaning, as it refers to the
illegal discrimination, and offensive conduct that adversely influence the terms and
conditions of the employment (Essen, Esquivel and Jha, 2014).
Factors influencing Workplace Bullying and Harassment
Workplace bullying is affected and influences the employee stress levels that hamper their
performance and productivity. Factors, which lead to the workplace bullying and harassment

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 3
stress to the employees in the organisations, may be described at individual level, such as
gender, education, and status and the organisational factors, such as complexity of the task,
employee involvement, compensation, and others (Glambek et al., 2018). According to the
Raja Lakshmi and Gomathi, (2015), it has been stated that an individual is influenced through
workplace bullying, and the effects are observed on some of the factors, which affects the
performance of the individual. In addition, the organisational factors such as power and self-
esteem of the managers, leads to the bullying of their sub-ordinates and employees in the
organisation (Duffy, 2018). The authors has discussed that the bullying affects the physical,
psychological, and the professional factors of the staff working in the organisation. The
employees who are bullied often face the issues of cardio-vascular and depression, i.e.
physical factors. In turn, it includes the impact on the physical and mental health of the
person, and this further leads to the negative impact on their professional life, as unhealthy
body and mind will affect their productivity (Keskin et al., 2016).
The factors and the aspects of the workplace bullying establish a cause and effect relationship
in every organisation. Lewis, Megicks, and Jones (2017) are of the view that workplace
bullying often leads to the work stress in the employees. Work stress or job stress affects
their productivity and performance. The authors has discussed through their research on the
British small scale and large firms, where in it was found that a Workplace Employment
Relations Survey has been conducted in the British firms, both small and large (Glambek,
Skogstad and Einarsen, 2018). It has been also stated by the authors that the higher
emotional intelligence amongst employees will reduce their stress levels, and vice-versa
(Higgs and Dulewicz, 2016).
The organisations in the UK were assessed as the experience of the employees in the larger
firms was compared with the SMEs, and it was revealed that the workload, job-insecurity,
and the slow rate of promotion, and poor communication negatively affected the performance
of the staff in the British firms. In addition, it has been analysed that the components of the
job such as excessive job demands, resource inadequacies and the lack of autonomy and the
control over job leads to several bullying situations. Some organisational factors, which are
responsible why employees are bullied, in the organisations, these include power, self-esteem
and the differences, perceived threat, and organisational culture. The research findings also
led to the aspect that the people might bully each other due to the dissatisfactory
organisational arrangements or change in the working methods (Henning et al., 2017).

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 4
A positive relationship between the job stress and the workplace bullying, as the job-stress is
found high in the employees who experience workplace bullying and harassment in the
organisation. The aspects of the job-stressors and the workplace bullying are interrelated in a
positive way. According to the Akar, (2013) the concept of job stressors and workplace
bullying been analysed that through the surveys conducted in the healthcare services on a
300-health service staff which included both junior-doctors and nurses, in Turkey (Attell,
Brown and Treiber, 2017). Nurses in the healthcare settings were found to be bullied and
experienced higher job stress than the junior doctors. Job-stress amongst the nurses led to the
serious negative impacts on their psychological factors in the healthcare, such as causing
anxiety, depression, and burnout on the health of the staff. The authors explored about the
job-stress, but they did not discuss the methods to deal with the situation. Hence, it has
discovered that the workplace bullying is the phenomenon triggered by the job stress and
causes job stress (Strandmark et al., 2017).
Influence of Workplace Bullying on Employees performance
Discussing the factors influencing the workplace bullying and harassment stress in the
employees at, it has been realised that there are some of the major impacts of the concept in
the organisations. Harassment or bullying of the staff at the workplace may lead to the critical
impact or influence on a number of factors, such as physical health problems. According to
the Oladapo, (2013) the impact of the management bullies has been greatly identified and
analysed on the employees performance in the organisation (Giorgi et al., 2016). The
findings through the research from the author’s perspectives on the topic, has created an
understanding that bullying of an employee’s affects their morale, influencing their ability to
work hard in the organisation, hampering their job-satisfaction. Decreased job-satisfaction
and low productivity of employees affects the financial performance of the organisation. The
data has been collected through the research surveys conducted revealed that around 75% of
the participants reported about witnessing the ill-treatment of the co-workers throughout their
careers., 47% being bullied during their career and some 27% has been admitted to be a target
to be bullied (Powers, 2017).

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 5
Studying the impacts of the workplace bullying and harassment of employees, the major
impact was observed on the physical, mental, and the other health problems of the staff in the
organisations. However, there are some of the organisational implications also caused by the
workplace bullying. Bullies do not run good organisations; as it has been observed that the
organisations with bullying behaviour will encounter high rates of staff turnover at higher
rates and sick leave, and low morale and productivity of employees (Salin and Notelaers,
2017).
From the perspective of Yahaya et al., (2012) it has been studied that there is a relationship
between workplace bullying of employees and work performance. It has been a conceptual
research that defined the concept of the bullying from an organisational point of view. It
stated that when the morale of employees is affected, it leads to an impact on the financial
performance of the organisation. Bullying results in an increased cost to the employee as well
as the organisation, as the management team of the organisation need to replace the staff
members who left the organisation because of being bullied. Work efforts also gets displaced
as the staff cope with bullying incidents, as there is a deviation of efforts of individuals away
from work productivity. Thus, it affects the supervisors at the bottom line, and hampers the
financial stability of the organisation by increasing costs due to the bullying (Salin and
Notelaers, 2017).
Resolution of the issue of Workplace bullying and Harassment
Discussing and analysing the factors, causes, and the impacts or consequences of the
workplace bullying, it is essential to devise strategies or the resolution to these problems in
the organisation. Every organisation must incorporate some internal methods to resolve the
problems arising due to the workplace bullying and harassment of employees. According to
Fapohunda, (2013), it has described that the concept of Workplace bullying is increasingly
attracting the recognition, and has become an issue of concern for the HR managers of the
organisations. The data has collected through the study on 280 participants selected from
different organisation, in departments of education, finance, communication, and health
sectors. The author stated that, a victim of workplace bullying can use different ways to
resolve the issue in their organisation. First thing is that they can take advices and suggestions
from their mentors who have experienced these situations earlier. Bullies must make sure that
they their jobs or work is done well, so that they are not isolated from their colleagues. The

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 6
targets or bullied employees must report to the top management if the situation becomes out
of control (Woodrow and Guest, 2014).
Identifying gap in the knowledge
The research gap in the literature refers to the concepts or idea that has left unexplored by the
researchers or authors, or an inappropriate response to the concepts discussed throughout
their study. Although a significant gap in the literature has identified related to bullying, the
research is unanimous in reporting the devastating health effects workplace bullying has on
targets and bystanders and the negative financial implications. The researchers through their
study have described about the factors, impacts, and the resolution to the bullying behaviour
in the organisation; but there have been some gaps. The gap that was identified as that the
authors exclaimed that if an employee has higher emotional intelligence, then the person
becomes able to handle the stress of bullying behaviour of their superiors, in the
organisations, but have not mentioned the opposite situation. If an employee has lower EI
(Emotional intelligence), then how they will cope with the stress of harassment. In addition,
the authors in the above research papers have not discussed the importance of developing
interpersonal skills in the organisation. Interpersonal skills are significant in maintaining
healthy relationships amongst organisational members, which reduces the possibility of any
conflicts in the organisation. Thus, it further prevents the situations or issues of workplace
bullying or harassment of employees and their negative impacts in the organisations.
Research Questions
Q1. How does the concept of Workplace bullying and harassment is prevalent in
contemporary organisations influencing the employee performance?
Q2. What is our duty of care in relation to bullying and harassment to the employees?
Q3.What is the possible role of emotional intelligence in eliminating undesirable behaviours
at work?
Q4. How does low emotional intelligence in employees affects workplace bullying at
workplace?

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 7
Limitation of the Study
The research conducted through the information collected from different perspectives of the
authors, it has been analysed that workplace bullying, leads to the negative consequences to
employees in the organisation. The practical implications of this study have been covered but
there should be a survey based on large-scale organisations. In addition, several authors have
covered the employees in the organisations, in few sectors only. Workplace bullying, refers to
the repeated and unreasonable behaviour towards the employees or staff in the organisation,
therefore managers must devise effective strategies to manage or deal with the situations.
Thus, the study has some limitations defining new methods to overcome the bullying and
harassment at workplace.
Conclusion
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that Workplace is a systematic
undermining of an employee or target’s wellbeing, and a psychological distress that is found
in organisational culture. The report included the aspects and views from several authors,
through their study conducted in different scenario, discussing about the prevalence of
workplace bullying. The impact of bullying behaviour of the managers, leaders or
supervisors, in the organisation is highly influential to the performance of staff and the
turnover rates. Thus, an organisation or management must ensure effective communication
with their staff to derive solutions to their issues, and prevent conflicts, thereby reducing the
possibilities of workplace bullying or harassment in the organisations.
Reflection
Here, the above report is carried out in a group of five people, which are my batch-mates. I
headed the responsibility of being a leader of our group/team. We performed the task of
collecting information on the topic of the assignment, ‘A study of the Impact of Workplace
Bullying, and Harassment stress on the staff performance and turnover’. Being, the leader of
the group, I had the responsibility of uniting the efforts of all group members thus; through
the social media groups we communicated our doubts and issues in finding information.
Other members also represented their effective leadership and communication skills, while
completing the task, as they worked together with harmony, cooperation, and coordination.

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 8
The material discussed with each-others in the group was 60% helpful to be incorporated in
the report. On the other hand, teamwork was very effective rather than individual
contribution as the group members had different views about the topic, which provided a
multi-faceted perception about the issue and the resolution. The group members highlighted
their participative leadership skills, along-with my contribution and commitment towards
completing the assignment timely.

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 9
References
Akar, N. (2013) The Relationships among Perceived Job Stressors, Workplace Bullying and
Job Stress in the Health Care Services in Turkey: A Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
Approach, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3(14), pp. 5-10.
Anand, T. and Monika, T. (2017) Relationship of emotional intelligence with occupational
stress and burnout in private banking sector. International Journal of Engineering and
Management Sciences, 8(4), pp.177-185.
Astrauskaite, M., Notelaers, G., Medisauskaite, A. and Kern, R.M. (2015) Workplace
harassment: Deterring role of transformational leadership and core job
characteristics. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 31(1), pp.121-135.
Attell, B.K., Brown, K.K. and Treiber, L.A. (2017) Workplace bullying, perceived job
stressors, and psychological distress: Gender and race differences in the stress process. Social
science research, 65, pp. 210-221.
Duffy, M. (2018) The Psychosocial Impact of Workplace Bullying and Mobbing on
Targets. Workplace Bullying and Mobbing in the United States [2 volumes], p.131.
Essen, S.D., Esquivel, C. and Jha, P. (2014) Workplace bullying: an emergent issue. Oral
health and dental management, 13(3), pp. 835-841.
Fapohunda, T.M. (2013) Managing workplace bullying. Journal of Human Resource
Management, 1(3), pp. 39-47.
Galperin, B.L. (2014) Managing and preventing workplace bullying: An HR
perspective. Values in Shock The role of contrasting management, economic, and religious
paradigms in the workplace, p.366.
Giorgi, G., Perminienė, M., Montani, F., Fiz-Perez, J., Mucci, N. and Arcangeli, G. (2016)
Detrimental effects of workplace bullying: impediment of self-management competence via
psychological distress. Frontiers in psychology, 7, p.60.

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 10
Glambek, M., Nielsen, M.B., Gjerstad, J. and Einarsen, S. (2018) Gender differences in
therelationship between workplace bullying and subjective back and neck pain: A two-wave
study in a Norwegian probability sample. Journal of psychosomatic research, 106, pp. 73-75.
Glambek, M., Skogstad, A. and Einarsen, S. (2018) Workplace bullying, the development of
job insecurity and the role of laissez-faire leadership: A two-wave moderated mediation
study. Work & Stress, pp. 1-16.
Henning, M.A., Zhou, C., Adams, P., Moir, F., Hobson, J., Hallett, C. and Webster, C.S.,
(2017) Workplace harassment among staff in higher education: A systematic review. Asia
Pacific Education Review, 18(4), pp. 521-539.
Higgs, M. and Dulewicz, V. (2016) The Importance of Emotional Intelligence. In Leading
with Emotional Intelligence (pp. 13-32). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Jung, H.S. and Yoon, H.H. (2015) Understanding regulatory focuses: the role of employees’
regulatory focus in stress coping styles, and turnover intent to a five-star hotel. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(2), pp. 283-307.
Keskin, H., Akgün, A.E., Ayar, H. and Kayman, Ş.S. (2016) Cyber-bullying victimization,
counterproductive work behaviours and emotional intelligence at workplace. Procedia-social
and behavioural sciences, 235, pp. 281-287.
Lewis, D., Megicks, P. and Jones, P., 2017. Bullying, harassment and work-related stressors:
Evidence from British small and medium enterprises. International small business journal,
35(1), pp.116-137.
Oladapo, V. (2013) Management Bullies: The Effect on employees, Journal of Business
Studies Quarterly, 4(4), pp.7-14.
Powers, H., 2017. BULLIES AMONG US: Dealing with Workplace Violence in Health
Care. Canadian Journal of Medical Laboratory Science, 79(4), pp.21-24.
Rajalakshmi, M. and Gomathi, S. (2015) A study on the factors influencing workplace
bullying and its impact on employee stress. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1),
p.292.

BULLYING AND HARASSMENT STRESS ON STAFF 11
Salin, D. and Notelaers, G. (2017) The effect of exposure to bullying on turnover intentions:
the role of perceived psychological contract violation and benevolent behaviour. Work &
Stress, 31(4), pp. 355-374.
Sansone, R.A. and Sansone, L.A. (2015) Workplace bullying: a tale of adverse
consequences. Innovations in clinical neuroscience, 12(1-2), p. 32.
Strandmark K, M., Rahm, G., Wilde Larsson, B., Nordström, G. and Rystedt, I. (2017)
Preventive strategies and processes to counteract bullying in health care settings: Focus
Group Discussions. Issues in mental health nursing, 38(2), pp.113-121.
Woodrow, C. and Guest, D.E. (2014) When good HR gets bad results: Exploring the
challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying. Human Resource
Management Journal, 24(1), pp. 38-56.
Yahaya, A., Ing,T.C., Lee, G.M., Yahaya, N., Boon, Y., Hashim, S. and Taat, S. (2012) The
Impact of Workplace Bullying on Work performance, Archives Des Sciences, 65(4), pp. 6-
11.