Report on Workplace Bullying: Causes and Strategies

This report delves into the pervasive issue of workplace bullying, defining it as the intimidation of coworkers through physical, verbal, or emotional means. It identifies jealousy and negative traits of bullies as primary causes, emphasizing the detrimental impact on employee productivity and the violation of laws against workplace bullying. The report explores strategies to combat bullying, including promoting effective communication, building support networks, and implementing training programs to educate employees on their rights and the consequences of bullying. The report also includes an alternate post defining workplace bullying, followed by responses to two other posts, critically analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each, particularly focusing on the clarity of definitions, structure, and the application of relevant concepts and research.

RUNNING HEAD: WORKPLACE BULLYING 1
Workplace bullying
Name:
Institution:
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WORKPLACE BULLYING 2
MAIN POST
Definition of workplace bullying
Bullying is a global vice that has plagued the society for quite some time. On most cases,
bullying is only thought to be happening in schools. This is false since bullying is often
experienced at workplaces (Carter et al., 2013). A workplace is supposed to be safe so that the
employees can be productive. Bullying however does not provide this safe environment rather a
very hostile surrounding and it is known to drive majority of the workers to the wall (Einarsen,
Skogstad, Rørvik, Lande, & Nielsen, 2016). According to research, bullying at the workplace has
been ranked highest as the leading challenge that organizations face. This then leads to the
question, what is workplace bullying?
Workplace bullying can be defined as the aspect or behavior where some of the
employees use extrajudicial force or behavior to intimidate their counterparts. This workplace
bullying can be expressed in different forms that include the use of physical force, verbal, sexual
or emotional bullying and this usually depends with the context (Nielsen, Nielsen, Notelaers, &
Einarsen, 2015). The Australian Law is against the workplace bullying. The law in fact states
that it is a crime to treat anyone less favorably on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation,
race, disability or their age(Salin, 2014). The law states that bullying might be in the form of
yelling or the use of offensive language, intimidation, suppressing of ideas and the constant
criticism of an individual.
There are different causes of workplace bullying. Bullying occurs due to the negative
traits possessed by the perpetrators of the said vice. Most of these bullies are jealous of their
counterpart’s abilities and so they vent their frustrations through bullying them in return (Spence

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Laschinger & Nosko, 2013). The bully often works hard to frustrate the co-worker so that their
efforts or achievements does not surpass theirs. Instead of the bully working hard to achieve the
same feat and create a healthy competition, they chose to bully them. Jealousy of the bullies is
therefore the reason why there is bullying at the work places.
There are different strategies that are recommended to reduce workplace bullying .This
will however be explained in the subsequent section. In conclusion, workplace bullying is the
intimidation of coworkers using physical, verbal or emotional aspects. It is often caused by the
negative traits of the bully such as jealous (Woodrow & Guest, 2013). The Australian law is
against workplace bullying .Any perpetrators of bullying should be identified and appropriate
actions taken against them .This is because bullying has been known to reduce the productivity
of different employees.
Strategies to deal with workplace bullying
Bullying has been associated with sever psychosocial impacts to the victims .It is
therefore important this vice is handled and eradicated at the work places. There are different
strategies that can be put to use to limit workplace bullying
Encouraging communication at the workplace. To reduce workplace bullying, there
should be effective communication. Communication is the aspect of sharing information between
two or more parties .Communication would therefore enable the victims of bullying share the
experiences of how they were bullied to the respective departments (Tran, n.d.,). After they have
shared their experiences, it will be easy to identify the perpetrators and deal with them
accordingly .However, incorporating the culture of communication needs an effective leadership
style. The most commonly style used is transformational leadership

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Building a support network can also assist in dealing with the workplace bullying. Every
worker should have an established network both at home and at the workplace .It is this network
that will enable workers have the confidence and be resilient and condemn bullying.
Training programs can also be used to deal with workplace bullying. The workers should
attend different training programs that advocate for the rights of workers and equip the workers
with the necessary skills on how to deal with bullying (Verkuil, Atasayi, & Molendijk, 2015).
The workers should also be trained on the potential consequences of bullying if one is found
doing the same. This would in turn instill fear among the potential bullies and the vice will
reduce drastically.
ALTERNATE POST
Workplace bullying can be defined as the mistreatment of workers at their work of place
and this eventually leads to physical or emotional harm. Workplace bullying can take the form of
verbal, non-verbal, physical abuse or humiliation. It is thought that bullying only happens in
schools. This is however in contrast to the real picture where workplace bullying is the greatest
challenge that organizations face (Woodrow & Guest, 2013). The Australian law is against
workplace bullying and if anyone is found guilty, he or she is prosecuted in the court of law.
Workplace bullying reduce the productivity of workers and there should be strategies to deal
with this vice.
There are different methods that can be used to deal with workplace bullying. Some of
them include communication. In this case, the employees through transformational leadership,
should be encouraged to communicate and share their opinions or bullying experiences. This will

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enable the management to identify the perpetrators of bullying and they will be dealt with
accordingly.
Training programs can also be used to deal with workplace bullying. This involves
regular training of the employees on the consequences of bullying and how to handle them. The
training programs should be organized after certain time intervals so that the employees get
updated each and every time. Another method is encouraging the employees to build a strong
network. The employees should build a strong network both at home and at school. The aim of
this network is to collectively assist the employees develop confidence and resilience to handle
the workplace bullying.
RESPONSE TO OTHERS POSTS
RESPONSE TO ANUPAMA PRASAI POST
In the paper, the Author started by telling us the structure of the paper. This is contrary to
the expectations .In the introduction part, the author has to start by introducing the topic of
interest. The structure of the paper can then come at the end of the introduction. The definition is
also not captured well. The author has not clearly arranged the idea of workplace bullying in a
cohesive manner. Furthermore, the author has also used the word bullying in the definition, this
is not correct. The best definition according to this author would have been, workplace bullying
is the harassing, offending their emotional and physical well-being at the work place(Verkuil,
Atasayi, & Molendijk, 2015). This could have made more sense. There are also issues to do with
sentence structures just in the first sentence of the definition. The author should therefore work
on his grammar.

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It is also not good to provide an in text citation at the end of the paragraph. The last line
of each paragraph should be a statement that summarize the idea in the paragraph and therefore it
should not be cited. The author has also not clearly quoted the laws regarding workplace
bullying. The strategies used to deal with workplace bullying have been covered well and the
conclusion as well.
RESPONSE TO MARIA VENTURA POST
Just from the outlook, the post of Maria Ventura looks clumsy. The author has not even
used topics so that we can understand what she is talking about. The author has however
introduced the topic very well. The definition is also precise and clear. In one of the statement
however, the author notes that workplace bullying arise due difference in power (Verkuil,
Atasayi, & Molendijk, 2015).. This means that the author is suggesting that in most cases it is the
senior staffs that bully the junior staff. This is not the case, bullying can take place among people
with the same rank.
About the strategies used to deal with the workplace bullying, the author has actually
done a commendable job. She has talked of good leadership was my idea too especially the
transformational leadership style. The author has also mentioned of raising employee awareness
and this is actually correct(Woodrow & Guest, 2013). The Author however failed to provide a
conclusion of the assignment and she should work on this next time .In conclusion, the over
assignment was covered well just that she should consider using subtopics and provide a
conclusion in future.

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References
Carter, M., Thompson, N., Crampton, P., Morrow, G., Burford, B., Gray, C., & Illing, J.
(2013). Workplace bullying in the UK NHS: a questionnaire and interview study on
prevalence, impact and barriers to reporting. BMJ Open, 3(6), e002628.
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002628
Einarsen, S., Skogstad, A., Rørvik, E., Lande, Å. B., & Nielsen, M. B. (2016). Climate for
conflict management, exposure to workplace bullying and work engagement: a
moderated mediation analysis. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 29(3), 549-570. doi:10.1080/09585192.2016.1164216
Nielsen, M. B., Nielsen, G. H., Notelaers, G., & Einarsen, S. (2015). Workplace Bullying
and Suicidal Ideation: A 3-Wave Longitudinal Norwegian Study. American Journal
of Public Health, 105(11), e23-e28. doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302855
Salin, D. (2014). Risk factors of workplace bullying for men and women: The role of the
psychosocial and physical work environment. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology,
56(1), 69-77. doi:10.1111/sjop.12169
Spence Laschinger, H. K., & Nosko, A. (2013). Exposure to workplace bullying and post-
traumatic stress disorder symptomology: the role of protective psychological
resources. Journal of Nursing Management, 23(2), 252-262. doi:10.1111/jonm.12122
Tran, B. (n.d.). Impact of Organizational Trauma on Workplace Behavior and Performance.
Impact of Organizational Trauma on Workplace Behavior and Performance, 221-
245. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2021-4.ch009
Verkuil, B., Atasayi, S., & Molendijk, M. L. (2015). Workplace Bullying and Mental Health:
A Meta-Analysis on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data. PLOS ONE, 10(8),
e0135225. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135225

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Woodrow, C., & Guest, D. E. (2013). When good HR gets bad results: exploring the
challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying. Human Resource
Management Journal, 24(1), 38-56. doi:10.1111/1748-8583.12021