University Workplace Bullying and Consequences Report

This report, written from the perspective of an Occupational Health and Safety Specialist, addresses workplace bullying as a psychosocial hazard. It begins by referencing the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act, outlining its purpose and the sections relevant to workplace bullying. The report emphasizes the importance of addressing bullying from an organizational standpoint, highlighting the negative impacts on employee well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity. It also underscores the role of an Occupational Health and Safety officer in identifying hazards, implementing safety measures, and providing training to employees. The report further discusses the consequences of workplace bullying, such as high turnover rates and reduced productivity, and proposes preventive measures like creating clear policies, encouraging incident reporting, and promoting a positive workplace culture. The report concludes by summarizing the legal right of every employee to a safe and healthy workplace and the employer's responsibility to ensure this, emphasizing the critical importance of eliminating workplace bullying for organizational success.

Running head: WORKPLACE BULLYING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 1
Workplace Bullying And Its Consequences
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The purpose of Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act is to ensure the safety
and well-being of the workers in the workplace. This requires employers to ensure proper
security and safety of their employees also providing them a healthy work environment.
The sections of the legislation which address workplace bullying are “Workplace
harassment and violence” which includes all kinds of psychosocial hazards and along with
workplace bullying, sexual and domestic violence, “Reporting incidents” includes reporting
of any misconduct or injury done to the employees and “Workers protected from
discriminatory action” which states that no person has the right to take disciplinary actions
against any worker because they have exercised under the law.
An occupational health and safety officer should be recruited to resolve any
workplace bullying as they help in identifying the hazard, they are expert in coordinating
health and safety system within an organization by identifying the hazard, and applying
appropriate safety measures to resolve the issue. They also give training and advice to the
employees to promote their safety and well-being.
Workplace bullying is a persistent pattern of misconduct from an employee in a
workplace that causes either physical or emotional harm to another employee. Workplace
bullying is considered to be one of the most stressful situations in any workplace and results
in a dysfunctional and toxic relationship between co-workers. It also has detrimental effects
on the mental and physical health of an individual, so it needs to be seriously addressed and
resolved. The workers who are bullied will lose their trust in the workplace, which will lead
to reduced job satisfaction and commitment towards their responsibilities. Moreover, there
will be the higher intention of leaving the job among those people, thus resulting in reduced
productivity and profit of the company. One metric to gather support against bullying is
bullying risk assessment tool, which was developed to assess and identify the risk of bullying

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at the ground level and also helped to prioritize the areas for the management to take
necessary actions.
The outcome of workplace bullying on the organization is High turnover rates of staff,
increased absenteeism among the workers, low morale or self-esteem and lack of initiative
among them, which results in reduced productivity. Besides, the quality of work is also
reduced along with customer satisfaction.
The employer can prevent workplace bullying in an organization by creating and
communicating the policy regarding employee safety and should state that the management
will not tolerate any kind of misconduct within the organization. They should also take
allegations seriously and take necessary measurements against it. Employer should encourage
the employees to report incidents where they felt they were being bullied and make sure they
are resolved promptly. They should also promote a positive workplace culture.
The organization should provide training of the employees regarding workplace
policies, discuss the importance of maintaining a safe and secure workplace. They can also
conduct counseling of the employees who are bullied, discuss the reasons and assure him that
this kind of incident will not be repeated any further. They should also provide training to
develop the communication skills, leadership ability and interpersonal skills of the
employees.
As an occupational health and safety manager, my duty is to prevent accidents,
injuries or work-related issues in the workplace and maintain a safe environment for all the
employees, so that they feel confident and motivated. I will try to implement the health and
safety policies within an organization and make sure whether it is being followed by the
management and employees, and whether each and every employee is aware of the policies.

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SUMMARY
Every employee has the legal right to be a part of a safe, secure and healthy
workplace, which is free from bullying or any kind of mental and physical harassment. So, it
is the responsibility of the employer to ensure the same for all the employees so that they are
confident and motivated to their jobs. They should address the issue and take help from an
occupational health and safety officer, who will resolve it promptly because to ensure
organization success, it is critically important to eliminate workplace bullying.

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REFERENCE:
Mikkelsen, E. G., Hansen, Å. M., Persson, R., Byrgesen, M. F., & Hogh, A. (2020).
Individual consequences of being exposed to workplace bullying. In Bullying and
Harassment in the workplace.: Developments in theory, research and practice. 3rd.
edition. CRC Press.
Rice, M. (2017). Formulative evaluation of Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety Code
review process.