Workplace Bullying: Examining Causes, Impacts, and Effective Solutions

This assignment delves into the multifaceted issue of workplace bullying. It begins by defining workplace bullying as the continuous mistreatment of employees, highlighting its detrimental effects on self-worth, productivity, and overall well-being. The assignment explores the concept of organizational justice, emphasizing the importance of treating employees with dignity and respect. It addresses the impact of bullying on employee health, emotional stability, and work engagement. The solution includes hypothetical scenarios where the author discusses how they would respond to bullying, providing practical advice on how to address and report such incidents. The assignment also examines the potential causes of bullying, such as emotionally strained relationships, past bullying experiences, and prolonged stress. The conclusion underscores the need for zero-tolerance policies, emotional support, and the importance of documenting bullying incidents. References to relevant academic articles are included to support the arguments presented.

WORKPLACE
BULLYING

Introduction: Workplace Bullying:
• Continuous mistreatment of employees at workplace
• Humiliating employees, harming their self-worth and
dignity
• Sabotaging other workers 'work, ridiculing and
mocking them can lead to employee
• Causes absenteeism and low productivity.
• Although workplace bullying is usually verbal, it does
more harm to employee’s self-efficacy
• 61% of the workplace bullies are the immediate
supervisors at work.

Summary:
• Each employee working at his workplace expects
to be justly and fairly treated but workplace
bullying is against organizational justice.
• Workplace bullying disastrously impact health,
emotional well-being and mental stability of an
employee.
• One should always raise voice against bullying
instead of acting a victim.
• Prior experience of being bullied or workplace
stress can produce bullies.

Question 1: Response:
• Each employee working at his workplace
expects to be justly and fairly treated .
• Workplace bulling goes against the principle of
organizational justice.
• Organizational justice states that every
employee must be treated with dignity and
respect at workplace (Matthiesen and Einarsen
2015).
• The supervisors often resort to unjust behaviour
that have potentially negative consequences of
employee health and well-being.

Question 2: Response:
• Workplace bullying impacts health, emotional well-
being and mental stability of an employee.
• An employee loses self-confidence and loses
productivity.
• Least engagement at work in turn causes
absenteeism and low productivity at work.
• If I were bullied at workplace, I would definitely
escalate the matter to the higher authority with
proper evidence (Adams 2014).

Question 3: Response:
• Being bullied, I would first of all, ignore the
person.
• Maintain distance with him.
• If needed, shout back with “I will ignore you,
no matter what.”.
• If my friend would have suffered from
bullying, I would inform the higher
management, and would offer emotional
support (Francioli et al. 2016).

Question 4: Response
• Prior unpleasant situations can produce bullies:
1. Emotionally strained relationship with parents
2. Past bullying experience (Laschinger and Nosko 2015)
3. Experiencing stress and depression for a prolonged period
4. Sudden shock or trauma.

Conclusion:
• Bulling can never be justified.
• Emotionally degrading and humiliating an adult can have log-term
impact on his sense of self-worth.
• One must keep a record of all the bulling events and escalate to
the higher authority.
• Instead of blaming the victim, one must provide emotional support.
• Companies must implement and monitor a strict anti-bullying zero
tolerance policy at workplace.

Reference List:
• Adams, A., 2014. Bullying at work: How to confront and overcome
it. Virago.
• Francioli, L., Høgh, A., Conway, P.M., Costa, G., Karasek, R. and
Hansen, Å.M., 2016. Do personal dispositions affect the
relationship between psychosocial working conditions and
workplace bullying?. Ethics & Behavior, 26(6), pp.451-469.
• Matthiesen, S.B. and Einarsen, S., 2015. Perpetrators and targets
of bullying at work: Role stress and individual
differences. Perspectives on Bullying: Research on Childhood,
Workplace, and Cyberbullying, 22(6), p.135.
• Spence Laschinger, H.K. and Nosko, A., 2015. Exposure to
workplace bullying and post‐traumatic stress disorder
symptomology: the role of protective psychological
resources. Journal of nursing management, 23(2), pp.252-262.