Examining Workplace Bullying: Impact, Reflection, and Prevention

This essay examines the pervasive issue of workplace bullying, detailing its destructive impact on employee health, morale, and organizational productivity. It reflects on practical scenarios, including a personal experience of witnessing a colleague being unfairly treated and burdened with unrealistic goals. The essay further explores the ethical differences between bullies and their targets, highlighting the 'Hyde and jackal' nature of bullies. Finally, it discusses techniques for management to prevent workplace bullying, such as implementing policies aligned with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, establishing employee grievance redressal cells, and understanding the triggers behind bullying behavior. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing suspected bullying directly to foster a healthier work environment.

Running head: WORKPLACE BULLY
Workplace Bully
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Impact of workplace bullying on victims and organization.......................................................2
Reflection of workplace bullying and application in the practical scenario..............................2
Techniques implemented by management to prevent workplace bullying................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

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Impact of workplace bullying on victims and organization
Workplace bullying is a practice prevalent in schools, colleges and business
organizations, which are mainly practised by malicious individuals with a motive of gaining
supremacy over their employees and subordinates. Most of the times, the employees are not
given their due credit for the amount of work they have done. This develops negativity and
resentment within the employees towards the organization, leading to huge number of
employee turnovers. This hampers the overall productivity of the organization. As
commented by Ryan (2016), the impact of workplace bullying is destructive and affects the
health, morale, emotions of an employee.
The workplace bullying generates huge amount of stress within the employees
resulting in them developing mental health related problems such as depression and anxiety
(Wiedmer, 2018). Some of these have pronounced affect upon their health such as
development of heart disorders, obesity, increase within the cholesterol content of the blood,
gastric disorders.
Reflection of workplace bullying and application in the practical scenario
Bullying at workplace is a pervasive, targeted, planned behaviour that is practised by
virtue of position in order to get the work done, which could make the bully look good in the
eyes of the management (Wiedmer, 2018). As commented by Alberts & Brooks (2016), often
the bullies target the individuals who are the veteran of the organization and possess a higher
emotional intelligence and decline to be subservient. The bullies in most of the cases have
been found to be the bosses an often possess resentments towards their same gender peers
(Hollis, 2015). Additionally, setting up of unrealistic goals can also hamper the productivity
of an employee (Ramely & Ahmad, 2017). Some of these were encountered by me within

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my current organization. I have seen this with one of my fellow colleagues Tom, who was a
veteran employee of the AB systems, where I used to work initially. He was denied sufficient
amount of credit or worth for all the extra effort he had put in dealing with some of the
challenging jobs. He was often burdened by our marketing head for meeting with some of the
unrealistic goals which could not be achieved within a short duration of time.
The nature of the bullies and the bullied could be described over here for
understanding the difference of opinions possessed by the two, which could often result into
workplace disputes. As commented by Gumbus & Meglich (2016), the bullied are often
guided more by ethics and decline to follow the unrealistic directives provided by the boss.
The bullies on the other hand possess a Hyde and jackal nature, charming on the face and
vindictive on the back.
Techniques implemented by management to prevent workplace bullying
Some of the techniques which could be implemented in order to prevent workplace
bullying are putting a policy in place along with addressing suspected bullying directly.
These are covered under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1979, which ensures to
protect the employees against workplace violence. Additionally, referring or addressing the
person directly, who seems to be doing violence can prevent the recurrence of such events in
the future. In this, respect, an employee grievance redressing cell could be set up which will
headed over an experienced council of members of the organization. Additionally,
understanding the exact reason which triggers the bully can help towards reconciliation
(Bartlett, 2016).

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References
Alberts, J. K., & Brooks, M. M. (2016). Workplace Bullying. The International Encyclopedia
of Interpersonal Communication, pp. 105-215.
Bartlett, J. A. (2016). Workplace bullying: A silent epidemic. Library Leadership &
Management, 31(1), p. 1.
Gumbus, A., & Meglich, P. A. (2016). The workplace bully is not always a lone wolf. LSE
Business Review, pp. 215-313.
Hollis, L. P. (2015). Bully university? The cost of workplace bullying and employee
disengagement in American higher education. Sage Open, 5(2), p. 97.
Ramely, A. B., & Ahmad, Y. (2017). Attributors of Workplace Bullying: Cleaning
Workforces’ Perspective. Journal of Administrative Science Special Edition: Socio-
Economic Issue, 14(3). p. 214-316.
Ryan, M. (2016). Management: Besting the Workplace Bully. Reference & User Services
Quarterly, 55(4), 267-269.
Wiedmer, T. (2018). Workplace Bullying: Costly and Preventable. Questia.com. Retrieved 10
February 2018, from https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-2257395091/workplace-
bullying-costly-and-preventable