Ethical Analysis of Workplace Bullying and Violence, MGF5020 Essay

This essay delves into the complex issue of workplace bullying and violence, examining its ethical dimensions through various theoretical lenses. It begins by defining workplace bullying and highlighting its detrimental impacts on both employees and organizations. The essay then reviews relevant literature and explores the characteristics and traits associated with workplace bullying, emphasizing its unethical nature due to its infringement on workers' safety and well-being. Ethical theories such as denontology, utilitarianism, rights, and virtue are explained and applied to analyze the issue, with a focus on how these frameworks inform ethical decision-making in the context of workplace bullying. The analysis considers the normative approach to ethics and discusses the roles of business ethics and self-interest theories in understanding unethical behavior. The essay concludes with recommendations for proactive organizational processes to address bullying and violence, including the development of standard operating procedures and systems for grievance review, emphasizing the importance of establishing and enforcing compliance with ethical standards to mitigate the negative consequences of unethical workplace behavior.

Running Head : VIOLENCE AND WORKPLACE BULLYING
Violence and Workplace Bullying
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The workplace violence can be referred to as a threat of violence to the workers working
in an organization. On the other hand, bullying is the direct affront to the ethics when ethics is
considered to be based on a primary relationship with responsibility on other people (O'Neill,
Beauvais & Scholl, 2016). There have been many researches on the organizational explanations
of workplace violence and bullying related to ethics. It has been argued and positively supported
that the organizations cannot be accused for the individual acts of bullying but they can be found
responsible for asserting continuous vigilance that seeks addressing and minimizing the
existence of such acts. In this paper, the relevant literature will be reviewed on the selected issue
and the findings will be summarized too. The essay will also consist of the relevant ethical
theories for analysing the issue. Next, the issue will be analysed from the perspectives of the
ethical theories such as utilitarianism, denontology, right and virtue. Lastly, the conclusion will
be developed about what is ethical and unethical about the issue. Ten peer-reviewed articles on
the topic will support the essay.
Background
The workplace bullying is extremely destructive for the employees and the
organizations. It usually happens when then a particular employee establishes hostility in the
working environment for another employee through the non-verbal and verbal behaviour. The
hostilities generate abusive, offensive, persistent, malicious, intimidating and insulting
behaviour. This leads to the threatening and humiliated atmosphere for the individuals in the
workplace (Ariza-Montes et al., 2017). It has also been found that most of the victims of
workplace bullying are driven out and quit too. This phenomenon has detrimental impacts on the
people who are bullied. It has been also found that the bullying is an enactment of violence

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having various consequences for the company and the people who practice and spread it. It can
be said that bullying is a deliberate act of violence that focuses on hurting people (Xu et al.,
2018). It is also not surprising that workplace bullying is considered as unethical because as it
compromises the worker’ right to safety and well-being in the workplace (Harrington,Warren &
Rayner, 2015).
As far as the characteristics and traits of workplace bullying is concerned, it can be said
that workplace bullying has some self-motives along with lack of respect for others
(Valmohammadi & Roshanzamir, 2015).. It displays traits like anxiety and anger. The victims
suffer from low self-esteem and it usually occurs in the stressful working environment (Chatman
& O’Reilly, 2016). An environment of jealously and competitiveness might lead to workplace
bullying (Cheung, Lee & Yip, 2017). In some of the cases, the victims are found to be more
intelligent and competent than those who bully them out of anger and inferiority complex.
Specifically, when the organizations cannot be held responsible for the individual acts,
they should be held responsible for controlling vigilance and address the minimization of such
types of acts (O'Neill, Beauvais & Scholl, 2016).The organization has an important role to play
in addressing the workplace cultures and the phenomenon of harassment. It can have an
extremely damaging impact on the targeted individual (Vinnari, Vinnari & Kupsala, 2017). In
most of the cases, the unethicality of bullying has been taken for granted instead of justified and
argued.
Therefore, from the literature review it can be concluded that workplace bullying can
give rise to the mental and physical disorders among the victims. It affects both the employers
and the employees. When a workplace bullying occurs, there is high absenteeism and staff
turnover. The morale and the productivity are extremely low among the employees and they

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suffer from anxiety and stress (Chatman & O’Reilly, 2016). The also leaves greater impact on
the creativity of the employees and decrease their ability to cope with difficult situations.
Explanation
The ethical theories are important part for the decision- making as these theories help to
represent the viewpoints of people with their choice of actions and decision-making. Each of the
theories elaborate on different points and every decision making style has a different rule. For
understanding the ethical decision-making, it is extremely important to realise everyone does not
follow the same way, same information for making decisions (Vinnari, Vinnari & Kupsala,
2017). Few of the most common ethical theories are the theory of denontology, utilitarianism,
rights and virtue.
Denontology
The theories related to denontology suggest that people must adhere to the obligations
they have along with their duties during engaging in a decision making where ethics play an
important role. It suggests that people usually should follow the obligations to the society or
other individuals because it is ethically correct to uphold one’s duties. Taken for instance, a
denontologist should keep the promises made and follow the law (Valmohammadi &
Roshanzamir, 2015).
Utilitarianism
The theory of utilitarianism on the other hand is founded on the ability of a person to
predict the outcomes, rather consequences of action. For a utilitarian, the choice, which yields
benefits for most of the people, is the choice that is correct ethically. There are usually two types
of utilitarianism such as rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism.

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Rights
The ethical theories, which are based on the rights, are established by a society and are
protected by the highest priority. The rights are considered to be correct ethically and valid too
since there is a large population which endorses them. The individuals might also bestow the
rights on others when they have the resources and the ability to do so.
Virtue
On the other hand, the ethical theory of virtue helps to judge a person by the character he
/she has by a particular action that can deviate from the normal behaviour. It takes into account
the reputation, moral and the motivation of people during considering an irregular behaviour.
Analysis
The examination of violence and workplace bullying as an unethical act provides focus
on the problems, which are connected with the bullying activities. According to the normative
approach to ethics, it can be said that it is derived from the descriptive ethics. In this regard, it
tries to justify the standards of morality for a society (Ariza-Montes et al., 2017). The violence
and bullying can either occur inside or outside of the workplace or consist of the physical and
verbal abuse. Nowadays, the workplace violence and bullying has become one of the biggest
causes of deaths related to job. The workplace violence is a developing concern for the
employees and the employers worldwide. Studies have found that almost 2 million Americans
have suffered from the workplace violence each year. However, violence and workplace bullying
are quite different from each other. In simple words, the workplace violence is the perpetuated
intentionally by one person on another person. A person who adheres to the theories of

5VIOLENCE AND WORKPLACE BULLYING
denontology automatically can produce the consistent decisions based on the set duties of an
individual.
There are various positive attributes of the theory of denontology but has some flaws too.
The denontology has no such logical basis or rationale for deciding on the duties of individuals.
The act utilitarianism precisely defines what utilitarianism is – the person focuses on the acts
which benefits others the most irrespective of the social constraints and personal feelings
(Chatman & O’Reilly, 2016). On the other hand, the rule utilitarianism considers the law and
aims at fairness of deeds. It also seeks benefits for most of the people through the fair deeds and
means. The rights theory is most appropriately used in conjunction with other ethical theory
which will explain consistently the society’s goals. Taken for example, the people of America
have the rights to select their own religion as this right is supported by the constitution. In the
normative ethics literature, there are many of the theories on ethical behaviour captured. As per
the theory of utilitarianism and the theory of denontology, the moral decision –making s
explained properly. The denontological approach suggests that duty is the primary moral
imperative, which is independent of the actions’ outcomes(Ramely & Ahmad, 2017).Two of
these theories would be useful for assessing the bullying behaviour in the global context. In
most of the cases, both of these theories will result in equal moral conclusions. Both the views
can be used for having a systematic approach to explain the moral judgements.
Additionally, the social exchange theory, agency theory, reinforcement theory and
theories related to neoclassical economics easily demonstrate that people can act aggressively
towards others in an organization. The business ethics consists of the standards, rules, the
principles and the codes which provide guidelines for morally right type of behaviour in specific
situations of the organization. The aim of the business ethics is to understand the reasons behind

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corporations and individuals behaving in a certain way regardless of the situation. The self-
interest theories are used for examining the way individuals in the organization behave
unethically.
Reflection
After undergoing the class lectures, modules and a range of theories relate to ethics, I
would like to suggest that the management of the organizations need to develop a proactive
process for addressing the increasing practice of violence and workplace bullying. As a
recommendation, I would suggest that the organizations should develop SOPs for intolerance of
harassment and hostile behaviors in the workplaces. Some of the examples of workplace bullying
are swearing or cursing at someone, ignoring the opinion of a person or the person
himself/herself, criticising someone, blaming someone, targeting someone for cracking jokes on,
humiliating someone, monitoring someone extremely and many others. The workplace bullying
is considered as an individual phenomenon to such an extent that the organizations need more
attention as far as the responsibility of ethics is concerned. The bullying is found as the
individual phenomenon and in this manner, the individual wrongdoings should also be concerned
as it leafs to major organizational dimension. The determination of the organizational units
required for the monitoring and assessing of compliance to SOPs is required too. There has to be
an establishment of a system for reviewing the grievances which are sensitive “ locally” but non-
consistent in the international context. There has to be appropriate penalties for the accidents
occurred through violation of the rules.
Conclusion

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As a conclusion, it can be said that bullying in the workplace is an ethical phenomenon
and the intensity of this behaviour can diminish the organizational culture. The examination of
the ethical variance among different organizational cultures would appear as the powerful means
of examining activities of bullying. The cultural foundations play a significant role in the causes
and resolutions of bullying. The only solution is to establish and develop compliance for the
members of the organization. Proper penalty has to be imposed for unethical, counter –
productive work behaviour and its consequences.

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Reference
Ariza-Montes, A., Arjona-Fuentes, J. M., Law, R., & Han, H. (2017). Incidence of workplace
bullying among hospitality employees. International Journal of Contemporary
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Chatman, J. A., & O’Reilly, C. A. (2016). Paradigm lost: Reinvigorating the study of
organizational culture. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 199-224.
Cheung, T., Lee, P., & Yip, P. (2017). Workplace violence toward physicians and nurses:
prevalence and correlates in Macau. International journal of environmental research and
public health, 14(8), 879.
Harrington, S., Warren, S., & Rayner, C. (2015). Human resource management practitioners’
responses to workplace bullying: cycles of symbolic violence. Organization, 22(3), 368-
389.
O'Neill, J. W., Beauvais, L. L., & Scholl, R. W. (2016). The use of organizational culture and
structure to guide strategic behavior: an information processing perspective. Journal of
Behavioral and Applied Management, 2(2), 816.
Ramely, A. B., & Ahmad, Y. (2017). Attributors of Workplace Bullying: Cleaning Workforces’
Perspective. Journal of Administrative Science Special Edition: Socio-Economic
Issue, 14(3).4
Rhodes, C., Pullen, A., Vickers, M. H., Clegg, S. R., & Pitsis, A. (2010). Violence and
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Theory & Praxis, 32(1), 96-115.

9VIOLENCE AND WORKPLACE BULLYING
Valmohammadi, C., & Roshanzamir, S. (2015). The guidelines of improvement: Relations
among organizational culture, TQM and performance. International Journal of
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Vinnari, M., Vinnari, E., & Kupsala, S. (2017). Sustainability Matrix: Interest Groups and
Ethical Theories as the Basis of Decision-Making. Journal of Agricultural and
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Xu, T., Magnusson Hanson, L. L., Lange, T., Starkopf, L., Westerlund, H., Madsen, I. E., ... &
Hansen, Å. M. (2018). Workplace bullying and workplace violence as risk factors for
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