Bullying: From the Playground to the Boardroom

Abstract

Bullying in organizations has become one the prime social phenomena which can have a direct as well as indirect impact on the productivity of employees and managers. While bullying is a part of the fabric of society, the rate of occurrence as well as the severity of bullying acts in the workplace is alarming. This paper puts forth a model that illustrates the triangular relationship and interaction between the three components in the bullying event: 1) the organizational environment and its impact on the occurrence of bullying activities; 2) the characteristics of those that bully; and 3) the characteristics of those being bullied (e.g., victims of bullying). These three interrelated issues form the triangle of bullying that is examined in this paper. This paper posits that a major source of many of the personnel relational problems faced in the workplace between coworker and coworker or manager and employees comes from bullies, just like the ones experienced on the childhood playground. Research shows that child bullies and those bullied as children have the potential to become adult bullies. Combine that with the complex, diverse, global business arena that creates high levels of stress, it is easy to understand why there is the possibility of boardroom/workplace bullies. "Bullying at work is claimed to be more crippling and devastating problem for employees than all other work related stress put together... " (Einarsen, 1999).

Bullying in the Australian ICT workplace: the views of Australian ICT professionals

“…The second form of bullying identified by Harvey et al (2006), threats to personal standing by insulting or teasing the victim was also mentioned by several interviewees. An example with sending inappropriate emails or text messages, described by Interviewee 24 is related to this: "So a guy was fired for a text that was commenting on a girl or something like that.…”

“…The definition provided here is a generic one so that it can encompass a range of bullying situations and contexts. For example, Harvey et al (2006) identified five groups of behaviours related to workplace bullying. These behaviours are related to isolation by preventing access to opportunities or withholding important information, threats to personal standing by insulting or teasing the victim overwork through an increase of workload to targeted individuals, as well as reminding the victim of their failures, and humiliating them in public which can damage their professional status.…”

“…Definitions of bullying discussed here (Saunders et al, 2007) and the specific forms that bullying takes identified by Harvey et al (2006) will be further compared with the findings from the qualitative component of this study. This will shed more light into the forms that bullying behaviour takes in the Australian ICT workplace.…”

“…These are compared with five groups of bullying behaviours identified by Harvey et al (2006). First, interviewees reported that bullying behaviour in the ICT workplace does include isolation of a victim through preventing their access to opportunities.…”

“…It reduces employee's productivity, motivation and wellbeing (Cowie, Jennifer, Neto, Angula, Pereira, Del Barrio, & Ananiadou, 2000) and affects the overall work environment and organisational climate (Kelloway, Bryant, Buttigieg, & Hanley, 2009;Harvey, Heames, Richey, & Leonard, 2006). Overall, the outcomes are negative for both, employers and employees.…”