Ethical Challenges in Workplace Bullying and Harassment: Creating Ethical Awareness and Sensitivity

Caring for those in your charge: the role of servant leadership and compassion in managing bullying in the workplace

“…Workplace bullying is usually approached as negative unethical behaviour (LaVan and Martin, 2021), in line with behavioural business ethics (Stansbury and Sonenshein, 2012). Taking a contrarian stand reflecting normative business ethics (Stansbury and Sonenshein, 2012), we advance Stansbury and Sonenshein’s (2012) PBE as a useful way to approach workplace bullying.…”

“…Servant leadership, therefore, subsumes ethical leadership but goes further with its focus on followers. That is, whereas ethical leadership emphasises normative behaviour embodying propriety, fairness and care, servant leadership includes but surpasses this with its developmental focus (LaVan and Martin, 2021; van Dierendonck, 2011), such that it endorses higher levels of morality in the workplace through relational dignity (Sayer, 2011; Sendjaya et al , 2019). This person-oriented, relational and service focus makes organisations safe workplaces where employees are respected, valued, developed and empowered (van Dierendonck, 2011).…”

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of servant leadership given that its underlying philosophy as well as practice emphasise the primacy of serving followers and helping them to cope with difficult situations (Lee et al , 2020). Servant leaders not only embody virtue ethics, espousing beneficience and non-maleficience through deontological and teleological ethical approaches (LaVan and Martin, 2021), but also emphasise relational dignity, so vital to pre-empt bullying (D’Cruz et al , 2021a). In workplace settings, leaders act as credible role models for acceptable behaviour (Ahmad, 2018; Brown et al , 2005).…”

“…Workplace bullying is an ongoing or repeated misuse of power in relationships (LaVan and Martin, 2021), unfolding via human interaction (D’Cruz and Noronha, 2021), which violates relational dignity (D’Cruz et al , 2021a) and hampers sustainable workforce management (Anlesinya and Susomrith, 2020). Workplace bullying is a widely prevalent behavioural issue which affects millions of workers around the world on a daily basis (Nielsen and Einarsen, 2018).…”

The Experience of Clinical Nurses after Korea’s Enactment of Workplace Anti-Bullying Legislation: A Phenomenological Study

“…According to a global nurse study, nurses are at high risk of exposure to workplace bullying in the nursing profession, and workplace bullying harms the nursing environment and work in the same context as this study [ 4 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. In addition, as also could be seen from the results of this study, it was reported that the improvement of the working environment for workplace bullying by nurses had a positive effect on the safety of patients and nurses [ 4 , 33 , 34 ]. Therefore, it can be seen that the change in nursing group culture and improvement of the working environment under the Workplace Bullying Prevention Act can lead to more positive outcomes, including patient safety.…”