THE UNTAMED BEAST :Workplace bullying

In a number of organisations bullying seems to be tolerated or goes unpunished in some instances, a question then arises as to whether employees in an organisation know what bullying is and its adverse effects on individuals and the organisation as whole. Firstly i am going to try and give a definition of what work. According to a Healthline publication , harmful, targeted behavior that occurs at work is known as workplace bullying. It could be frightening, sarcastic, offensive, or mocking. There is a pattern to it, and it usually targets one or a small group of people. Bullying may include but is not limited to:

• Persistent or egregious use of abusive, insulting, or offensive language
• Aggressive yelling or shouting
• Unwarranted physical contact or threatening gestures
• Making repeated negative comments about a person’s appearance, lifestyle, family, or culture
• Regularly inappropriately teasing or making someone the brunt of pranks or practical jokes
• Circulating inappropriate or embarrassing photos or videos via email or social media

Now that we have established what workplace bullying is we can now try and show how it affects both the organisation and the individual.For starters workplace bullying leads to lowered performance this also leads to the organisations failing to realise the goals it would have set. This will not be conducive for the organisation as it means poor performance translates to the organisation making losses.

Bullying might also lead to a high turnover rate and this affects the corporate image of the organisation as no one would like to be associated with such. In an age were competitive advantage is won by getting the best human capital to be in your organisation and tolerating or not putting control measures to curb workplace bullying.

Most organisations that are doing well are built on good citizen behavior from employees. Good citizen behavior entails trust, loyalty and maximum effort from employees. If employees perceive that your organisation does not value their well being they are most likely going to not offer good citizen behavior and this will put a dent in the growth of an organisation.

Workplace bullying also aides to increased suicidal thoughts and this not good to the employee as they start to doubt they capabilities and this in turn translates to lowered or poor performance from the individual and this also affects the organisation as well.

Now that we established what workplace bullying is and how it affects the organisation and the employees now we turn our focus on how best bullying in the workplace can be curbed.

Culture is of significance when coming with ways on how best to curb bullying as it sets the tone for acceptable behavior within the workplace. The onus of establishing a culture that does not support workplace bullying is on the management as they have influence on the culture to be adopted.

Both employees and management are responsible in modelling the acceptable behavior in the workplace. What those in control do has a significant impact on the culture of the organisation therefore they are called to emulate a behavior that is good.

Another useful tool to be used can be the adoption of a workplace bullying policy. The policy should speak as a guiding tool which seeks to highlight the best acceptable behavior in an organisation and should be used as a preventative measure so that bullying can not be condoned in the workplace.

Having procedures and policies in place to stop bullying can benefit both the organisation and the employee in an age were the health of the employee is important.