2. What is Workplace bullying?
“Never be bullied into silence.Never allow yourself to be made a
victim.Accept No one’s defination of your Life,but define yourself”
-Harvey S.Firestone
Persistent,Offensive,Abusive,Intimiating or Insulting
Behavior,Abuse of power or unfair penal sanction one
delebrately or unconsciously,which makes the victim feel
upset,threatened ,humiliated or vulnerable,which undermines
their self confidence and which may cause them to suffer
stress.
3. Examples of Bullying :
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Workplace bullying can be any of the following:
Shouting at someone - whether in private, in front of colleagues, or in front of
other people
Name-calling
Belittling and making someone feel unimportant
Being treated with disrespect
Excessive monitoring
Constant nitpicking/criticising/flying off the handle especially over trivial or minor
matters or mistakes
Making someone feel bad and ashamed
Deliberately overloading someone with work
Undermining someone such as setting them up to fail
Purposefully withholding information which is needed for the person to do their
job efficiently
Excluding someone from normal workplace/staffroom conversations and making
someone feel unwelcome (this also includes cliques)
4. Harassment & Bullying
Should not be confused !
Harassment
Workplace Bullying
• Target is focused on the
basis of who they are
(female, Black, disabled,
etc,)
Almost exclusively psychological
• May consist of a single
incident of multiple ones
The treatment is usually based
on the target’s competence or
popularity
• The target suspects why
he/she is being targeted
• * Is a legally recognized
term in Federal EEO law
Anyone will do if they are in
secured.
The behavior is driven by control
and subjugation
5. Three Types of Organizational Justice
• Organizational Justice refers to people’s perception of
fairness in organizations, consisting of perceptions of
how decisions are made regarding the distribution of
outcomes & the perceived fairness of those outcomes.
• Distributive Justice ; Perceived fairness of outcome.
• Procedural Justice ; Perceived fairness of process used
to determine outcome.
• Interactional Justice ; Perceived degree to which one is
treated with dignity and respect.
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Distributive justice: The perceived fairness of the way rewards are distributed among people
Procedural justice: Perceived fairness of the procedures used to determine outcomes
Interact ional justice: Perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment received from others
6. Q1: Workplace bulling demonstrates lack of which one
of the three types of organizational justice ?
• Out of 3 types of organizational justice, bulling most closely
resembles LACK OF INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE.
• In this case Madhu was not treated with dignity and respect.
• “Colleagues looked at her with irritation and scorn whenever
she tried to interact and she was ostracized by the group as a
snob”.
• Bulling is done not only by colleagues but it can also come the
boss as well.As in this case Madhu’s boss humiliates her in a
staff meeting saying that she should not think too much of
herself.
7. Q2:What aspects of motivation might workplace bulling reduce?For
example,are they likely to be effects on an employee’s self – efficacy?
If so,what might those effects be?
• Workplace bullying may reduce an employee’s
esteem, safety and security, and self actualization
according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
• Workplace bullying can also affect one’s self
efficacy.
• An employee with low self efficacy, when bullied,
can experience a decline in their already low self
efficacy which may decrease his/her need for
achievement, need for power, and need for
affiliation based on McClelland’s theory of needs.
• There are not too many people, which if they are
being bullied would want to achieve a new
position, attain power, or even want to belong to
such a company where other employee’s are
bullies.
8. Q3: If you were a victim of workplace bullying, what steps would you
take to try to reduce its occurrence? What strategies would be most
effective? What strategies might be ineffective? What would you do if
one of your colleagues was a victim of an abusive supervisor?
• If I were a victim of workplace bullying, I would first approach my
bully and inform him/her of the inappropriate behavior.
• If the behavior continued and the bully was not management, then
I would go to management and let them know there is a problem.
• If the bully was a part of management, I would seek help from the
special groups in most companies that are dedicated to unfair
behavior within the company.
• If the company had no such group, I would do the opposite of what
the bully expects my reaction to be. I think going to the special
group would be effective, but if there is no such group then going to
management would be the next best thing.
9. Contd.
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Retaliation and confrontation would not be effective
strategies. There would be nothing worse than having
workplace bullying turn into workplace violence.
• If a colleague is a victim of workplace bullying:
• Would first see the authority level.
• Understand what level of hierarchy the victim is
currently on & understand the problem.
• Motivate the victim.
• Mentor him/her to come out from the situation.
• Try to take necessary steps against bullying.
10. Q4: What factors do you believe contribute to workplace bullying? Are bullies
a product of the situation, or are they flawed personalities? What situations
and what personality factors might contribute to the presence of bullies?
• Factors contributing to workplace bullies :
• Insecurity, lack of confidence, and low self
esteem are a few factors that could contribute to
workplace bullying.
• To boost bully’s self satisfaction.
• A person who seems to be different/intelligent ,is
made a target(as Madhu was good in
english,often voiced interesting ideas she was
targeted by those who were jealous of her)
• People may get bullied because they are seen as
a threat.
11. Bullies Personified
• The environment they were brought up,
in-feelings of insecurity, influence of
parents.
• Superficial charm with insincerity-ego maniacal, is
manipulative.
• An employee with low confidence, low self esteem
may find an outlet to deal with this issues by bullying
others.
• Negative and stressful work environment.
-So bullies are both products of situation and flawed
personalities.
12. Conclusion
37% employees reported being victims by bullying
boss,40% of the bullies are women , 70% of women are
the targets most of the times.
• Bullying is not limited to schools and collages.
• Individuals who put extra effort are the main targets.
• There have been incidents where workers even
resorted to suicide to end their misery.
• There is no such law against bullying in India.
• So I is up to the Organization to check thee bullies.
• Example : Anti-Bully Acts
