Bshs 435 - Statistical Analysis

Statistical Analysis

Meagan Stanley

BSHS/435

May 30, 2016

Dr. A.N. Session

Statistical Analysis

Individuals working in the field of human services are focused on the experiences of the people they work to assist. This makes qualitative research an important part of their job. This method of research provides human service professionals with knowledge and understanding of the problems and situations their clients face. Qualitative research helps professionals find the most effective way to assist those in need of assistance. Research is utilized to help professionals gain knowledge about difficult and sensitive situations, such as bullying in the workplace. Many problems seen in the field of human services are based in the area of mental health problems. Qualitative research is beneficial in assisting human service professionals to find assistance for individuals with these problems (Rubin, 2014). This paper will review an article discussing workplace bullying of social workers, and coping responses.

Article

The article I chose was, “Social Workers and Workplace Bullying: Perceptions, Responses, and Implications”. This article is a cross-sectional, non-experimental case study of how social worker’s see workplace bullying. The article speaks about the ability of professionals to create coping techniques in response to bullying in the workplace. To gather qualitative information, researchers used a mail questionnaire, along with semi-structured individual interview assessments. The researchers used a qualitative sample composed of 111 social workers from Washington D.C., the sample included both male and female individuals. The final outcome of the study showed three to five social workers reporting that he or she had encountered unpleasant, rude or unfavorable interaction within the workplace within a year (Mendez & Whitaker, 2012). The study also showed that the majority of the workplace bullying targets worked in government organizations or military and mental health outpatient organizations. The sample group was composed of individuals holding different roles in the field of human services. 35 percent of the targets of bullying worked in direct service delivery, 29 percent worked in management or administration. The outcome of the study provided confirmation that human service organizations need guidelines that will help them discover, confront and end actions of bullying in the workplace (Mendez & Whitaker, 2012).

The authors of the article incorporated descriptive statistics and tables to help readers understand the data collected in the study. There are five table illustrations within the article, demographic characteristics of the targets, organizational settings and roles, most troubling bullying behaviors, characteristics of bullies and a classification of responses. In table one, the researchers displayed the characteristics of the sample group, including age and gender. Table two showed the different work positions the sample group included such as supervisors, subordinates, clients, and colleagues. Table two displayed that women were identified as bullies in the workplace more the twice as often as men. In the third table readers are able to understand the most troubling bullying behaviors. The tables displayed behaviors such as verbally and covertly hostile actions are the most troubling behaviors seen in workplace bullying. Additional behaviors shown include disrespectful treatment and work that is de-valued by others. The fourth table displayed that most bullying characteristics were either passive or assertive. This table showed that majority of individuals displayed assertive bullying characteristics. The final table gave a classification of responses to a coping scale. The table gave an explanation of coping strategies and responses. The questionnaire contained several questions, the researchers assigned values to the responses given. The more passive responses were lower value, and the most assertive responses were assigned the highest values. The targets of bullying used a range of coping strategies. The most commonly utilized strategy was to speak with someone they trusted about the bullying issue, 93 percent of the sample group used this technique. Another common strategy used by the group was to confront the bully, 66 percent said they confronted the bully more than once. However, the study showed only 17 percent of individuals made a formal complaint about the bullying problem (Mendez & Whitaker, 2012).