Summary of Workplace Bullying - Is the Lack of Understanding the Reason for Inaction?

SUMMARY OF WORKPLACE BULLYING:

IS THE LACK OF UNDERSTANDING THE REASON FOR INACTION?

Prepared for

Professor Essaian

Prepared by

Janine Loera

September 8, 2016

“At what point is the line crossed between a series of humorous work pranks and workplace bullying?” (Branch & Murray, 2015, p. 287). The real question is what is workplace bullying?  This question is interesting is because not many individuals know what workplace bullying is.  In this article we will see how many managers and employers know little of workplace bullying and how some are affected by it and do not even know it.  The hypothesis being tested here is that many individuals at a workplace do not know what workplace bullying is.  When non-target individuals and targeted individuals were surveyed, the data showed evidence that non-targeted individuals did not clearly understand what workplace bullying is.  Targeted individuals showed a high rate of bullying classification. 1,014 American employees were surveyed. The results from the survey were significant when it came to targeted victims.  Non-targeted victims (team members) had less significant results.  For example, non-targeted victims felt that they had their opinions ignored 21.9% of the time.  Targeted victims (team members) felt that they had their opinions ignored 84.6% of the time; that is nearly four times more than the non-targeted victims.  Australian workers were also surveyed and had many similarities to the Americans that were surveyed.  

The article starts by talking about a man named Simon Dempsey.  Simon Dempsey was being bullied by a colleague, David Thorne.  Dempsey filed ten complaints in 6 months against Thorne and they were all ignored by human resources.  Were all these alleged complaints considered bullying? Many individuals believed that bullying could not happen in workplaces.  The second target of bullying the article discusses was, Jonathan Martin.  Martin played for the Miami dolphins and was mentally and physically bullied by many of his teammates.  The bullying got to a point were martin required psychiatric assistance and was prescribed anti-depressants.  “Research released in 2014 estimates that approximately 27 percent of the U.S. workforce has been (20 percent) or are being (7 percent) subjected to workplace bullying.”  (Branch & Murray, 2015, p. 288).  27 percent of the workplace is being bullied and no action was being taken to prevent it.  There are many long and short term affects when it comes to workplace bullying.  Some examples would be panic attacks, reduction in self-esteem, PTSD, and suicide.  Individuals being bullied can have a negative effect on the organization.  Organizations can lose a significant amount of money for each individual bullied.  The article questions management and if they are taking the correct actions to prevent bullying.  “Some perceive that managers fail to act because they just want to “sweep the issue under the carpet” and make it go away” (Branch & Murray, 2015, p. 291).  Many managers have not experienced bullying themselves.  For these managers it is hard to understand what bullying is, because they are not the target.  The article explains how having experience in bullying and being the victim gives manager a better perspective.  Some possible interventions were mentioned in the article in order to prevent the bullying from happening or how to stop it if it has already begun.