Introduction
Bullying at is a substantially prevalent dynamic in the workplace. Statistics indicate that fourteen percent of U.K employees have at one time experienced bullying at work either as the victims or witnesses of the abuse. Bullying at work refers to a tendency by some seniors in the workplace to extend persistent and unreasonable aggressive behavior to their subordinates. Workplace bullies employ different tactics; they use verbal tactic, in which they continuously criticize their juniors; they may also use nonverbal techniques where they behave in a way to belittle their subordinates. Other techniques used by workplace bullies include: Physical abuse, psychological abuse and humiliation. The persistence of workplace bullying makes it a significant issue worth looking at in addressing common challenges that employees face. Large organizations usually have explicit policies to address employee challenges, and as such bullying is less common in large organizations. Small and medium sized enterprises are the worst affected by bulling at work, this provides the basis for my hypothesis; which is: Small companies are prone to bullying rather than large companies. This is due to lack of profound procedures by small organizations to enforce policies addressing common challenges to employees in the workplace, most of these small firms are owned by individuals who consequently have the prerogative to run them as they wish. To further delve into this issue I will answer two sub questions and one main question. The two sub questions I will focus on are: What within an organization is likely to facilitate reduction in the level of bullying at the work place? And what prevents workplace bullying being reduced in a small scale organization. The main question for this paper is; what are the detriments of bullying at work in both small and large organizations. I will use Secondary data in analyzing the hypothesis for the research and answering the research questions.
Non academic review
Dusen (2008) observes that bullying is very rampant in organizations; however, many employees may fail to recognize it at its incidence. Bullying may present itself in an organization in ways that some employees may consider as normal behaviors. For example, the writer notes that bullying may not portray itself as an express act; some phenomenon such as persistent sickness at the start of every workweek is a symptom that an employee may be experiencing bullying at work. A behavior such as seniors making belittling comments about juniors during meeting also is an indicator of bullying at work. Bullying may also present itself in the simplest acts at the workplace, for example, when an employee is excluded from a usual lunch group may be a sign of workplace bullying. Such tendencies usually impact highly on the morale of workers and lead to low productivity. The writer observes that such acts may persist in any organization regardless of the size, however, he notes small and medium sized organizations are the worst hit by workplace bullying.
According to Martin (2012), there are common tendencies at the place that are signs of bullying; relentless criticism of an employee at the workplace suggests that there is bullying in the workplace. Some other behaviors that the writer observes as tentative to bullying include shouting to employees, calling them names and swearing at them. This tendency is exceptionally common in small organizations whereby employees are always in close proximity to their managers. Another bullying tactic is ostracism which is cold and silent treatment and may go unrealized as bullying at the workplace. Bullies at the workplace always have unlimited unrealistic demands from employees and usually give no credit to employees for work done well. They may also use unwarranted reprimands, false allegations and threats, all these behaviors are tentative to bullying in the workplace. The author notes that such tendencies are most prominent in small rather than large organization; he also notes that bullying can also extend to physical acts from bullies such as pushing and hitting. He, however, provides some insights on reduction of bullying in organizations; victims can counter behavior of bullies by exposing the bullies openly, they should also validate the target by portraying excellent performance at work; this is because bullies will usually ostracize their remarks as empty bickering; they should counter this by portraying good performance, loyalty and honesty to win support from employees and the senior staff. They should explain bullying as unfair and explain why counter explanations from the bullies are wrong. The writer also observes that employees can fight bullying by refusing intimidations and exposing bullying behaviors such as bribery.
Bical (2012) observes that bullying is exceptionally inherent in small organizations in comparison to large organizations. He notes that the main reason for this is presence of explicit policies governing behavior at work in large organizations as opposed to small ones. He notes that bullying presents itself in organizations mainly as manipulative behaviors, for example, trying to make others feel guilty, passive-aggressive behavior or malicious gossip about other employees. Threatening employees, yelling at them and physical intimidation to them also amounts to bullying. He provides recommendations on reduction of bullying at the workplace, which include formulation of anti-bullying policies, stringent measures on the policy implementation to ensure that the policy becomes part of the organization, managing people behavior in the organization to ensure that bullying stays at bay. For example, managing smooth proceedings during meetings; managers should not side with a party in agreement but they should be objective to derive the best solutions to disagreements in the organization. They should also help staff come up with better ways of handling their issues and cultivate a culture of respect and amicability in an organization. Richard (2011), provides some of the statutes in the U.K that are against bullying at work such as anti-discrimination laws, occupational safety and health laws, whistleblower protections, and the healthy workplace bill. These statutes are meant to govern behavior in United Kingdom organizations and reduce the level of bullying organizations and especially in the small and medium sized organizations where bullying is most rampant.
Snowdown (2010), Provides advice on the measures to take when an employee realizes that he or she is being bullied at work, the bullying should be reported to the relevant authorities, the employee should not behave in a way that may place him or her at a disadvantage for example resigning without following the due procedure. The last article explains stress catalysts at the workplace, with bullying on the centre stage. The article postulates that bullying at work is a significant disincentive to the morale of employees and results in less than average performance from the employees. The relevant measures should, therefore, be implemented to address bullying at work and ensure that the workforce is performing as expected to enable an organization to achieve its goals.
Sub question 1: What within a large organization can lead to reduction of workplace bullying?
The non academic sources have a common stand point that bullying is less prevalent in large organizations as compared to small organizations. This is due to implementation of policies that create a positive interaction and a healthy organizational culture at the workplace. Bical (2012) provides some of the relevant actions which when taken can reduce bullying at the large scale organizations. First of all, the organization should formulate anti-bullying polices which should clearly define what is bullying within its working premises. Secondly, there should be strict implementation of the designed policies to ensure that they are fully absorbed into the organization. Thirdly, managers should posses the relevant people management skills to ensure that there is no bullying within an organization, for example, there should be relevant procedures during meetings to ensure that some individuals do not target or dominate others. Managers should be experts in conflict resolutions within the organization, they should not side with parties in conflict but should be objective in order to come up with the best way forward and reduce bullying at the workplace. The managers at the workplace should also help employees in the organization come up with better methods of conflict resolution to reduce bullying within an organization, Bical (2012).
Answering this question is imperative to addressing the topic of bullying at work, it provides insights to the reader on how bullying can be reduced in large organizations; most employees work in large organizations and answering this question will be highly helpful for them.
Sub question 2: What prevents workplace bullying being reduced in small scale organizations?
The non academic articles reviewed have a common argument that workplace bullying is more profound in small scale organizations as compared to large scale organizations. The main reasons for this is because many small scale organizations lack explicit policies of people management, this is due to the assumption that because the human resources are not too many, they are manageable without written down policy document of people management, however, the opposite usually happens. The second reason why it is difficult to reduce workplace bullying in small scale organizations is because such organizations are usually owned by one or few individuals hence they run them as they want. It is substantially difficult for employees in such organizations to stop the bullying because they may end up being fired; it is, therefore, difficult to reduce workplace bullying in small organizations.
This question is highly relevant to this paper because it helps the reader understand the reason of prevalence of workplace bullying in small organizations and how the trend could be reversed.
The main question for the paper is: what are detriments of bullying at work in both small scale and large scale organizations?
Workplace bullying is a significant disincentive to employee morale in the workplace; it highly reduces the efficiency of workers and derails achievement of organizational goals. Answering this question is essential for this research as it will provide a purpose for the research work.
Academic review
Bullying at work may culminate into violence in the workplace which may bring operations in an organization to a standstill, Cary, Fisher, & Bowie (2011, pp 159). An organization without an explicit policy framework to govern its employee’s relationships may suffer a big blow from this Helge, Einarsen, Zapf & Cooper (2010, pp 229); small organizations in the UK usually suffer from workplace violence, Charlotte, Hoel & Carry (2002, pp 137). There are various forms of bullying at work which bullies use; they include verbal and non verbal techniques Oade, (2010, 59) all in all bullying results into low level of performance and all organizations should strive to avoid all forms of bullying at the workplace, Einarsen (2008, 16-27). Once incidences of bullying are noted in an organization, an organization’s management should move in swiftly to resolve the occurrence because allowing it to continue may cost the organization a lot in the future. Hubert & Veldhoven, (2001, 415-424), note that small businesses are more prone to bullying at work as compared to large organization.
Overall justification of questions
The three research questions for this project: What within a large organization can lead to reduction of workplace bullying? What prevents workplace bullying being reduced in small scale organizations? And what are detriments of bullying at work in both small scale and large scale organizations? are enough to fully explore the topic of bullying at work. Compressive evaluation of the question will provide extensive information about bullying at work to the reader and a more in-depth understanding of what bullying at the workplace is all about.
Conclusion
Bullying at workplace is a common occurrence in the UK even though many workers know little about it; there are many types of bullying which range from verbal to no-verbal. All types of bullying lead to a reduced organizational performance and as such organizations should be committed to eliminate all types of bullying from the workplace. It is also evident from the reviewed literature that bullying at work persists more in small organizations in comparison to large organizations.
References
Non academic references
Bacal, R. Bullying and manipulation at work, DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Benjamin, T. (2011). How to identify workplace bullying. Houston Chronicle, DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Dusen, V.A. (2008). Ten signs that you’re being bullied at work. Forbes magazine, DOI: http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/22/health-bullying-office-forbeslife-cx_avd_0324health.html. Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Martin, B. Tactics against bullying at work, DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Richards, F. (2011). Example of a workplace bullying statute, Houston chronicle DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Snowdown, G. (2010). How to deal with bullying at work, DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Workplace bullying, stress, employment and you, DOI: . Retrieved on 22nd November 2012
Academic references
Cary, C., Fisher, S.B. & Bowie, V. (2011). Workplace violence. UK: Willan, 159
Charlotte, R.R., Hoel, H. & Carry, C.L. (2002). Workplace bullying: What we know, who is to blame and what can we do? UK: Taylor & Francis group, 137
Einarsen, S. (2008). The nature and causes of bullying at work, International Journal of Manpower, 20(1/2): 16-27.
Einarsen, S. (2000). Harassment and bullying at work: A review of the Scandinavian approach. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal, 5, 371-401.
Helge, H., Einarsen, S., Zapf, D. & Cooper, C. (2010) Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Developments in theory, research and practice. USA: CRC Press, 229
Hubert, A.B., & Veldhoven, M.J.P.M. van (2001). Risk sectors for undesirable behavior and mobbing. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 10(4), 415-424.
Oade, A. (2010). Managing workplace bullying: How to identify, respond to and manage bullying behavior in the workplace. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 59
