Introduction
Bullying is a major issue in the school system. This has been going on for centuries but has worsened with the advancement of technology and students are now able to bully each other even after school hours through channels such as social media. This issue has gained worldwide attention since bullying is reported to be responsible for a very large percentage of suicide cases in teens (Carr, & Beresford, 2012). It also affects the children’s academic performance, therefore raising an alarm even with the teachers. Students who are constantly bullied either through verbal confrontation, threats, physical confrontation such as being beaten up and having their property vandalized and also being cyber bullied.
Cyber bullying was reported to be responsible for at least 5 deaths last year in the United States. This effect has led schools to develop a zero tolerance for bullying and the administrators at the schools are very strict on any bullies caught. Strict rules have been drafted and implemented to minimize cases of bullying. Measures taken against bullies are set to be very strict and this discourages people from bullying the rest of the students. Consequences for bullying are very dire (Barnes, & Rowe, 2007). Students who are being bullied are provided with channels to report bullying confidentially without risk of being exposed to more bullying. The victims of bullying will be provided with counseling services to help them cope.
The work place has acknowledged that this issue is of major concern and it is taking steps to ensure that all members in the workplace live peacefully and with tranquility. The organization has come up with objectives and resolutions on how to tackle this issue. The main objective for the institutions is to completely eradicate bullying in the school system. This would ensure that zero bullying cases can be found in the institutions and in all the schools. Another objective is if a case of bullying was to arise; the institution will have already set up a procedure for which this can be dealt with. To set up a tribunal to hear and determine the case and also to have rules on how the perpetrator will be dealt with and how the victim can be helped recover from the trauma of being bullied (Barnes, & Rowe, 2007).
A resolution in the workplace to deal with bullying would involve the creation and implementation of awareness programs .These programs would then be used to measure the results of the awareness in reducing cases and eradication of bullying in schools. The greatest factor that would lead to the eradication of bullying in the workplace would be a creation of a culture in the institution that celebrates diversity since most cases of bullying are usually as a result of differences in the members of the institution with a particular group feeling more superior than the other and this then leads to bullying of the supposed inferior group (History of Bullying, 2016). Also by emphasizing equality in the institution and a spirit of family, such that everyone looks out for the others. Forums to teach on the importance of having self esteem should also be put in place as low self esteem is one of the main reason that most people fall prey to being victimized because they cannot stand up for themselves and enforce their strength to bullies. Bullies prey on weakness and by showing strong self love and acceptance is one of the ways of warding off bullies.
The organization needs to strategize and delegate roles to its various arms so as to help solve the issue in the workplace. The human resource department will be in charge of creating and implementing programs that have been put in place to check for cases of bullying and develop strategies for how to deal with cases of bullying.
The human resource department is also in charge of hearing cases on bullying. The heads of the institutions will also be expected to demonstrate that bullying will not be demonstrated in the institutions. They will also place penalties and impose sanctions on those who are found guilty of bullying by the human resource department. The heads of the departments are also expected to be very vigilant in identifying and monitoring cases of bullying. They should monitor emails, memoranda’s and other documents spread in the institution to ensure they do not contain any bullying (Dickson, 2005).The greatest resource that the institution should take advantage of is time. The HR department should have enough time to review and tweak its recruitment policies so as to ensure potential bullies are identified early and it should also create programs to handle bullying. The organization could also make use of the available resources for institutes to combat this issue. One such resource is the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) that has its headquarters in Bellingham, Washington. It has mentorship and coaching programs geared towards eradicating bullying in institutions through seminars (History of Bullying, 2016).
There are various steps to resolutions such as a culture that respects diversity and frowns upon bullying; this can be accomplished by reviewing recruitment policies in the workplace. The orientations and training programs in the company should also be reviewed to ensure there are no concepts that may advocate for bullying in the workplace. They should also put in place mechanisms for document thing cases of bullying and enforcing sanctions to the perpetrators’. The programs on bullying awareness should also be integrated into other institutional programs (Dickson, 2005). These steps in the resolution must be followed up with an assessment program.
A metric should be put in place to check whether the objectives are met and whether the resolutions have a positive impact on reducing bullying. This assessment will determine if more resolutions need to be made. Apart from this, one may be required to evaluate and measure whether the plans and programs are successful and if it is impacting the organization positively in terms of productivity. It will also help assess if the reduction in bullying has increased the revenues for the organization. It will also assess if the employee turnover has decreased. This metric will be the best way to determine if the issue has been resolved.
References
Dickson, D. (2005). Bullying in the Workplace. Anesthesia.
Carr, S., & Beresford, P. (2012). Social care, service users and user involvement. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Barnes, M., & Rowe, J. (2007). Child, youth, and family health: Strengthening communities. Sydney: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier.
History of Bullying. (2016). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from workplace bullying: http://www.workplacebullying.org/history-of-wbi/
