million managers and professionals voluntarily leave their Jobs every year due solely to workplace unfairness, including bullying (Query & Hanley, 2010). These fgures do not include the millions of workers who suffer from the effects of bullying and harassment who do not speak out in fear of their Jobs. These issues are also becoming a legitimate liability concern to organisations as many cases of workplace bullying and discrimination lawsuits becoming more frequent.For example, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld a $325,000 USD claim against a cardiovascular urgeon accused of being a workplace bully (Query & Hanley, 2010).
Diversity throughout a workplace opens avenues for workers to make discrimination claims based on sex, gender and race. Gender discrimination claims are increasing due to women feeling more intimidated and having power inequities (Query & Hanley, 2010). Other costs associated with workplace bullying and harassment include stress leave, low productivity from workers, workplace absenteeism, high staff turnover and decreased levels of commitment (CIPD, 2006).There are a number of processes that anagement must take to mitigate the damage of bullying and harassment in the workplace and to ensure that the work environment is productive and healthy.
The main focus of the organisation is to develop a successful and well developed anti- bullying and harassment policy. This can be done by undertaking a step-by-step process. Firstly everyone must be on board with the process. This includes directors, management, personnel, staff, trade unions etc. The commitment has to ultimately come from the top of the organisation' (Pate ; Beaumont, 2009).Staff can be asked or their views on bullying and harassment with an attitude survey.
This attitude survey must be anonymous as staff completing it will feel more comfortable giving their views without potential leaking of their opinions to others, which could lead to increased bullying (Pate ; Beaumont, 2009). The survey will consist of questions that focus on workers intrinsic feelings towards their work and co-workers and, in particular, whether they have been a victim of bullying and harassment or even if they are a bully themselves.These results give better scope to management on hether particular types of staff, based on the diversity of their workplace (sex, race, age etc. ) are more inclined to be bullied then others or is there particular individuals who seem to bully and harass others on a regular basis. Finally, the organisation can provide ongoing training for all staff covering bullying and harassment, such as bullying awareness, and how to deal with those issues such as building confidence and interpersonal skills.
Many organisations, based on personal experience, are incorporating this sort of training into their Employee Assistance Program.Councillors are readily available to all employees to speak to about these issues and is strictly confidential. If a staff member is alleged to have engaged in bullying behaviour, they should be allowed to give their version of events. If they admit to bullying, they should be asked on what support they may need to improve their behaviour.
Anger management, counselling or stress management training are avenues which could be taken. Depending on the extremity of the bullying or harassment and repeat offenders, termination may be the only option.It is important that the organisation can keep igures on how much bullying and harassment is costing the organisation. Keeping fgures on staff turnover, productivity, workers morale and customer service can be used to convince senior management that it is indeed a serious issue (Query ; Hanley, 2010). In conclusion, bullying and harassment has an underlying influence on an organisation.
This behaviour can cripple the operations of staff by greatly affecting their ability to perform their work. It can emotionally scar workers, leaving them with no confidence and no motivation to strive for better outcomes.
