Workplace bullying
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Workplace bullying, like childhood bullying, is the tendency of individuals or groups to use aggressive or unreasonable behavior to achieve their ends. Unlike the more physical form of schoolyard bullying, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society.
Gary and Ruth Namie define workplace bullying as "the repeated mistreatment of one employee targeted by one or more employees with a malicious mix of humiliation, intimidation and sabotage of performance.".<ref name=namiedef>Namie, Gary and Ruth Workplace Bullying Institute Brochure</ref>
Workplace bullying is also referred to as mobbing, although mobbing can also mean any bullying by more than one person.
Contents |
[edit] Statistics
Statistics<ref name=bbdef>Bully Busters Workplace Bullying Defined </ref> show that one in six experiences bullying at work. In terms of gender, more than half of all bullies are female (58%), with the vast majority of bullying targets also being women (80%).
[edit] Health effects of bullying
According to Gary and Ruth Namie, workplace bullying can harm the health of the victims <ref name=namiehealth>Namie, Gary and Ruth The WBI 2003 Report on Abusive Workplaces</ref>. The most common conditions being stress related, but they do also see some evidence of the exacerbation of physical conditions such as high blood pressure.
[edit] Psychopathy and Workplace Bullying
Robert Hare and Paul Babiak discuss psychopathy and workplace bullying thus<ref name=snakes>Hare, Robert and Babiak, Paul, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work Harper Collins, 2006</ref>:-
- “Bullies react aggressively in response to provocation or perceived insults or slights. It is unclear whether their acts of bullying give them pleasure or are just the most effective way they have learned to get what they want from others. Similar to manipulators, however, psychopathic bullies do not feel remorse, guilt or empathy. They lack insight into their own behaviour, and seem unwilling or unable to moderate it, even when it is to their own advantage. Not being able to understand the harm they do to themselves (let alone their victims), psychopathic bullies are particularly dangerous.”
- “Of course, not all bullies are psychopathic, though this may be of little concern to their victims. Bullies come in many psychological and physical sizes and shapes. In many cases, “garden variety” bullies have deep seated psychological problems, including feelings of inferiority or inadequacy and difficulty in relating to others. Some may simply have learned at an early stage that their size, strength, or verbal talent was the only effective tool they had for social behaviour. Some of these individuals may be context-specific bullies, behaving badly at work but more or less normally in other contexts. But the psychopathic bully is what he is: a callous, vindictive, controlling individual with little or no empathy or concern for the rights and feelings of the victim, no matter what the context.”
[edit] Types of Workplace Bullying
Tim Field suggested that workplace bullying takes these forms<ref name=what>Field, Tim, Bullying: what is it?</ref>:
- Pressure bullying or unwitting bullying
- Organisational bullying
- Corporate bullying
- Institutional bullying
- Client bullying
- Serial bullying
- Secondary bullying
- Pair bullying
- Gang/group bullying, also called mobbing
- Vicarious bullying
- Regulation bullying
- Residual bullying
- Cyber bullying
[edit] Workplace Bullying and Law
[edit] Law in United States
In the United States, court action based on workplace bullying is problematic at best. A plaintiff must prove a) that the bullying actually occurred, b) that the bully's actions fall into at least one of the four categories mentioned above and c) that the plaintiff's subsequent problems stemmed from the bully's actions. As of this writing, only five states have legislation against workplace bullying pending, and no state has ever passed laws against it. However, some states do have laws against creating or maintaining a "hostile work environment". Many states also have general laws against harassment, but charges of harassment are notoriously hard to prove.[citation needed]
Two laws that have proven useful in the United States are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans With Disabilities Act. However, the plaintiff must prove that the bully's actions violate the conditions of these statutes.
[edit] Law in Canada
The Canadian Province of Quebec introduced legislation addressing workplace bullying on 1 June 2004. In its Act representing Labour Standards "psychological harassment" is prohibited. The Commission des normes du travail is the organization responsible for the application of this act.<ref name=travail>Commission des normes du travail</ref>
Under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act 1979, "all employers must take every precautions reasonable in the circumstances to protect the health and safety of their workers in the workplace. This includes protecting them against the risk of workplace violence "<ref name=oohsa>Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act 1979 Ministry of Labor, Ontario, Canada</ref>. The Act requires establishment of Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees for larger employers.
Under the act, workplace violence is defined as "...the attempted or actual exercise of any intentional physical force that causes or may cause physical injury to a worker. It also includes any threats which give a worker reasonable grounds to believe he or she is at risk of physical injury"<ref name=VW>Workplace Violence Ministry of Labor, Ontario, Canada</ref>.
[edit] Law in United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, although bullying is not specifically mentioned in workplace legislation, there are means to obtain legal redress for bullying. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997<ref>Protection from Harassment Act 1997</ref> is a recent addition to the more traditional approaches using employment-only legislation. Notable cases include Majrowski v Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Trust wherein it was held that an employer is vicariously liable for one employee's harassment of another, and Green v DB Group Services (UK) Ltd, where a bullied worker was awarded over £800,000 in damages. In the latter case, at paragraph 99, the judge Mr Justice Owen said:
- "...I am satisfied that the behaviour amounted to a deliberate and concerted campaign of bullying within the ordinary meaning of that term."
Bullying behaviour breaches other UK laws. An implied term of every Employment contract in the UK is that parties to the contract have a (legal) duty of trust and confidence to each other. Bullying, or an employer tolerating bullying, typically breaches that contractual term. Such a breach creates circumstances entitling an employee to terminate his or her contract of employment without notice, which can lead to a finding by an Employment Tribunal of unfair dismissal, colloquially called Constructive dismissal. An employee bullied in response to asserting a statutory right can be compensated for the detriment under Part V of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and if dismissed, Part X of the same Act provides that the dismissal is automatically unfair. Where a person is bullied on grounds of sex, race or disability et al, it is outlawed under anti-Discrimination laws.
It is important to bear in mind that the foregoing statements are made on the assumption that one's definition of "workplace bullying" includes identifiable, provable acts (or deliberate failures to act) which put the claimant at a measurable disadvantage.
[edit] Law in Sweden
Workplace bullying in Sweden is covered by the Ordinance of the Swedish National Board of Occupational Safety and Health containing Provisions on measures against Victimization at Work, which defines victimisation as "...recurrent reprehensible or distinctly negative actions which are directed against individual employees in an offensive manner and can result in those employees being placed outside the workplace community."<ref name=vicwork>Ordinance of the Swedish National Board of Occupational Safety and Health containing Provisions on measures against Victimization at Work AFS 1993:17 Official English translation</ref>
The act places the onus on employers to plan and organise work so as to prevent victimisation and to make it clear to employees that victimisation is not acceptable. The employer is also responsible for the early detection of signs of victimisation, prompt counter measures to deal with victimisation and making support available to employees who have been targeted.
[edit] Law in Australia
Each state has its own legislation. In Queensland there is no law against workplace bullying although anti-discrimination and stalking laws could be used to prosecute if appropriate.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Just Fight On! Centre Against Workplace Bullying UK
- The Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute
- Bully Online Anti-bully site by Tim Field
- Workplace Mobbing in Academe
- Stress and psychosocial risks European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA)
- Anonymous Employee - Help with Workplace Bullying
