The Impact of Workplace Bullying Free Essay Example, 500 words

The Impact of Workplace Bullying The Impact of workplace Bullying Workplace bullying can be defined in different ways since thereis no specific single conclusive definition. However, it can be expressed as persistent, abusive, offensive, intimidating behavior or abuse of power that makes the recipient feel vulnerable, humiliated or threatened and ends up reducing their self-confidence and may even result to stress (Caponecchia and Wyatt, 2011). Workplace bullying can result in different impacts on both an individual and the organization. This paper looks at these impacts and what the management should do in order to mitigate these impacts. The consequences of workplace bullying can impact significantly on both involved individual and the organization. An individual can be impacted in three major ways (Geldenhuys et al, 2014). These three ways are a person’s psychological wellbeing, performance at work, and physical health. Signs of psychological wellbeing consequences are suc h as an employee suffering lower self-esteem, anxiety, depression and reduced motivation (Oade, 2009). Most occasions an individual is inactive and does not seem to realize what is going on around him or her. Individuals can endure sleeping an eating disorders and stress related disorders which can affect their physical health. We will write a custom essay sample on The Impact of Workplace Bullying or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now They may thus suffer from complications such as obesity or other cardio-vascular complications. Work related performance includes low work morale, intentions to leave the job, decreased performance and damaged reputation (Geldenhuys et al, 2014). Workplace bullying can also impact the organizations productivity through decreases in performance by affected employees, increased violence at workplace, hostile work environment that is characterized employees lacking trust in others, poor group communication, anger and suspicion, increased absenteeism cases, high employee turnover and this affects the quality of services and products, employees losing trust with the organization, high recruiting costs and increased medical costs (Geldenhuys et al, 2014). Practical workplace bullying can be witnessed in many different ways. An example is when a new supervisor was brought into an organization and because of his qualifications and employment terms, it was a greed that the supervisor will be earning more than some of the senior management staff who have been there before him. This caused hatred to develop between the supervisor and his colleagues in the senior management. They never coordinated with him and went to the extent of purposely withholding vital information from this supervisor thus making it hard for him to undertake his duties. They went as far as blaming him for things that he never did and this led him to resign. The management can adopt different techniques in order to provide a positive impact on workplace bullying. First the management needs to secure the commitment and involvement of the organization by attaining support from top management and the cooperation and participation of the employees. According to Caponecchia and Wyatt (2011) the management should ensure a workplace environment of zero tolerance to bullying by developing effective bullying policies and procedure that all employees should follow. The polic ies should clearly express what bullying is and the consequences of such behavior (Caponecchia and Wyatt, 2011). Another technique that the management can adopt in order to reduce workplace bullying is to raise awareness and provide training on issues dealing with bullying (Oade, 2009). The management should organize workshops where they can enlighten their employees on the importance of cohesiveness and good relationship with others in the workplace (Oade, 2009). In doing this, the management will ensure a positive work culture where employee correlates well with one another. In conclusion, workplace bullying can have adverse impacts on an organization if it is not identified and stopped early. For the organization to be productive, the management should ensure workplace do no encourage bullying. Organizations should instead create friendly working environment that discourages occurrence of bullying to all the employees. References Oade, A. (2009). Managing workplace bullying: How to identify, respond to and manage bullying behavior in the workplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Caponecchia, C., & Wyatt, A. (2011). Preventing workplace bullying: An evidence-based guide to preventing workplace bullying for managers and employees. Crows Nest, N.S. W: Allen & Unwin. Geldenhuys M, Leo L, Reid R, & Gobind J. (2014) The Inferences of Gender in Workplace Bullying: a Conceptual Analysis Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services, Ile-Ife, Nigeria