Workplace Bullying in Israel - Essay Example

?Cultural Report on Workplace Bullying in Israel It is important that every management learn and understand how to manage diversity in their workplaces. This will ensure that they will be in a position to create a multicultural workforce which is productive and successful. This is especially important for companies whose production plants are not located in their countries of origin. Such companies import some workers to perform some specific production functions and even management from their country of origin. Diversity management motivates the employees to respect the management and ensures that no one group of employees bullies another group. The problem Ayoko et al (2003) states that lack of proper employee and multicultural management leads to workplace bullies. This is normally characterized by name-calling, taunting, teasing or even sexual harassment. The situation is much worse if the company or organization’s management is involved in the bullying of employees because the affected employees have no one to run to for help. It also reduces the chances of such a vice fading away. Such a case of management involvement in bullying employee has been reported in this textile company. Employees especially those of Australian origin have reported that they are being bullied by the company management. Some of the employees have reported that they have been called names while some of them have reported constant taunting and teasing. According to Brodsky (1976), bullying makes the workplace unbearable for bullied workers. It also impacts negatively on their productivity. This is to say that bullying kills their morale and motivation. Bullying of employees by company management makes workers to develop a negative attitude towards the company and hence they put little or no efforts to see to it that its production levels increase. Wiedmer (2011) explains that when bullied, workers who are innovative in nature and those who are good at identifying new markets go mute. This means the company is directly loosing a lot as a result of its discriminative management. Apart from affecting employees, the negative culture has also impacts negatively on the management practice. For example, it makes the management to loose the respect of employees. This means that the rate of taking instructions reduces because the employees are no longer willing to co-operate with the management. Some could also be on a revenge mission to see to it that the company records poor performance so as to taint the image of the oppressive management. Bullying taints the credibility of the management. Crawford (1997) explains that employees loose usually confidence in a management that participates in jokes that are racially and even sexually offensive. According to De Dreu (2007), bullying of employees by management can divide the management along racial lines. For example though this textile company is Australian based, not all its management is of Australian or Israeli origin. Some of its members therefore feel bad to see their fellow citizens being bullied or discriminated by a section of the management. Alternative Solutions Alternative solutions to bullying as an evil culture of bullying touch on the management as well as the employees. Such measures will ensure that the culture does not simply shift from the management to the employees or become a collaboration between sections of the two. First, the company should create a company culture that not only accepts but also appreciates the variations that every employee brings to the workplace. Ashforth (1994) states that the new culture should enable the management as well as the employees to recognize, appreciate and most importantly, to respect variations between cultures. The company should also develop an amalgamated culture from all the cultures represented in the company. Saam (2010) explains that such a unifying culture will form a common basis of conduct for all the employees irrespective of their cultural backgrounds. The company also should develop employment policies then communicate them to its workers as well as the management as a whole. Every one of them should know and understand the expectations of proper conduct in the workplace especially how to relate with others. They should also know and understand the penalties that accompany a breach of such policies. A uniform enforcement of these policies should be done to all the employees (Ayoko et al, 2003). The company should create social and recreational facilities and activities in the workplace that foster multiculturalism. These include a social room and annual trips. There should be no separate facilities and activities for the cultures in question and this will ensure that all the employees learn to spend time together and bear with each other. With time, they will grow font of one another and focus only on the sweeter part of the other’s culture. The company should also develop a staffing system that is based on merit and never on racial grounds. This will ensure equal chances for all the races to occupy any position in the company. A mixture of races in every rank eliminates the predominance of one race at certain influential and authoritative positions while other remains the subordinates, ready to face any kind of bullying. The company should become involved in community relations. This will enable the employees become community oriented and this will make the community to accept and support the workers of foreign origin. The foreign employees will have been helped to become part of the community while the local residents will be in a position to appreciate them (Saam, 2010). Eventually, this love, acceptance and support will extend to the workplace because back at home, they are all neighbors and friends. The company should train its management on cross-cultural supervisory practices and how to implement them successfully. For example, they should learn the cultures of their employees and check out where contrasts that bring conflicts lie. They should then seek for ways of addressing these. The management should also encourage the Australian workers to learn the culture if Israel so as to minimize chances of unintentionally offending them. Though unintentional, regular offending breeds prejudices which culminates into bullying as a reaction to it. Evaluation and an Alternative The creation of a company culture that accepts, respects and appreciates differences in culture within its workforce will ensure that people respect one another. This will greatly help to eliminate prejudices, racism and disrespect in the workplace. An amalgamated culture will ensure that no one culture of a section of the workforce becomes predominant. Instead, it will foster acceptance and co-operation in the workplace. Though the creation of an environment that fosters acceptance is key, it is not easy to hold anyone accountable for actions that contradict this. Despite change in company culture, some people will still feel free to go on with their bullying culture especially if they have minimal fears of loosing their jobs or positions. Therefore, the best alternative to bullying is the development of employment policies that govern employer-employee and employee-employee relationships. This will force people to behave because they will be knowledgeable on the consequences of misconduct in the workplace. Implementation and monitoring of the chosen solution The company management should sit and develop the employment policies to be used in the company. They should also come up with appropriate by-laws that govern these policies for example penalties that accompany a breach of the policies. These should be well spelled out and communicated effectively to all employees. The policies should also form part of the recruitment process where all recruits should read, understand then sign a commitment to adhere to them before being employed. The best way to monitor this solution is through constant interviews with the employees. They will be able to give an account of any changes in the workplace since the implementation of the employment policies. For example, if the bullying has stopped or it has taken another shape. This will give a picture of the level of its effectiveness in eliminating the evil culture. The results from the monitoring process will determine if the company should stick to it as the lasting solution and a permanent culture or adopt other alternative or supportive measures. Conclusion Consequences of bullying include harm to the physical and emotional health of employees, employee stress, and reduced productivity. The management therefore has to take proper measures to ensure that all employees regardless of their racial and cultural backgrounds are protected. The supervisors should also be directly involved especially in instances where the production health of the worker has been affected. Recommendations The board of directors should move swiftly to make practical considerations of the above outlined alternatives. The company should also form a special branch within the human resource department that looks intently into management-employee and employee-employee relationships. The special branch should also be vested with the power to carry out an intensive investigation of any reported case of bullying. This could also include intruding into the privacy of the accused and interrogating them on the same. The company should also have sessions for open discussions between workers and the management and between workers themselves. This will offer a chance to openly discuss the vice and look for solutions as both perpetrators and victims. References Brodsky, C. (1976). The Harassed Worker. Lexington, Massachusetts. D.C. Heath and Company. Ashforth, B. (1994). “Petty tyranny in organizations”. Human Relations. (7) pp 755-778. Ayoko, O. Callan,V. and Charmaine, H.(2003). “Workplace conflict, bullying, and counterproductive behaviours”, The International Journal of Organizational Analysis. (4) pp. 283-301. Crawford, N. (1997). “Bullying at Work: A Psychoanalytic Perspective”. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology. (3) pp. 219-225. Saam, N. (2010). “Interventions in Workplace Bullying: A Multilevel Approach”. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. (1) pp. 51-75. De Dreu, C. Van D. and Dijkstra, M. (2007). “Conflict at Work and Individual Wellbeing”. International Journal of Conflict Management. (1) pp. 6-26. Wiedmer, T. (2011). “Workplace Bullying: Costly and Preventable”. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, Winter. pp. 35-41 Read More