Bullying in the Workplace - Assignment Example

 1. How workplace bullying violates the rules of organizational justice. Workplace bullying comes in many forms which may include shouting at an employee, verbal abuse, unjustified criticism from the employer, exclusion and isolation, excessive work and micromanaging, use of language or actions that hurt aimed at an employee and making jokes in relation to a person’s weaknesses. All these can really affect an employee and lead to depression and reduced working motivation. Where many employees opt to leave the job and seek another one where they will be better working, others opt to remain as maybe the one they have is their sole bread winner. Online bullying by employers has become common as employers try to get more information from the employees’ private lives and end up bullying them or try to control their private lives. Organizational justice laws clearly indicate the space that an employer should give an employee and highly discourage any act that may be considered as bullying. Any act that is aimed at hurting the employee directly or indirectly and hence lead to reduced work should be reported and appropriate steps taken against the employer. In our case Kara should have reported that to the appropriate discipline for it to stop. 2. Aspects of motivation that bullying might reduce. Where workplace bullying can be taken as just a norm or a light act that will have no deep effects on the employee, at extreme cases one can experience the following;- high blood pressure, heart attack, overwhelming anxiety and panic attack, constant loss of memory and concentration, tension and constant headaches, mood swings and loss of appetite. This can highly reduce your motivation at the workplace and it is at such times that one can decide to take a retaliatory step to end it all. This can be in different forms where one can decide to quit the job and work where you will be okay working. Other people may decide to handle it in a different way where they can report the employer for the indecent approaches and intimidation. Bullying would highly affect my efficiency and motivation in the work place. I would not allow it to continue happening and I would retaliate in the wisest way. The consequences’ of living under bullying conditions are not bearable. 3. Steps I would take if I was experiencing workplace bullying or a workmate was experiencing it. Workplace bullying can ruin someone’s life and career and in extreme cases can lead to loss of lives. The first step I would take is to identify the bullying character and take some time to really make it up whether it is bullying. Don’t complain, I would rather talk it over with workmates and friends. This way the problem will be half solved. The next step I would take time off to heal if it was so severe and really consider the options including getting back to the job. If I feel I do not want to it would be wise to seek it somewhere else. At times the bullying can be so much that the damage done will always haunt the person and therefore affect the working in the company. The third step which is so daring but really heals the wounds caused is exposing the bully. It is not wise to suffer in the dark. If the company has strategies set well to handle such situations then it would be advisable to go and seek the advice from the manager or any other higher person in rank. The most effective step is exposing the bully as he/she will definitely shy away from engaging in the same actions that have been addressed. Many companies have set up programs that ensure the working place is conducive and employees are not harassed. The least effective would be to wait for the bully to change as this is next to impossible. An action needs to be taken urgently at the primary stages of the bullying. If a workmate or a friend is getting bullied I would advice him/her to follow the steps I have highlighted above and always ensure that I offer a shoulder to lean on. This is important as not many employees will be able to talk it out in such situations. 4. Factors that contribute to workplace bullying. The first factor that leads to workplace bullying is job insecurity. Team Field claims that a weak manager who is afraid of the employees will always try to impact actions that intimidate the employees. This can be curbed by creating good cohesion in the workplace and reducing the tension. This will stop the efforts of suppression by the boss. Female employees are 70% more often bullied than their male experts. This is mainly because of their soft nature. They should address the situation early as it could even lead to sexual harassment as it has been witnessed in some situations. Lack of union in the workplace is also another cause that really causes bullying to take place. This is common especially when employees gang up to despise the employer. This can make the employer or boss to retaliate by bullying them. Bullies also try to do it as a cover up for their low self esteem. This is common when one feels insecure in the job. Lastly organizational culture can be used to culture bullies. If you are the boss and you find it being the habit then you could easily also fall for it. If the employees are not complaining or taking any step it gets worse and production is retarded. 5. Effects of bullying in a company It is important to highlight the effects impacted by bullying in the workplace. The first one is great turn over in a company as very few employees will be ready to live in such conditions. Only the hard hearted and the most persevering are left in the company. Low productivity is also experienced as the company’s output is really limited by the employees’ lack of motivation and the high turnover rate. Only the less experienced are working and when they know to work they leave and new ones join. No new ideas are brought into the business as the employees will also limit their efforts in the company and lastly it becomes very hard to hire employees in a certain company. Reference Field, Team. Bully in Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge and Combat Workplace Bullying. Wantage: Oxforshire. 2006. Print. Read More