The Issue Of Workplace Violence, Its Causes, Effects, And Ways To Prevent

Workplace Violence a broad issue that is continuously growing, with causes so intricate and multi-faceted and yet it is preventable. Workplace Violence is a concern which the wider world needs to be educated on in order to minimise the chances of compromising an employee's life. 'Systematic mistreatments of an individual resulting in – severe social, psychological and psychosomatic problems in the victims”. Exposure to such harassment only causes grieving, and devastating pain in relation to work-related stress, personal problems and many more which may become unavoidable, if not managed properly. Employees should feel a sense of security, equality, and most importantly togetherness – understanding their fellow colleagues for them to feel comfortable within their environment and free of any form of bullying or harassment. To help counteract workplace bullying one must have a reasonable comprehension of the causes and also what should be possible to both stops and avoid bullying. The following essay will propose information about the causes and effects of bullying and ways to prevent this issue, with statistical data and thorough analysis of readings to gain insight into this serious issue. The wider context of workplace bullying has said to have many definitions.

From past observation of it is just an act of showcasing superiority to now have evolved into a much serious issue of “repetitive mistreatment of an individual or more, exhibiting verbal abuse, offensive conduct, and insults”. . . with an “unreasonable attempt to delegate a sense of intimidation to degrade, mortify or undermine an individual or a group”. While there are numerous different definitions, they all will in general share a couple of key components practically speaking. These key components comprise of “workplace bullying causes strife in the working environment, it is continuing and dull in nature, it is unseemly and conceivably forceful, and tormenting results in a dimension of physical or potentially mental trouble”.

“Researchers have found that job insecurity and role stressors such as low job autonomy and high workload are associated with being both a perpetrator and a target of workplace bullying”, recommending that supervisors require to adjust work burden with the end goal that representatives have enough work to keep them out of inconvenience. Through research I was able to narrow down to another key influence in Workplace Violence being the psychological state of the working environment itself. Thus, “work environments portraying job strife and likewise an absence of challenging work errands and intriguing ideas, joined with an adverse relational atmosphere in the work gathering, is all by accounts a high hazard circumstance for workplace bullying to take place”.

A high level of uncertainty or inconsistent demands, and assumptions regarding jobs, errands, and duties may make a high level of dissatisfaction and clashes inside the work gathering, particularly regarding rights, commitments, benefits, and positions. This circumstance may then go about as a forerunner of contention, poor interworked connections, and a requirement for a reasonable substitute, particularly if the social atmosphere is portrayed by low trust and relational strain. An ordinary characteristic for working environments where bullying conquers is likewise low fulfillment among numerous employees with respect to the Leadership style of their supervisors, managers or administration member; it is either excessively forceful or too laissez-faire in regards to their leadership style. Truth be told, the same number of as half of harassing unfortunate casualties guarantee to be harassed by a manager/supervisor, again connecting workplace bullying nearly to authority. According to recent findings abridged by Leymann’s (1993; Einarsen et al. 2000) “theoretical claim that four factors are prominent in eliciting bullying at work: (1) deficiencies in work design, (2) deficiencies in leadership behavior, (3) a socially exposed position of the victim, and (4) a low moral standard in the department. Consequently, bullying in the workforce”. The act of interpersonal conflict in the form of discernment, personality, individual intrigues and status maybe perceived as a cause of workplace bullying. In addition, the conflict will likewise, make the “employees sensitive, short-tempered, distrustful, and resentful” (Coser, 1956). “Interpersonal conflict will result in outcomes of bullying behaviour such as confidence, anxiety, sleep problems, diminished work performance, and depression”. Besides that, “conflict-related bullying occurs as a result of a highly escalated conflict, which means the conflict based on the personal cognitive will try to disrupt the opponent goal”. In conflict-related harassing, the opposites value is lost as an individual.

Furthermore, as indicated by Leymann (1996) and Einarsen et al. (1994), harassing is activated by a business-related clash. Having said this it may seem as the social atmosphere of the workplace is not at its finest which also leads to clashes, regards to business, entitlement, status, positions and more amongst the employees. In today’s age, individuals need to be educated on how to prevent workplace harassment for the betterment of people. We should undertake the fragility of this very much serious issue which needs to be dealt with or else consequences – as mentioned below-- will have risen beyond one’s control. Workplace Violence leads to significantly serious and life-threatening impacts on the victim’s life, health, and well-being. “Increased psychological distress including anxiety, depression, negative emotions, and overt anger”,. . . “witness higher levels of burnout and emotional exhaustion”. Victims of Workplace bullying often suffer some of the most intense and unavoidable medical issues they show. Being a victim of systematic harassment appears to deliver serious psychological harm for example; fear, uneasiness, and vulnerability. Such exploitation appears to change the individual's impression of their workplace and life when all is said in done to one of risk, threat, uncertainty and self-doubting, “which may result in pervasive emotional, psychosomatic and psychiatric problems”. O’Moore et al highlights key statistics being, till 2013 a total of 67% workplace bullying and harassment has occurred followed by a 39% of those committing suicide or taking life-threatening steps.

Having gained insight from people encompassing me, I deduced the following interventions as methods of preventing workplace violence. Firstly, (1) Create a much hermetically sealed bullying and harassment strategy. The strategy ought to unmistakably characterise what workplace bullying is, the employees and business obligations and how bullying will be managed. Guarantee your employees will be kept updated at all times. (2) Address your workers. Holding open conversations can enable one to recognise potential territories of concern — an open entryway strategy — be agreeable, reliable and let employees realise you are there to encourage them. (3) Healthy, respectful and gainful working connections. Make a solid work culture where everybody is treated with pride and regard, nobody is exploited and everybody fills in as a group. (4) Recognise and call harassing practices early. For instance, clarify that no bigot, misogynist or biased jokes will be endured thus, creating a work culture dependent on regard, where harassing isn't endured. (5) Pay special mind to your representatives, likewise imperative to perceive and react to early potential pointers an employee is being harassed and guiding them. Certain employees are bound to be harassed, for example, easygoing workers, new employees, students and individuals from minority gatherings. (6) Oversee work environment stressors and dangers. Job struggle and vulnerability may cause bullying practices because of the pressure it puts on employees. Guarantee workers comprehend their jobs and have the right stuff to carry out their responsibility to limit the danger of representatives' seeing contrast of sentiment.

“Ethical leadership is a leadership approach that involves leading in a manner, that respects the rights, needs and dignity of others, and promotes team and organisational interest over self-serving interests”. Revino and Brown (2004) described as a great character; genuineness, dependability, being principled in basic leadership, and being moral in one's close to home life. An ''ethical supervisor'' is portrayed as one who drives others in the moral measurement, tells others what is anticipated from them and holds them responsible, sets moral behaviors and norms, and conveys moral messages. As showed before, Leadership style assumes a critical job in minimising bullying for example, harassing to develop in any working environment. “Ethical leadership is likely to discourage bullying in the workplace given that bullying is a deliberate act of violence that aims to hurt another person, and is a direct affront to ethics”.

References

1. Bowling, N. A. , & Beehr, T. A. (2006). Workplace harassment from the victim’s perspective: A theoretical model and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 998– 1012.
2. Coser, K. (1956). The Functions of Social Conflict, Free Press, Glencoe, IL.
3. De Cuyper, N. , Baillien, E. , & De Witte, H. (2009). Job insecurity, perceived employability and targets’ and perpetrators’ experiences of workplace bullying. Work & Stress, 23, 206–224.
4. Einarsen, S. (2000). Harassment and bullying at work: A review of the Scandinavian approach. Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal, 5, 371–401.
5. Einarsen, S. (1999). The nature and causes of bullying at work. International Journal of Manpower - INT J MANPOWER. 20. 16-27.
6. Einarsen, S. , Raknes, B. I. and Matthiesen, S. M. (1994), Bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality + an exploratory study, European Work and Organizational Psychologist, Vol. 4, pp. 381-401.
7. Einarsen, S. (2000), Bullying and harassment at work: unveiling an organizational taboo, in heehan, M. , Ramsay, S. and Patrick, J. (Eds), Proceedings of Transcending Boundaries Conference, Brisbane.
8. Hansen, Å. M. , Hogh, A. , Persson, R. , Karlson, B. , Garde, A. H. , & Ørbæk, P. (2006). Bullying at work, health outcomes, and physiological stress response. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 63–72.
9. Leymann, H. and Gustafsson, A. (1996), Mobbing at work and the development of post-traumatic stress disorders, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 251-75.
10. Lutgen-Sandvik, P. , Tracy, S. J. , & Alberts, J. K. (2007). Burned by bullying in the American workplace: Prevalence, perception, degree, and impact. Journal of Management Studies, 44(6), 835-860
11. O’Moore, M. and Lynch, J. (2007), ‘‘Leadership, working environment and workplace bullying’’, International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 95-117.
12. Resick, C. J. , Martin, G. S. , Keating, M. A. , Dickson, M. W. , Kwan, H. K. and Peng, C. (2011), ‘‘What ethical leadership means to me: Asian, American, and European perspectives’’, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 101 No. 3, pp. 435-57
13. Rhodes, C. , Pullen, A. , Vickers, M. H. , Clegg, S. R. and Pitsis, A. (2010), ‘‘Violence and workplace bullying: what are an organization’s ethical responsibilities?’’, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 96-115.
14. Trevino, L. K. and Brown, M. E. (2004), ‘‘Managing to be ethical: debunking five business ethics myths’’, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 18, pp. 69-81.
15. Van de Vliert, E. (1998), Conflict and conflict management, in Drenth, P. D. , Thierry, H. and de Wollf, J. (Eds), Handbook of Work and Organisational Psychology, Personnel Psychology, East Sussex Psychology Press Ltd Workplacebullyinginstitute. Est. 1997. Work shouldn’t hurt. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. workplacebullying. org/
16. Wu, T. Y. , & Hu, C. (2009). Abusive supervision and employee emotional exhaustion. Dispositional antecedents and boundaries. Group & Organizational Management, 34, 143–169.