Content provided in partnership with

Health Care Industry

Anti-bullying advocacy: an unrealized EAP opportunity: educating executives about the impact of workplace bullying can help EAPs define their role as productivity tools

Journal of Employee Assistance, The, June, 2003 by Gary Namie, Ruth Namie

The original plan for this article was simply to make readers aware that a U.S. and international movement exists to combat workplace bullying, a problem EA professionals routinely encounter. However, strategies for repositioning EAP services detailed in Sheila Monaghan's article ("Developing an EAP Strategy") in the previous issue of the Journal of Employee Assistance compel us to suggest that EAPs can best serve their employer clients by embracing workforce health advocacy as a unique niche, or "brand." Solutions to the workplace bullying dilemma might partially define the "cause for action" that EA professionals are uniquely qualified to deliver to organizations.

Most Popular Articles in Health: Fuel your workout: exercisers who eat before they work out have more energy ...; Soothe a dry, itchy scalp: 5 easy expert solutions; Cocktails and calories: Beer, wine and liquor calories can really add up. ...; The sour truth about apple cider vinegar - evaluation of therapeutic use; The, six best supplements you've never heard of: these secret weapons can ...; More »

PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE

EA professionals are familiar with individuals who present a host of stress-related complaints caused by their work environment. We refer here to cases in which an employee identifies ongoing exploitative or abusive interactions with a boss or co-worker as the source of his/her stress. Remarkably, one in six U.S. workers suffers such relationships, which damage psychological health while eroding overall workforce productivity.

We call this phenomenon workplace bullying when the mistreatment is repeated, health-harming, and illegitimate. Bullying is a sub-lethal, non-physical form of violence, psychological in both its execution and its impact on targeted individuals (of those self-identified as bullied, 41 percent are clinically depressed, while 30 percent of women and 21 percent of men suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder). Bullying's illegitimacy refers to the use of destructive interpersonal tactics that interfere with work performance--that is, bullying undermines accomplishment of the employer's business interests. Bullies put their need to control others above the employer's genuine goals.

In the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, the vast majority of bullies (70 to 90 percent) are supervisors and managers. Researchers in one U.K. study credited the importation of American command-and-control management style for the rise in bullying, but some people are predisposed to mistreat others, regardless of workplace culture. For the majority of otherwise good people who become bullies, however, title power elicits the darker, crueler side we all possess but few manifest. When pressure is on to meet profit goals or efficiencies (especially in cases with fewer staff), managers are expected to deliver results without regard for human consequences. The fiscal bottom line is paramount.

A minority of bullies choose to humiliate their targets in public settings. Though these "Screaming Mimis" fit the stereotypical image of a bully, they are statistically rare. More dangerous and insidious are the tactics employed by the "Constant Critic" who distorts the performance appraisal process behind closed doors, attempting to reconstruct the target's personality and competence. Critics are masters of plausible deniability--with no witnesses, they can lie about their misconduct with impunity.

Most bullies at one time or another adopt duplicitous maneuvers, terrorizing their prey while ingratiating themselves with higher-ranking people. One federal agency executive, for example, refused to terminate an acknowledged division chief bully, saying, "He's a great conversationalist and lunch buddy." Bullies' targets, on the other hand, generally are not believed when they complain. They are denigrated as "whiners" and accused of being "thin-skinned" or "provocative" and thus deserving of their fate.

Adult targets of bullying are different from their schoolyard counterparts. Our research shows that targets are selected because of their refusal to be subservient ("insubordination" is the most frequent complaint about them), their superior work or social skills (which threaten the bully who lacks emotional intelligence), or their ethical whistle-blowing. Women are the primary targets of bullies (in 77 percent of cases), though charges of sexual or racial harassment would apply to only about a quarter of bullying cases. While women are as likely as men to be bullies, female bullies are more likely to target women (in more than four of five cases) than are their male counterparts (who target women 69 percent of the time).

Responsiveness to accusations of bullying increases when complainants enjoy protected status as defined by federal or state anti-discrimination laws, but if both the perpetrator and target of harassment are protected or the target is not a member of a protected group, these laws do not apply. Even when bullying conduct is verified and EA professionals recognize the harm it is creating in the workplace, harassment that is not illegal often is ignored. Thus, most bullying is not addressed by current law, though it is two to three times more prevalent than illegal forms of harassment and significantly more damaging to a target's mental health than sexual harassment.

Health Care Industry

Anti-bullying advocacy: an unrealized EAP opportunity: educating executives about the impact of workplace bullying can help EAPs define their role as productivity tools

Journal of Employee Assistance, The, June, 2003 by Gary Namie, Ruth Namie

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Sports

Most Popular Articles in Health

Most Popular Publications in Health