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You have a right to feel safe and to be treated fairly and respectfully. Bullying or harassment can be a violation of these rights. It is a serious problem with serious mental and physical impacts. Bullying can affect you at home, school, work, in your social life and in your ability to feel happy, healthy and secure. It is up to governments, schools, workplaces and individuals including you to make sure that every human right is respected.

Just as we are all born with human rights we also have responsibilities to respect and protect the rights of others. This means that it is important to always be respectful of other people. We all have a responsibility to avoid all forms of bullying, including spreading gossip or making offensive comments about others online.

Respecting the rights of others applies to everyone, including people who are your friends and those who are not, people who are isolated, new to your school or workplace or may not be very popular. If you see someone that has been bullied or treated badly you may be able to take safe and effective action to support them. We are all part of the solution. Please read the fact sheet related to bystander bullying. A bystander is someone who sees or knows about bullying or other forms of violence that is happening to someone else.

Bystanders can be either part of the bullying problem or an important part of the solution to stop bullying. Your school has a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment free from violence, harassment and bullying. This protects your right to education. Your boss has a responsibility to provide a safe work environment where there is no violence, harassment and bullying.

This protects your right to work. It may be missed by superiors; it may be known by many throughout the organization. Negative effects are not limited to the targeted individuals, and may lead to a decline in employee morale and a change in organizational culture. The first known documented use of "workplace bullying" is in in a book by Andrea Adams called Bullying at Work: How to Confront and Overcome It. While there is no universally accepted formal definition of workplace bullying, several researchers have endeavoured to define it:.

Because it can occur in a variety of contexts and forms, it is also useful to define workplace bullying by the key features that these behaviours possess. Bullying is characterized by: This distinguishes bullying from isolated behaviours and other forms of job stress and allows the term workplace bullying to be applied in various contexts and to behaviours that meet these characteristics.

Many observers agree that bullying is often a repetitive behaviour. However, some experts who have dealt with a great many people who report abuse also categorize some once-only events as bullying, for example with cases where there appear to be severe sequelae. According to Pamela Lutgin-Sandvik, [20] the lack of unifying language to name the phenomenon of workplace bullying is a problem because without a unifying term or phrase, individuals have difficulty naming their experiences of abuse, and therefore have trouble pursuing justice against the bully.

Unlike sexual harassment, which named a specific problem and is now recognized in law of many countries including U. Euphemisms intended to trivialize bullying and its impact on bullied people include: Bullied people are labelled as insubordinate when they resist the bullying treatment. There is no exact definition for bullying behaviours in workplace, which is why different terms and definitions are common. For example, mobbing is a commonly used term in France and Germany, where it refers to a "mob" of bullies, rather than a single bully; this phenomenon is not often seen in other countries.


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Bosses are the most common bullies. Although socioeconomic factors may play a role in the abuse, researchers from the Project for Wellness and Work-Life [10] suggest that "workplace bullying, by definition, is not explicitly connected to demographic markers such as sex and ethnicity".

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Judy Fisher-Blando [26] wrote a doctoral research dissertation on Aggressive behaviour: Further research showed the types of bullying behaviour, and organizational support. In the research of Samnani and Singh [29] , it concludes the findings from previous 20 years' literature and claims that in terms of the gender factor, inconsistent findings could not support the differences across gender. Race also may play a role in the experience of workplace bullying. The percentages of those reporting that they have neither experienced nor witnessed mistreatment were:. Higher prevalence rates for experiencing a hostile work environment were identified for divorced or separated workers compared to married workers, widowed workers, and never married workers.

Higher prevalence rates for experiencing a hostile work environment were identified for workers with some college education or workers with high school diploma or GED, compared to workers with less than a high school education. Lower prevalence rates for experiencing a hostile work environment were identified for workers aged 65 and older compared to workers in other age groups. With respect to age, conflicting findings have been reported. A study by Einarsen and Skogstad indicates older employees tend to be more likely to be bullied than younger ones.

But this is unproven and lacks evidence. The researchers suggest referring to workplace bullying as generic harassment along with other forms of non-specific harassment and this would enable employees to use less emotionally charged language and start a dialogue about their experiences rather than being repelled by the spectre of being labelled as a pathological predator or having to define their experiences as the victims of such a person.

Tony Buon and Caitlin Buon also suggest that the perception and profile of the workplace bully is not facilitating interventions with the problem. Based on research by H. Cooper, most the perpetrators are supervisors.


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  5. The second most common group is peers, followed by subordinates and customers. Bullying behaviour by supervisors toward subordinates typically manifests as an abuse of power by the supervisor in the workplace. Bullying behaviours by supervisors may be associated with a culture of bullying and the management style of the supervisors.

    An authoritative management style, specifically, often includes bullying behaviours, which can make subordinates fearful and allow supervisors to bolster their authority over others. On the other hand, some researchers suggest that bullying behaviours can be a positive force for performance in the workplace. Workplace bullying may contribute to organizational power and control. However, if an organization wishes to discourage bullying in the workplace, strategies and policies must be put into place to dissuade and counter bullying behavior.

    In addition to supervisor — subordinate bullying, bullying behaviours also occur between colleagues. Peers can be either the target or perpetrator. If workplace bullying happens among the co-workers, witnesses will typically choose sides, either with the target or the perpetrator. Perpetrators usually "win" since witnesses do not want to be the next target. This outcome encourages perpetrators to continue their bullying behaviour. In addition, the sense of the injustice experienced by a target might lead that person to become another perpetrator who bullies other colleagues who have less power than they do, thereby proliferating bullying in the organization.

    The third relationship in the workplace is between employees and customers. Although less frequent, such cases play a significant role in the efficiency of the organization. Overly stressed or distressed employees may be less able to perform optimally and can impact the quality of service overall. The fourth relationship in the workplace is between the organization or system and its employees. An article by Andreas Liefooghe notes that many employees describe their employer as a "bully.

    These cases, the issue is not simply an organizational culture or environmental factors facilitating bullying, but bullying-like behaviour by an employer against an employee. Tremendous power imbalances between an organization and its employees enables the employer to "legitimately exercise" power e.

    Although the terminology of bullying traditionally implies an interpersonal relationship between the perpetrator and target, organizations' or other collectives' actions can constitute bullying both by definition and in their impacts on targets.

    However, while defining bullying as an interpersonal phenomenon is considered legitimate, classifying incidences of employer exploitation, retaliation, or other abuses of power against an employee as a form of bullying is often not taken as seriously. Bullying is seen to be prevalent in organizations where employees and managers feel that they have the support, or at least the implicit blessing of senior managers to carry on their abusive and bullying behaviour.

    When bullying happens at the highest levels, the effects may be far reaching.

    Bullying - Know Your Rights: Violence, Harassment and Bullying Fact sheet

    People may be bullied irrespective of their organizational status or rank, including senior managers, which indicates the possibility of a negative domino effect, where bullying may cascade downwards, as the targeted supervisors might offload their own aggression onto their subordinates. In such situations, a bullying scenario in the boardroom may actually threaten the productivity of the entire organisation. Research investigating the acceptability of the bullying behaviour across different cultures e.

    One's culture affects the perception of the acceptable behaviour. One's national background also influences the prevalence of workplace bullying Harvey et al. Humane orientation is negatively associated with the acceptability of bullying for WRB Work related bullying. Performance orientation is positively associated with the acceptance of bullying. Future orientation is negatively associated with the acceptability of bullying. A culture of femininity suggests that individuals who live and work in this kind of culture tend to value interpersonal relationships to a greater degree.

    Three broad dimensions have been mentioned in relation to workplace bullying: In Confucian Asia, which has a higher performance orientation than Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, bullying may be seen as an acceptable price to pay for performance. The value Latin America holds for personal connections with employees and the higher humane orientation of Sub-Saharan Africa may help to explain their distaste for bullying. A culture of individualism in the US implies competition, which may increase the likelihood of workplace bullying situations.

    Ashforth discussed potentially destructive sides of leadership and identified what he referred to as petty tyrants , i. An authoritarian style of leadership may create a climate of fear, where there is little or no room for dialogue and where complaining may be considered futile.

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    In a study of public-sector union members, approximately one in five workers reported having considered leaving the workplace as a result of witnessing bullying taking place. Rayner explained these figures by pointing to the presence of a climate of fear in which employees considered reporting to be unsafe, where bullies had "got away with it" previously despite management knowing of the presence of bullying. The workplace bully is often expert at knowing how to work the system.

    They can spout all the current management buzzwords about supportive management but basically use it as a cover. By keeping their abusive behaviour hidden, any charges made by individuals about his or her bullying will always come down to your word against his. They may have a kiss up kick down personality, wherein they are always highly cooperative, respectful, and caring when talking to upper management but the opposite when it comes to their relationship with those whom they supervise.

    Often, a workplace bully will have mastered kiss up kick down tactics that hide their abusive side from superiors who review their performance. As a consequence of this kiss up kick down strategy: The most typical reactions to workplace bullying are to do with the survival instinct — "fight or flight" — and these are probably a victim's healthier responses to bullying. Flight is a legitimate and valid response to bullying. It is very common, especially in organizations in which upper management cannot or will not deal with the bullying.

    In hard economic times, however, flight may not be an option, and fighting may be the only choice. Fighting the bullying can require near heroic action, especially if the bullying targets just one or two individuals. It can also be a difficult challenge.

    Workplace bullying - Wikipedia

    There are some times when confrontation is called for. First, there is always a chance that the bully boss is labouring under the impression that this is the way to get things done and does not recognize the havoc being wrought on subordinates. With some variations, the following typology of workplace bullying behaviours has been adopted by a number of academic researchers.

    The typology uses five different categories. Research by the Workplace Bullying Institute, suggests that the following are the 25 most common workplace bullying tactics: According to Bassman, common abusive workplace behaviours are: According to Hoel and Cooper , common abusive workplace behaviours are: The Acas helpline phone service is available Monday - Friday 8am-6pm. Acas conference 5th Dec: Terminal illness in the workplace. Rights and responsibilities at work. The Equality Act Marriage and civil partnerships. Pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Tackling race hate incidents in the workplace.

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