Essay Example on Workplace Bullying: An Increasing Concern for HR & Execs

Workplace bullying is not a new concept in present-day organizations. The issue is gaining increasing recognition in employment relations and the critical actors in the field of human resource. Currently, this aspect is an issue of concern among corporate executives and human resource managers. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), the concept refers to repeated mistreatment of the workforce. It covers abusive practices that threaten, intimidate and humiliate the employees through verbal abuse or work sabotage. The survey by the WBI indicates that more than 19% of American employees witness harassment whereas another 19% directly encounter it. The report further shows that more than 60.4 million US citizens are affected by the issue (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2017).

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The previous researchers agree that workplace bullying has far-reaching consequences. It negatively impacts on behavior, psychological and physical health of the employee. Also, the problem has adverse impacts on the financial aspects of the employer. Research shows that workplace bullying lowers the morale and the commitment of the employee to achieve targets. In this case, it creates unfavorable working conditions and unpleasant relationships among subordinates (McDonald, Brown & Smith, 2015). A worker, in this perspective, develops psychological stress, which leads to low productivity. This situation is because of constant offensive remarks, teasing, and abuse. Accordingly, it stimulates negative relationships among the co-workers and thus kills the spirit of teamwork in the organization. The ultimate effects are a decline in overall organizational productivity and inability to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Besides lowing the morale and productivity of the employee, workplace bullying harms organizational citizenship behavior. Consequently, workplace bullying increases the workforce intention to leave the organization since such environment lowers attitudes of perceived corporate support.

The previous studies show that, historically, the US organizations have are ill-prepared and reluctant to eradicate the issue. Hence, the aggrieved parties in most instances resort to litigation as a strategy to seek justice and compensation for injuries. (Richardson, Hall & Joiner, 2016). This situation according to the authors exists in the US since the system lacks specific cause of action to solve the problem both at state and federal level. Google and the New York Times are examples of companies that recently hit the headlines for their severe cases of bullying at the workplace. Google was on the spot for intimidation and sexual harassment of female employees whereas the New York Times uncovered bullying culture that had been in the organization for many years (New York Times Company, 2017; Wakabayashi & Conger, 2018).

The best practice to avoid negative behaviors of workplace bullying is to nurture an organizational culture that fosters civility, employee dignity, and respect at the work environment. In this case, business and management leadership create such corporate culture through the formulation of internal policies that enhance the achievement of the desired goals. Such plans should include potential consequences for any party that engage in undesirable behaviors that lead to bullying of co-workers. Another approach is to initiate annual training that creates awareness on workplace harassment and its potential repercussions. This practice sensitizes internal stakeholders on the need to address their concerns through organizational mechanisms instead of resorting to harassment and bullying.

Since Google and the New York Times engage in legally permitted businesses, it is no doubt that they engage in reasonably ethical practices. However, I would rate workplace ethics in the New York Times as poor and fair in the Google Company based on the reports of bullying at the workplace. The reason is that harassment at the New York Times was severe. Some groups had made it part of the organizational culture for almost two decades without the knowledge of the management. The reason for giving Google Company fair ratings is because sexual harassment in its environment was not widespread but instead prevalent among a few executives.

References

McDonald, D. N., Brown, E. D., & Smith, K. F. (2015). Workplace Bullying: A Review of its

Impact on Businesses, Employees, and the Law. International Journal of Business and

Social Science, 6(2). Retrieved 9 May 2019, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319135554/url/

New York Times Company. (2017, 24 December). Vice Media Statement on Harassment Allegations and Workplace Culture. Retrieved 9 May 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/business/vice-media-statement-on-harassment-allegations-and-its-workplace-culture.html/url/

Richardson, R. E., Hall, R., & Joiner, S. (2016). Workplace Bullying in the United States: An Analysis of State Court Cases. Cogent Business & Management, 3(1). DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2016.1256594

Wakabayashi, D., & Conger, K. (2018, 27 October). Google Workers Fume over Executives? Payouts after Sexual Harassment Claims. Retrieved 9 May 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/technology/sexual-harassment-google.html/url/

Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI). (2017). WBI 2017 US Workplace Bullying Survey.

Workplace Bullying Institute. Retrieved 9 May 2019, from https://www.workplacebullying.org/wbiresearch/wbi-2017-survey/url/