Workplace Bullying of Temporary Employees: Prevalence and Causes - Essay Sample

Abstract

Workplace bullying is a rampant issue that affects a significant number of employees in different working environments. Bullying has adverse impacts on the performance health of employees. Numerous work-related factors have been identified as potential causes of workplace bullying. There is a growing trend of bullying among temporary employees. Temporary workers are becoming subject to bullying due to the nature of their job. However, there is scarce research on the bullying of temporary workers who have become victims of bullying. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine how bullying affects the performance of temporary workers, how to prevent, and how to eliminate it at the institutional level. The research questions are 1. What are your quality of life issues and job productivity concerning being bullied? This study will utilize a qualitative case study method to examine the issue of workplace bullying among temporary workers. A qualitative study will be used to approach this new field due to inadequate materials and conceptual frameworks. The participants will exclude human resource managers and supervisors in Sport-Ware Corporation because they have close contact with employees. The sample size will consist of 15 employees from the organization. These participants will be selected based on years worked in the organization. Out of this sample, 8 will be female and 7 males. The research instrument that will be used in the study is an explorative approach due to inadequate materials on the discipline. The data collected will be analyzed using qualitative analysis. Through this analysis, the data collected through qualitative research will be analyzed based on article reviews. In other words, the data will be analyzed based on the previous work on the bullying of employees. Include sentence about how the data will be used and what implications your findings will have on Sport-Ware.

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Introduction

Background

Sport-Ware Corporation Background

Sport-Ware Corporation is herein used as a pseudonym in lieu to protect the identity of the research participants. The company was founded in 1964 as Blue-Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman. Bowerman was serving as a track-field-coach for Oregon University. The first retail store opened in 1966 and afterward assumed the Sport-Ware brand identity in 1972 that is now the company's first brand. It was renamed in 1978 and became public in 1980. The company has expanded itself through acquisitions, taking at least four companies over the years. Currently, the company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon and is investing in sportswear, technologies such as portable heart rate monitors, shoes, clothing, and other apparel. This research focuses on bullying at the Sport-ware Corporation, having been accused of perpetuating the vice in the 21st century.

Workplace bullying is a significant work phenomenon studies since the 20th century. Bullying refers to persistent actions and behaviors directed at an individual with the intent to harm them. It thrives where the power difference is noticeable. The vice affects employees' health and performance. Cases of bullying have been on the rise with the United Kingdom registering an increase in rates high level in 2011, where 60% of people could testify witnessing or being victims of bullying. The United States and Asian countries also have cases of bullied employees (Salazar, 2017). Temporary workers represent a special task force in the changing world economy and job requirements and demands. However, they are inadequately represented and are victims of bullying. This paper performs a literature review after identifying the vice as a problem requiring attention. There is scarce research on temporary workers' bullying. Nursing has a substantial amount of information on this phenomenon. Seminal literature lacks meaningful references or studies on it. The paper structure has five key sections, which are research problem, literature review, research gap, research questions, continuum and methodology, and summary.

Problem Statement

Bullying in the workplace is a major problem for companies big and small today. While the statistics are difficult to trust in light of the underreporting of this kind of bullying, it is clear that the problems are actually quite pervasive. There are different levels of bullying, but some statistics show that as many as three in every four workers suffer from bullying. This is a big problem for businesses that want to ensure that their workers are happy and that they are safe. Specifically, it is a problem for companies because it drains productivity and causes workers to be more likely to leave their positions. Businesses are looking to create the best possible working environment for all of their employees, and when bullying takes place, it causes conflict, a lack of productivity, and damage to the company's reputation, as well.

Anecdotal information reveal that Sport-Ware is subject to workplace bullying. The concept of workplace bullying has evolved. Heinz Leymann first introduced it in the 1980s while working on the nature of the work environment and its effects on employee's performance (McDonald, Brown & Smith, 2015). Other contributors, such as Drs. Gary and Ruth Namie extended the study and coined the definition of workplace bullying. Their definition identifies workplace bullying as repeated acts of mistreatment directed against an individual by one or a group of employees (McDonald, Brown & Smith, 2015). The definition includes the aspect of power distance or difference whereby the bully always perceives themselves as superior to the one bullied. Drs. Gary and Namie engaged in extensive research on the aspect and developed an institution to respond to employee bullying. The institution operated under the title Workplace Bullying Institute. The bully behaviors may involve violent actions that manifest aggressive exercise of force such as beating or behaviors intended to create psychological trauma for the inferior person.

Some of the behaviors identified as bullying include sabotage, covert criticism, shouting, yelling, insults, put-downs, and heavy work demands (McDonald, Brown & Smith, 2015). The three main components of workplace bullying that appear in nearly all situations involve frequency, intent, and power difference (Rai & Agarwal, 2016). The rate refers to the number of times one repeats an action. A consistent act directed at an individual qualifies as an act of bullying. The intent relates to the motive for acting. If an action is accidental, it does not meet the threshold for bullying behavior. Lastly, the power difference relates to the differences in rank, physical superiority, gender perception of male dominance, and other criteria (McDonald, Brown & Smith, 2015). The expansion of knowledge in the bullying subject has not received a proportionate response from the government and the institutions. There is a misunderstanding among researchers and policymakers on what constitutes workplace bullying, especially in distinguishing bullying from other related adverse events at the workplace (Rai & Agarwal, 2016). There is lethargically slackness to design and implement policies, structural and legal frameworks to respond to the body of knowledge on bullying. There is an urgency to create approaches to resolve the bullying incidences affecting the employee's performance.

Bullying is premeditated by various factors that are organizational or personal. Organizational factors include leadership style, policies, role definition, and policies, among others (Feijo, Graf, Pearce & Fassa, 2019). Laissez-faire and authoritarian leadership styles promote a toxic environment for bullying. Poorly defined roles characterized by undefined expectations, role conflict, work pressure, and long working hours are more likely to encourage bullying. Individual factors include gender, whereby women are more likely to face bullying as compared to male workers (Feijo, Graf, Pearce & Fassa, 2019). Bullying also depends on age. Rajalakshmi and Gomathi (2015) observe that bullying is more prevalent among employees aged 25 years and below. The trend suggests high rates of employee dissatisfaction in employees within this age bracket facing bullying. Bullies tend to cooperate when their interest is involved but lack honesty and fairness when it is in the interest of others they are required to work (Lamia, 2017). Therefore, bullying occurs in an environment that encourages it to thrive, employees that perceive themselves to be weak or are weak, and colleges with bullying behavior.

Management

Employee performance is significant in resource management. Bullied employees are less motivated to work. Bullying destroys an individual's reputation and lowers self-esteem (Ndegwa & Moronge, 2016). The consequence is a demoralized employee that is unproductive and wastage of resources such as time, and wages. Workplaces have a direct impact on employee performance. Employees working in toxic environments with constant cases of bullying have a high turnover rate, which creates a significant amount of pressure on the company to recruit, train, retain, and develop new employees. A repeated process of employees quitting their position results in drainage of the organization's skills. Bullied employees suffer from anxiety, depression, and physical ailments (Ndegwa & Moronge, 2016). The health of the employee is significant in determining their performance. Unhealthy employees have low work morale and are likely to be absent from work on numerous occasions. They may be discouraged from turning up to work out phobia.

Management is responsible for some bullying cases. Lawyer Josh Bornstein handled a situation in which a woman, 42 years old, had been bullied to the extent she developed post-traumatic stress disorder and depression; the woman was affected that she could not resume her work (Smith, 2016). The management losing control and failing to implement anti-bullying policies is one of the causes of employee bullying.

Workplace bullying is predominant in work bureaucratic work environments. Such environments have rigid schedules, inadequate attention to employee needs, and cumbersome procedures and policies (Ndegwa & Moronge, 2016). Combining the pressure of work environments and other predisposing factors such as power, employees burst out of distress poured on their colleagues. Workplace bullying is a global phenomenon and is frequent in Asia as compared to other countries such as North America, Scandinavia, and other European countries (Ciby & Raya, 2015). Developing and developed countries have experiences of workplace bullying, harassment, and discrimination, but in different degrees. Workplace bullying in developing countries may take an aggressive approach like those on the developed economies continue in subtle forms. The underlying cause for difference is the institutions and policy implementation that are superior and dedicated in developed economies as compared to those of developing economies.

Nonetheless, workplace bullying is a critical aspect affecting the organization and the employee. The company risks losing organizational knowledge, high turnover rates, delayed processes, high costs of human resource management, and indirect costs in terms of losses. Bullying jeopardizes the employee's work morale and health. In cases such as nursing, its effect is almost double as the patients are likely to receive poor care resulting in complications of conditions and possible deaths from medical accidents (Karatza, Zyga, Tziaferi, & Prezerakos, 2016; Al-Ghabeesh & Qattom, 2019). Such ac...