Workplace Bullying: a Destroyer of Organizations
Workplace Bullying: A Destroyer of Organizations
Introduction
Workplace Bullying is a rather new name for an old problem. WPB goes by other names including workplace aggression, abuse, harassment (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010), mobbing, victimization, violence, emotional abuse in the workplace, and antisocial work behaviors (Matthiesen S, Einarsen S., 2010). While there are slight differences between the problems just mentioned, the organizational outcome is the same. There is a hefty expense to the targets and the organization that these things happen in. This phenomena is not just an issue in the United States alone, it is a global problem and is seen throughout industrialized countries. Unfortunately there is no universally accepted definition of WPB so it is difficult to know the actual incidence rates and if they are increasing or decreasing (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010). According to Roscigno, Lopez, and Hodson, (2009) research shows that each year as many as 10% to 20% of employees are subjected to WPB (Roscigno, V. J., Lopez, S. H., & Hodson, R., 2009) while Martin and LaVan, (2010) contend that “there is no generally agreed upon prevalence statistic” (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010). While workplace violence can affect employees, managers, customers, visitors, family members of the employed and others, this paper covers just the bullying that goes on between workers (including supervisors and subordinates) of an organization. Many studies have attempted to estimate the causes, effects and costs to organizations. This paper will cover some of the findings in these areas. Of course a paper on WPB would not be complete without some statistics.
Definition
The combined definition of workplace violence (WPV) from OSHA (OSHA, 2002) (OSHA, 2012), Gale Encyclopedia of Small Business ("Gale encyclopedia of,"), the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration (State of Wisconsin Department of Administration, 2003) and the Canadian Centre for
Introduction
Workplace Bullying is a rather new name for an old problem. WPB goes by other names including workplace aggression, abuse, harassment (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010), mobbing, victimization, violence, emotional abuse in the workplace, and antisocial work behaviors (Matthiesen S, Einarsen S., 2010). While there are slight differences between the problems just mentioned, the organizational outcome is the same. There is a hefty expense to the targets and the organization that these things happen in. This phenomena is not just an issue in the United States alone, it is a global problem and is seen throughout industrialized countries. Unfortunately there is no universally accepted definition of WPB so it is difficult to know the actual incidence rates and if they are increasing or decreasing (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010). According to Roscigno, Lopez, and Hodson, (2009) research shows that each year as many as 10% to 20% of employees are subjected to WPB (Roscigno, V. J., Lopez, S. H., & Hodson, R., 2009) while Martin and LaVan, (2010) contend that “there is no generally agreed upon prevalence statistic” (Martin, W., & LaVan, H. 2010). While workplace violence can affect employees, managers, customers, visitors, family members of the employed and others, this paper covers just the bullying that goes on between workers (including supervisors and subordinates) of an organization. Many studies have attempted to estimate the causes, effects and costs to organizations. This paper will cover some of the findings in these areas. Of course a paper on WPB would not be complete without some statistics.
Definition
The combined definition of workplace violence (WPV) from OSHA (OSHA, 2002) (OSHA, 2012), Gale Encyclopedia of Small Business ("Gale encyclopedia of,"), the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration (State of Wisconsin Department of Administration, 2003) and the Canadian Centre for
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