Workplace bullying

While there is no single formal definition of workplace bullying, several researchers have endeavored to define it. Some categorize all harmful boss-behavior and actions of malintent directed at employees as bullying. Bullying behaviors may be couched in humiliation and hazing rites and iterative (repeating; making repetition; repetitious)
programs or protocols framed as being in the best interests of employee development and coaching. Others separate behaviors into different patterns, labeling a subset of those behaviors as bullying, explaining that there are different ways to deal effectively with specific patterns of behavior. Some workplace bullying is defined as involving an employee's immediate supervisor, manager or boss in conjunction with other employees as complicit, while other workplace bullying is defined as involving only an employee’s immediate supervisor, manager or boss.

According to Tracy, Lutgen-Sandvik, and Alberts,^[1] researchers associated with the Project for Wellness and Work-Life, workplace bullying is most often "a combination of tactics in which numerous types of hostile communication and behaviour are used" (p. 152).

Gary and Ruth Namie^[2] define workplace bullying as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment, verbal abuse, or conduct which is threatening, humiliating, intimidating, or sabotage that interferes with work or some combination of the three."

Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik^[3] expands this definition, stating that workplace bullying is "persistent verbal and nonverbal aggression at work, that includes personal attacks, social ostracism, and a multitude of other painful messages and hostile interactions."

In an effort to provide a more all-encompassing definition, and catch the attention of employers, Catherine Mattice and Karen Garman define workplace bullying as "systematic aggressive communication, manipulation of work, and acts aimed at humiliating or degrading one or more individual that create an unhealthy and unprofessional power imbalance between bully and target(s), result in psychological consequences for targets and co-workers, and cost enormous monetary damage to an organization’s bottom line"^[4]

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 (Einarsen, 1999; Keashly & Harvey 2004; Lutgen-Sandvik, 2006):

Repetition (occurs regularly)
Duration (is enduring)
Escalation (increasing aggression)
Power disparity (the target lacks the power to successfully defend themself).
Attributed intent

This distinguishes bullying from isolated behaviors and other forms of job stress and allows the term workplace bullying to be applied in various contexts and to behaviors that meet these characteristics. Many observers agree that bullying is often a repeated behavior. 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. See: Thomas Sebok and Mary Chavez Rudolph, "Cases Involving Allegations of Workplace Bullying: Threats to Ombuds Neutrality and Other Challenges," JIOA, 2010, vol.3, no 2. Expanding the common understanding of bullying to include single, severe episodes also parallels the legal definitions of sexual harassment in the US.
According to Pamela Lutgin-Sandvik,^[5] 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.S.), workplace bullying is still being established as a relevant social problem and is in need of a specific vernacular.

Typology of bullying behaviors

With some variations, the following typology of workplace bullying behaviors has been adopted by a number of academic researchers. The typology uses five different categories.^[8] ^[9]

Threat to professional status - including belittling opinions, public professional humiliation, accusations regarding lack of effort, intimidating use of discipline or competence procedures
Threat to personal standing - including undermining personal integrity, destructive innuendo and sarcasm, making inappropriate jokes about target, persistent teasing, name calling, insults, intimidation
Isolation - including preventing access to opportunities, physical or social isolation, withholding necessary information, keeping the target out of the loop, ignoring or excluding
Overwork - including undue pressure, impossible deadlines, unnecessary disruptions.
Destabilization - including failure to acknowledge good work, allocation of meaningless tasks, removal of responsibility, repeated reminders of blunders, setting target up to fail, shifting goal posts without telling the target.

Tactics

Research by the Workplace Bullying Institute, suggests that the following are the most common 25 tactics used by workplace bullies:^[10]

Falsely accused someone of "errors" not actually made (71 percent).
Stared, glared, was non verbally intimidating and was clearly showing hostility (68 percent).
Discounted the person's thoughts or feelings ("oh, that's silly") in meetings (64 percent).
Used the "silent treatment" to "ice out" and separate from others (64 percent).
Exhibited presumably uncontrollable mood swings in front of the group (61 percent).
Made up own rules on the fly that even she/he did not follow (61 percent).
Disregarded satisfactory or exemplary quality of completed work despite evidence (discrediting) (58 percent).
Harshly and constantly criticized having a different standard for the target (57 percent).
Started, or failed to stop, destructive rumors or gossip about the person (56 percent).
Encouraged people to turn against the person being tormented (55 percent).
Singled out and isolated one person from coworkers, either socially or physically (54 percent).
Publicly displayed gross, undignified, but not illegal, behavior (53 percent).
Yelled, screamed, threw tantrums in front of others to humiliate a person (53 percent).
Stole credit for work done by others (plagiarism) (47 percent).
Abused the evaluation process by lying about the person's performance (46 percent).
Declared target "insubordinate" for failing to follow arbitrary commands (46 percent).
Used confidential information about a person to humiliate privately or publicly (45 percent).
Retaliated against the person after a complaint was filed (45 percent).
Made verbal put-downs/insults based on gender, race, accent, age or language, disability (44 percent).
Assigned undesirable work as punishment (44 percent).
Created unrealistic demands (workload, deadlines, duties) for person singled out (44 percent).
Launched a baseless campaign to oust the person; effort not stopped by the employer (43 percent).
Encouraged the person to quit or transfer rather than to face more mistreatment (43 percent).
Sabotaged the person's contribution to a team goal and reward (41 percent).
Ensured failure of person's project by not performing required tasks, such as sign-offs, taking calls, working with collaborators (40 percent)

How to deal with workplace bullying

The following measures may be helpful: ^[35]

Tell your manager the effect their behavior is having on you.
Speak to colleagues to see if they are experiencing the same thing.
Keep a log of all bullying instances.
Write a memo if you feel you cannot confront the bully.
Keep copies of anything referring to your inability to do your job.
Try to avoid being alone with the bully and try to get witnesses to incidents.
Try making a collective complaint with colleagues.
Check any new responsibilities you are given with a copy of your job description.
If nothing changes, report the problem to HR.

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