Here is a plethora of information and resources on how to protect your company from workplace bullies.
Praslova, Carcucci, & Stokes (2022, https://lnkd.in/g6uu7Nnf) present
- examples of bullying behavior
- factors enabling workplace bullying
- costs of maintaining bullies
- concrete steps to prevent and correct bullying and dispel common myths
Authors explain that “While bully characteristics matter, bullying is a behavior of opportunity enabled by organizational environments that allow it to occur and continue. Organizations can’t eliminate egotism from human nature, but it is possible to create systems in which egotistical behavior is discouraged rather than reinforced.”
👍🏾Effective Interventions Include👏🏼
“anti-bullying mechanisms…rooted in organizational justice, transparency, a focus on outcomes, and the use of valid instruments in decision making.” Use “tools that facilitate inclusive, flexible work; voice; and participation.”
Screen interviewees for characteristics “related to poor performance, such as arrogance in leadership,” request examples of helping others achieve success and how they managed personal failures.
Train employees in non-violent, clear communication. Instead of “You call this a report? This garbage is insulting. You don’t know how to write.” rephrase as “I am disappointed that I cannot forward/use this draft of the report. I need clarity. Please arrange the numerical data in tables and write four or five clear bullet-point takeaways.”
Prevent Hunger Games Dynamic: “hostility is typically triggered by resource scarcity and overall stress. Reducing the stress of unrealistic deadlines, chronic under-resourcing,” manage through positive encouragement instead of fear, and not forcing employees into moral compromises are key.
✔️Fair & transparent resource distribution
✔️Balance team-level and individual rewards
✔️Use shared metrics to incentivize cross-functional partnerships
✔️Create systems & opportunities to address tensions in organizational seams
✔️Discourage drama triangles and manipulation by ensuring transparency and setting an example
Correct high-stakes decisional mistakes with justice-based processes like “an independent group (e.g., a committee of ombudspeople) could verify the evidence supporting demotions or progressive discipline.”
⚠️Ineffective Interventions Include⚠️
Being reactive vs. preventative
“Placing the burden of proof and anti-bullying work on the target ignores the fact that bullying is trauma, and that for most people, documenting their own trauma while it is happening while maintaining productivity is an impossible task”
Failure to address egotistic entitlement of fragile ego with individual-level attempts to fix characteristics of targets & bullies of assertiveness training or self-control training/anger management. Assertiveness and anger management do not address the root issue of fragile egos
“A focus on overt and hostile bullying does nothing to address covert and instrumental bullying"
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