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When a bully operates in leadership or the workplace, triads consisting of the bully, the victim, and the bystander are formed. Bullies have their supporters and followers, victims seek their support and alliances, and bystanders, who are the majority, seek others to help analyze the injustice. With each triad, outgroups are formed from the membership that disrupts productivity and efforts to create an inclusive workplace. -Dr. Stewart
Bullies are often
described as someone being different or a bit odd in their childhood,
adolescence, or early adulthood, having an enduring pattern of identity crises,
chaotic self-direction, lack of empathy, hypersensitivity to criticism, and
intimacy. These fragmented artifacts of various personality disorders confuse
school administrators, educators, and workplace leaders because the bully can
also be charismatic individuals waiting to save the day on their terms.
School-related acts of violence or mass school or workplace shootings involve
individuals who exhibited these warning signs in a consistent and enduring
pattern. However, leaders and administrators dismissed the symptoms under the
labels of someone being different or a bit odd. -Dr. Stewart
Finding the Good in the
Workplace Bully
An
Organizational Approach to Workplace Bullying
How do you identify the
misuse of power? It depends on the organizational structure, mission, and
values and how acts of aggression and abuse of power are named. Some
organizations would not recognize a bully rising to power because bullies exude
a magnificence while riding on coworkers' skills, competencies, and talents to
save the day. Other organizations would sense that something was wrong because
of the shift of focus from the mission and vision of the organization and
decreased employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Finding
the Good in the Workplace Bully
An organizational change toward a healthier workplace culture may include the revision of policies and procedures, job descriptions, orientation, training, and annual training, which should readdress the organization's mission and values while declaring the organizational definition of bullying. Without an organizational definition of bullying and all its degrees, cognitive reconstruction occurs within the workplace environment that may justify all the dysfunctional behaviors of the bully triad until a devastating violent act occurs. Policies and procedures, job descriptions, and annual training should address the organizational definition of bullying so that bullying is considered abnormal or at least recognized as soon as it occurs.
Dr. Debra Stewart
Finding
the Good in the Workplace Bully
An
Organizational Approach to Workplace Bullying
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Meta-analysis of aggregate health data may provide information that health promotion administrators need to compare and contrast different systems for correlation and effectiveness. This analysis may reveal that the workplace does not have a bully prevention and management program. Organizations collect data such as absenteeism, accident and injury, retention, employee health risk assessments, and employee wellness program utilization. Research has found that an improvement in one of these reporting areas will yield favorable results in other areas of health and wellness reporting. If the workplace culture supports acts of bullying, then the participation and energies devoted to organizational and employee wellness will also decline. It is essential to look for a correlation between reports and incremental improvements to find a link that will help health promotion administrators and employers find the total value of their wellness programming and improve the economy of effort.
Character assassination
is a form of bullying because it is a deliberate attempt to destroy someone's
credibility and reputation. In psychology, character assassination begins when
the bully is shamed, feels inferior, threatened, or is an insecure, narcissistic
personality type. Character assassination involves triangulation instead of
direct communication, gossiping, misuse of power and authority, manipulation of
the truth, deceit, groupthink, double-speak, spreading of rumors, unhealthy
egotism, and narcissism are used to defame and cast doubt on someone's morals and
integrity.
Dr. Debra Stewart
Finding
the Good in the Workplace Bully
An
Organizational Approach to Workplace Bullying
Managers and
administrators need to lift their gaze above the bullying event to determine
the damage or aftermath of the bully event. For example, are employee survey
ratings poor or perhaps avoided altogether? An analysis of the social
environments in the workplace and participation rates in team-building and
collaborative projects in the workplace will be another factor that might
indicate that the organization has more bystanders than initially thought. The
bystander effect suggests that the more witnesses there are concerning an
emergency or adverse event, the less likely individuals will step forward and
help. When a bully is left unchecked, bystanders feel that their intervention
would be too costly on a personal level or so insignificant to promote change
that the stress of remaining an apathetic bystander is considered a necessary
tradeoff. The longer the situation goes without healthy organizational culture
change, the more toxic and unstable the work environment will become.
