Thursday, March 22, 2018

The Psychology of the Swamp No. 6: It Takes More than Playing Nice to Resolve Violence and Bullying



When bullying occurs, it is because of toxic cultures that create unhealthy drives and unmet needs. From the corporate leader to the employee and even to the school bully or popular cliques bully-type behavioral choices are in response to perceived unmet needs and threats. For example, corporate leaders and employee may feel insecure about company stability, performance, education and development demands, being fired, safety, benefits, or just making enough to support the family. Some of the fears students face are failing, gaining independence successfully, finding the right career and major, being responsible for self-care, falling in love, making friends, or just being lost in the system.

It is not enough to ask leaders, employees or students to befriend loners or victims of bullying and all of a sudden play nice and be kind toward one another.  Primal responses to fear and abandonment create bully-type behaviors and responses. These primal instincts that are fear-based become drives for humans to return to equilibrium or homeostasis during or after stressful events or pressures. Leaders, employees, and students often respond to this stress with unhealthy and sometimes unconscious internal drives to dominate and divide.  The unmet needs of individuals, organizations and cultural groups must be addressed first so that instinctual impulses or the sympathetic nervous system arousal is not on automatic flight or fight. The question is, do you know the unmet needs of your leaders, employees or students?

Finding the Good in the Workplace Bully




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