Psychology at Work: Five ways to tackle workplace bullying

By Binna Kandola, Management Today

How can organisations prevent bullying in the workplace? And how should they deal with it if it happens?

‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man’. If ever there was a mantra for the organisational bully, then George Bernard Shaw provided it. This of course is brought to mind with the allegations of Gordon Brown bullying his staff at Number 10. Bullies at work will rationalise their behaviour in any number of ways:

- “My standards are high”

- “I won’t accept poor quality work”

- “I am a better manager than others you have had”

All of these statements can of course be used by people who treat others with respect and decency. But the bully needs them to justify to him or herself that their behaviour is a result of a positive motive.

ACAS define bullying as something that has happened to someone that is unwelcome, unwarranted and causes detrimental effect. Psychologists have added that the behaviour must occur over a certain time period, say several months, so that it excludes one-off incidents. There can also be a tendency to think that bullying is fairly obvious to detect – for example, physical intimidation, public humiliation, personal insults. But there can be more subtle and yet just as damaging behaviour that isn’t as obvious, e.g. setting someone up to fail in their work, spreading rumours about a person’s competence, withholding information, giving an unrealistic workload.

There are some straightforward steps that an organisation can take to tackle bullying:

1. Have a zero tolerance policy
A policy will make it clear that bullying is unacceptable in the workplace. The policy needs to describe what bullying is, and more importantly, what steps a person can take if they feel it is happening to them.

2. Provide training
Everyone in the organisation needs to know what the policy says – what bullying is, and where you can turn to for help if it is happening to you. More contentiously perhaps, you can also provide training in how to deal with bullying and other forms of inappropriate behaviour. Some may think that such training places the onus on the victim to do something. In fact, it will empower individuals to take action for themselves.

3. Be a role model
Managers, especially senior managers, can all act as role models. There is no point having a policy that the most senior people then just ignore.

4. Take complaints seriously
Make sure that when someone does complain, it’s treated seriously. Listen, investigate but don’t try to sweep it under the carpet. Cases that reach the employment tribunals are invariably as a result of the complaint being mishandled, particularly in the early stages. The other important rule though is to keep any investigations confidential – something that, astonishingly, the CEO of the National Bulling Helpline, Christine Pratt, totally disregarded when revealing that her organisation had received calls from the Prime Minster’s office.

5. Watch out for tell-tale signs
This could include a drop in performance, increased sickness absence or a loss of confidence. If you see indicators like this, try to understand what might be behind it. If you see someone behaving in a way that you think is poor, then let them know.