Study uncovers 22 types of workplace bullying

Subtle, negative types of behaviour that threaten staff engagement and cause absenteeism are slipping under the radar and deserve more attention from HR, research shows.

Researchers studied 500 Australian employees over a 12-month period, and their report identifies 22 distinct experiences or acts of bullying in the workplace:

1. Withholding information;
2. Humiliation/ridicule;
3. Allocating work below the person's level of competence;
4. Removing responsibility;
5. Gossip/rumours;
6. Ignoring/exclusion;
7. Personal insults;
8. Shouting;
9. Intimidating behaviour;
10. Hints/signals to quit the job;
11. Reminders of errors/mistakes;
12. Ignoring/hostile reactions;
13. Persistent criticism;
14. Opinions ignored;
15. Practical jokes;
16. Unreasonable deadlines;
17. Making allegations;
18. Excessive monitoring of work;
19. Pressure to not claim entitlements;
20. Excessive teasing;
21. Unreasonable workloads; and
22. Threats of violence/abuse and actual abuse.

They found these negative acts appeared across five distinct subtypes of workplace bullying, which they identified as: no bullying; limited indirect bullying; task-related bullying; occasional bullying; and frequent bullying, all of which were linked to absenteeism via physical and mental health problems and lower work engagement.

Co-author of the report, and associate professor at the University of Wollongong's School of Psychology, Christopher Magee says when people think about bullying in the workplace they tend to think of violence and aggression. "That's actually not that common," he says. "It's all these subtle types like ignoring people or micro-managing. When we look at all these covert types, I guess it's not that surprising that it's happening quite regularly."

Whereas previous studies have asked workers, 'have you been bullied?', this study looked into these specific and indirect acts of bullying. What it found was bullying occurred in a number of ways and at different frequencies. No bullying, for example, was characterised by a very low frequency of workplace bullying experiences, whereas task-related bullying occurred when someone had few instances of person-related bullying (hints/signals to quit job, practical jokes, excessive teasing and threats of violence/abuse and actual abuse) but occasional experiences of things like withholding information, reminders of errors/mistakes and their opinions ignored.

Magee told HR Daily it's important for employers to make very clear what types of behaviours are not acceptable in the workplace. "A lot of organisations have policies around workplace bullying but they're very vague and unclear, so when it does occur there's not a lot they can do to hold people to account," he says. "When bullying does occur it's important that an organisation actually acts and is proactive in responding to it."

But he says while the research is helpful for HR professionals in preventing and managing workplace bullying, it's not always useful to label all these acts as bullying. "It's more a matter of, 'this is stuff that's not accepted in the workplace'. There can be a stigma associated with bullying but certainly this shows there's some issues with the workplace culture that might need to be addressed."

Because some acts of bullying are particularly subtle, they can also slip under the radar. "People think these behaviours don't have much of an impact," Magee says. "Our research shows that even people experiencing the most subtle kinds of bullying are not as happy in the workplace or psychologically well.

"What happens with those more subtle types of bullying is they can escalate over time into more severe bullying."

Magee says organisations should focus on building a positive workplace, and encourage leadership that is transformational rather than transactional by giving people positive feedback, autonomy, and the resources to do their job.

Despite being quite common, one thing that can trigger workplace bullying is organisational restructure, he adds. "The way that some people handle or respond to that uncertainty is by lashing out at other people or becoming more competitive and that can lead to a negative workplace and foster bullying over time."

Magee says the answer is for HR to see this type of behaviour as an organisational issue and not put the blame on individuals.

"It's really important that organisations step in and do something about it. Good, strong leadership and communication are things that can really help during times of uncertainty."

Originally posted at - https://www.hrdaily.com.au/nl06_news_selected.php?act=2&nav=13&selkey=4616&utm_content=bufferad378&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer