Bullying At Work Or Other Forms Of Workplace Discrimination

Bullying and Discrimination at Workplaces
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Abstract
The workplace bullying and discrimination have been a topic of several academic and institutional research works. In today’s complex and highly competitive markets the organizations are required to increase productivity, reduce costs, and encourage innovations. The negative behaviors like workplace bullying and discrimination are highlighted to be the main hurdles to achieving the previously mentioned organizational goals. The current research essay is focused on highlighting the negative effects of such behaviors for the organization and develops some recommendations for the organizations to eliminate such behaviors at their organizational levels.
Bullying and Discrimination at Workplaces
1 Background
Most of the working classes of society spend and dedicate most of their time to workplaces. Therefore, it is of crucial importance for the sustainable socio-economic development of the employees to work in a positive and friendly environment. It is a commonly admitted fact that if one person is feeling down, then they can bring an entire team down with themselves. Negativity and associated factors can have detrimental effects on the workplace and productivity of the employees (Foote, 2010). Moreover, if the employees have unnecessary pressures or uncontrollable parameters they are vulnerable to make mistakes which in turn can prove to be devastating for the organization (Foote, 2010). Moreover, owing to rapid globalization and ever-increasing competition in the market the employees have several options for perusing their careers in any other organization offering a better working environment as wells sustainable career development.
The most highlighted challenges faced by the working community in the workplaces are the factors identified as workplace bullying and workplace discrimination. It can be said that an average organization is a true representative of its parent community and negative attitudes like bullying and discrimination are not only devastating for the organization but the associated communities as well (Foote, 2010). The workplace bullying and discrimination based on religious, social, ethnic, and gender basis have been identified as critical factors which result in the demise of the organizations as well as the communities. This research essay aims to evaluate both workplace bullying and discrimination and its potential adverse effects on job satisfaction, and performance of the employees. The essay also aims to highlight some legislative developments as well as some best practices adopted by the organizations to reduce workplace bullying and discrimination.
2.1 Workplace Bullying
The concept of bullying is not a new one for developed countries like the United States of America. The bullying has been identified as the root cause of teenage depression as it is estimated that almost 80% of the high-school graduates have experienced bullying in their early ages (Oade, 2009). Unfortunately, despite several efforts, the behavior remains unchecked, and when “bullies” graduate and earn some place in the working class of the communities, they continue their negative attitudes ultimately affecting the workplace environment. The workplace bullying is identified as repeated, unreasonable actions of individuals (groups) directed towards an employee (a group of employees) aimed to degrade, frustrate, humiliate, and create hazardous or risky workplace environments for their victims (Oade, 2009).
The workplace bullying, mentioned above commonly involves an abuse or misuse of the power. The most adverse effects on the victims are the senses of defenselessness, injustice, and reduced job satisfaction levels. The workplace bullying is different from the “aggression,” the aggression involves the responsibility of organizational authorities once aimed at correcting the mistakes or ultimately motivating the increase in the productivity of employees (Oade, 2009). The “bullying” refers to a situation in which the employees are constantly threatened by the management or the authorities over a certain personal or social character of their victims. These behaviors can be started by the management, labor representatives, and contract workers.
Some types of workplace bullying also include the negative attitude of the employees towards their employees rather than a supervisor bullying a subordinate. This type of behavior has a commonly used name “mobbing” (Oade, 2009). The management of the organization, therefore, requires to take sufficient actions to discourage such behaviors in their organizations. According to a survey conducted in the year 2005, almost of 41.4% of the general working force in the United States has experienced workplace bullying at some point of their careers which increased to 47.4% in the following year 2006 (Tehrani, 2013). Most of the participants reported experiencing such behaviors more than once a week. The common indications of the workplace bullying are summarized in the following points:
• Unnecessary or invalid criticism
• The place of blames without providing any facts or reasonable justification to the victims
• The biased treatment of the employees and leaving out the victims from the decision making processes
• Socially isolating the victims
• The management or supervisors employee excess monitoring and micro-managing attitudes towards their victims
2.2 Workplace Discrimination
The United Nations International Labor Organization defined workplace discrimination in its charter published in the year 2015 as,
“Any distinction, exclusion or preference made by race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, natural or social extraction, and has the capability of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or organization” (Crosby, Stockdale, & Ropp, 2007, p.18).
The definition presented above is the globally accepted definition of discrimination and the will to eliminate such negative behaviors from the organizational infrastructures. Despite enormous national and international efforts, workplace discrimination is still a significant factor in most of the developed or underdeveloped communities of the world. The most commonly observed forms of discrimination are known as gender-based, religion-based, and racial discrimination (Crosby, Stockdale, & Ropp, 2007). Like workplace bullying, the discrimination experienced by the employees has been observed to have several adverse effects on the employee’s job satisfaction and productivity.
The previously mentioned types of workplace discrimination have their unique effects on the working environments of the organizations. The gender-based discrimination has been identified as the major cause for the exclusion of women from the general workforce at a global level (Foote, 2010). Unfortunately, in some countries of the world, several occupations like engineering, first respondents, military combat roles, and political or administrative positions are banned for the women. Even in the United States the role firefighters, police, and federal institutes like the armed forces do not favor inc...