How Effective Leadership Can Prevent Workplace Bullying Essay

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The impact of workplace bullying on individual’s performance and well-being and how effective leadership can prevent workplace bullying

1. Introduction

Among the most salient aspects of an organizational climate potentially impacting an individual’s job satisfaction is workplace bullying on the part of coworkers or superiors. It constitutes any immoral or negative workplace issue such as abuse, harassment, etc. (Yahaya et al., 2012). It may be defined as a typically persistent, personal attack by one individual in a workplace on another, through the use of psychologically and emotionally abusive behaviors. This includes incessant unwelcome, demeaning, unpleasant conduct meted out by one or more people on another person or group within the organization. Yahaya and colleagues (2012) maintain that workplace bullying basically represents an act of aggression, frequently entailing psychological abuse and even, on occasion, minor levels of physical aggression. One must bear in mind the fact that the act of bullying can have very serious, potentially lethal consequences. In this paper, the negative effect workplace bullying has on personnel welfare and performance, besides the role of efficient leadership in preventing cases of workplace bullying, will be addressed.

Every individual naturally anticipates and welcomes a friendly work atmosphere, and the occurrence of adverse, immoral events will negatively impact personnel morale, turnover rates, and performance on the job; consequently, corporate results will suffer. A victim of bullying will be unable to function properly and effectively perform job tasks. Further, he/she will shy away from participating in certain extra-role behaviors that lend the company a competitive edge. Within the service sector, the client-service provider relationship determines personnel outcomes’ immense contribution to increasing client satisfaction with the service (Tag-Eldeen, Barakat and Dar, 2017). Hence, it is a rather vital task to examine workplace bullying, followed by tackling its sources and effects.

Workplace bullying has major consequences which must not be neglected. Its adverse impacts on the bullied person include decreased feelings of self-worth, anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue, and breakdown (Obicci, 2015). Furthermore, bullying has been linked to risks of developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and identity-related issues. The effects of bullying go beyond the workplace, impacting people’s overall quality of life. It has been found to be linked to increased powerlessness and decreased feelings of individual control and self-reliance.

2. Workplace bullying and individual’s performance

Personnel performance may be described as the capacity of handling external and internal relations and operations. This encompasses better communication, group and interpersonal processes, and capability of managing every sort of business issue. Further, it entails incorporation of better decision processes, increased efficacy and productivity, openness, better and more cost-effective resource utilization, increased collaboration and trust between members of the company, and enhanced destructive conflict management ability (Tag-Eldeen et al., 2017). The abovementioned objectives arise out of a value structure grounded in the following positive outlook towards mankind’s nature: individuals placed within supportive settings can attain superior growth and achievement levels.

Evidence exists to prove the fact that bullying within workplaces has adverse impacts, not only on the person being subject to it but also to the company. The victim may end up suffering from a decline in physical or psychological health. Psychological conditions may develop, which can ultimately result in loss of self-respect and self-esteem and even, in the worst case, suicidal ideation. Besides its influence on the victim, researchers indicate that individuals who are witness to such instances of bullying depict likelihood of experiencing certain aforementioned symptoms as well (Leblebici, 2012).

Prior researches into the association of bullying with job performance suggest that increased exposure to workplace bullying decreases job performance. Further, according to a meta-analysis, increased workplace bullying/harassment was weakly linked to poorer work performance levels (Obicci, 2015; Tag-Eldeen et al., 2017). With respect to counterproductive workplace conduct, the study by Dehue and coworkers (2012) demonstrated a substantial effect of interpersonal discord and other social stressors on counterproductive workplace conduct. According to the authors, workers subject to dissatisfaction or negative emotions will end up getting even by resorting to such conduct against the “hostile” entity responsible for the surfacing of such negative emotions within them. The findings of a meta-analysis by Devonish (2013) suggest an appreciable positive impact of workplace bullying on the intent to jump ship and counterproductive workplace conduct. Additionally, a scrutiny of workplace bullying’s contribution and victims’ related emotional responses demonstrated that with increase in bullying (and related adverse emotional response), counterproductive workplace conduct increases in frequency and intensity. A past research on the subject of individual-directed citizenship behaviors indicated that a growth in perceived abusive supervision was predictive of decreased citizenship behavior levels (Devonish, 2013; Leblebici, 2012).

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This research is not in the form of a direct scrutiny of workplace bullying but it does describe and operationalize abusive supervision by relying on behavioral descriptors such as terrorization, degradation, suppression of vital facts, and explicit and hidden aggressive conduct belonging to the behavioral domain of bullying at workplace settings.

Empirical research establishes the likelihood of affective psychological health mediating workplace bullying’s impacts (when considered in the form of a stressor) on performance at one’s job. Such researches prove the existence of important linkages between psychological health and bullying, besides relationships between performance and psychological welfare indicators. For instance, numerous longitudinal and cross-sectional researches indicate that the occurrence of workplace bullying adversely and directly affects job-related depression and job satisfaction (Giorgi et al., 2016; Tag-Eldeen et al., 2017). Further, one can find a similarly sound evidence pool suggesting that job-related depression and job satisfaction significantly predict personnel conduct and performance. This pool of evidence offers a robust academic base for arguing on and testing the likely case for indicators of psychological health as mediators of the personnel performance-workplace bullying link.

2.1. Workplace bullying, job satisfaction and performance

Studies targeted at ascertaining bullying incidence suggested that nursing staff victimized by workplace bullies reported substantially decreased work satisfaction levels, and increased turnover tendency, anxiety, and depression (Tag-Eldeen et al., 2017). But employer/organizational support was shown to be capable of safeguarding nursing staff from a few detrimental impacts of bullying. Likewise, other research scholars claim that exposure to bullying has the following negative consequences: decreased job satisfaction levels, potential to end up jobless, increased truancy, physical and psychosomatic disease symptoms, increased turnover intent, increased turnover rate and reduced efficiency and dedication to one’s job. Bullying as an affective relationship discord variant adversely influences personnel performance. But there are various factors including dissatisfaction, illness, truancy and turnover which render it challenging to explicitly establish the effects bullying experiences have on performance at one’s workplace activities and tasks, since certain workers are known to deliver adequate performance despite being victimized by bullies. Literature analyses indicate that notwithstanding the description, grouping, form, and strategy adopted in workplace bullying analysis, the act does influence personnel conduct and outlook. The research aimed at studying the link between workplace bullying, personnel performance and satisfaction keeping in mind an unindustrialized country as much of the pool of evidence available on the subject is based on information gleaned from industrialized countries.

Researches analyzing the association of job performance with job satisfaction yield controversial results. According to Obicci (2015), the concept of satisfied individuals exhibiting greater productivity was widely believed during the seventies. But it was tough to garner advocates for the theory that personnel performance was appreciably affected by job satisfaction. Aslam and Hussain (2015), in support of the above, observe that a majority of prior researches record a fragile, slightly inconsistent link between personnel performance at the workplace and their job satisfaction. Tag-Eldeen and colleagues’ (2017) findings, in contrast to prior opinions, demonstrated that job satisfaction predicted personnel performance and the association was more profound in case of professional jobs. Moreover, Yahaya and coworkers (2012) were able to establish a sound linkage between personnel performance and job satisfaction; nevertheless, they, too, observed that the linkage was inconsistent in nature. In other words, an inconclusive association exists between personnel performance and job satisfaction.

Leblebici (2012) established that personnel being subject to workplace bullying every day was a common phenomenon. Regardless of its intensity or kind, the act of bullying has an adverse influence on individuals’ job performance and overall wellness; in the interest of the company, it has to be shunned by management. A company’s workforce represents an important pillar of the business and in order for achieving corporate success, it is essential to offer personnel a friendly, supportive and favorable work climate. Indeed, personnel reporting less exposure to workplace bullying deliver more superior performance as compared to personnel with greater workplace bullying exposure. Likewise, bullying has an adverse impact on job satisfaction; further, a satisfied person will be able to deliver more superior performance. Consequently, it is imperative that corporations come up with, and implement, zero bullying tolerance policies through the application of harsh sanctions for bullies and the provision of appropriate assistance to their victims. Such a step will tend to decrease the act’s adverse….....

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