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What To Do About the Workplace Bully
Kerry Fallon Horgan

"An international expert has likened the psychological impact of workplace bullying to the experience of people in concentration camps. Norway’s Dr Stale Einarsen says ongoing physical and psychological abuse in the workplace can result in severe post traumatic stress disorder, which is compounded by society’s failure to accept bullying as a serious problem. Einarsen studied more than 10,000 people." (1)

Workplace bullying is devastating for both the victim and the business bottom line. More than ever before achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage requires high performing, flexible, innovative workplace cultures. Yet the solid foundations for building such cultures are either non-existent or at best very shaky in many Australian workplaces today.

The foundations of high performing cultures include trust, respect, empowerment and feeling both physically and emotionally safe. These fundamental building blocks are shattered by bullying behaviours that can occur at any level in the organisation. The higher up the organisation the bullying behaviour occurs the greater the overall negative impact.

Unfortunately even in organisations that espouse values of respect, inclusion and valuing of the individual, can be found cultures characterised by bullying, distrust, fear and blame. In these workplaces the reality does not reflect the rhetoric. What is actually found are work practices which constantly undermine employees’ self-esteem and deprive employees of their basic right to enjoy their working life.

Bullying behaviours range from the obvious verbal abuse to insidious intimidation tactics, ongoing criticism (which is particularly humiliating when it takes place in front of work colleagues), constantly dismissing someone’s opinion, withholding information, isolation and ever increasing demands to do more and more with less and less.

The consequences are devastating in terms of the physical and mental trauma suffered by the victims as well as the effects on the bottom line. The effects on organisations can include high turnover, high sick leave, increased compensation payouts and premiums, safety risks, low morale, low commitment, stress leave, inability to concentrate, employee resentment, cheating the organisation, lost opportunity costs (eg ability to attract the best talent), reduced productivity and loss of a company’s social licence to operate.

The management style in these workplaces is often one of command and control dominated by ego centric leadership which tends to replicate itself at every level. Despite the research linking emotional intelligence and organisational performance, this management competency is distinctly lacking and unrewarded in these workplaces.

Addressing bullying behaviours requires both individual and strategic workplace culture change. Strategies include:

• Visible senior management commitment to a zero tolerance for workplace bullying
• Training in dealing with workplace bullying, starting at the top of the organisation
• Undertaking regular workplace audits to determine the types and extent of bullying behaviours I use a customised on-line survey to analyse these workplace issues
• Developing a workplace bullying policy as part of an overall harassment prevention policy and a trusted complaints resolution procedure in consultation with management and staff
• Training all employees in what constitutes workplace bullying as well as individual and organisational rights and responsibilities and how to resolve grievances
• Train a network of peer contact support staff or at the very least a designated contact person
• Opportunities for employees to participate in professionally facilitated dialogues on behaviours and attitudes that undermine performance.
• Counselling services for both the victim and the bully
• Individual coaching for the bullying manager/supervisor on communication, conflict resolution and management competencies particularly emotional intelligence and performance management.
• Accountability, recognition and rewards for good management practices
• Disciplining of poor management practices such as bullying
• Recruitment processes that ensure you employ managers with good people skills
• Protection from any victimisation for people who complain about bullying and follow up of the outcome of complaints
• Implementing a workplace communication strategy eg a shortcut to the policy on the computer desk top, stickers/signs/mouse mats on zero tolerance, emails from the CEO, an agenda item at staff meetings, reference to the policy in ‘terms and conditions of employment’ and in induction programs, translation of the bullying policy and complaints procedure into appropriate languages, plain English stories of relevant court cases in the company newsletter, reminders of who are the trained contact officers, on-line quizzes to test employees knowledge.
• Monitoring through exit interviews, sick leave and workers’ compensation data, and regular bullying audits.

For assistance in ensuring that bullying is being adequately addressed in your workplace contact Kerry Fallon Horgan on telephone 612 9402 4741. For more information on workplace bullying see the Age article at www.flexibility.com.au

(1) My Career On Sunday, Sun Herald, 17 March 2002
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CEO, Bob Joss, on the flexible workplace (part 2)
Part 2, of Kerry Fallon Horgan’s interview with Bob Joss, former CEO of Westpac, considers the how of implementing flexible work practices.

How have you facilitated flexible work practices within the organisation?

The main thing is to have policies and support in place so that managers who really want to make it work and work with their staff have the ability to do that. Our job we think is to open up as many opportunities and clear out as many unnecessary obstacles as we can so that people have a chance to experiment and still get the job done. I think the main theme in all that is to stay focused on outcomes and performance, and not worry about all the inputs (whether people put in so many hours).

The two key benefits are better customer service (because we’re able to staff our centres and our branches and our customer facing activities more hours of the day and more days of the week) and also a better quality and better-motivated workforce.

Yes. The flexible work hours and the ability to work part time, I would say that is the most outstanding success because we now have 20% of our workforce are part time people and it was virtually zero 10 years ago.

The disadvantage is that it’s more difficult to manage. It’s more difficult to be a people manager and a supervisor because you’ve got different hours and people coming and going. So that puts a whole new complexity to the personal supervision element of a manager’s job and requires him or her to be flexible as well as to offer flexible work practices. They have to have a great flexibility in their mind as well as in their capacity to deal with people and those uncertainties.

I think the barriers are clearly policies and practices that simply don’t allow experimentation and don’t allow non-traditional ways of doing work. That also includes management mindsets that are a big barrier. The enablers are essentially clearing away everything that has to do with inputs and process, and focus on outputs and what is it you’re trying to accomplish as a company.

From our point of view the strategy is first of all for us to create that kind of management leadership model and demand that of our managers and supervisors. That’s part of their job, to open up this flexibility, this permissiveness, and this experimentation. In addition we have to work with our union to see that they indeed will also be champions of these practices on behalf of their members who want them. Because if you open up the environment and allow it to be permissible, just be clear on what is to be accomplished, our people will work it out.

You do it over and over again in terms of that’s the kind of philosophy we have and that’s the sort of management thinking we want. It’s some in writing; it’s some in talking. We’re still searching for the best way to communicate it. We know the most effective communication with staff takes place one-to one in front of people and it takes place between the supervisor and his or her staff. So ultimately we’ve got to find ways to get that information down there.

The main thing that is required in exchange for the flexible practices is a flexible attitude on their part and a willingness to try to accommodate their personal preferences to the needs of the business. The other is to stay very focused on the outcomes that are necessary the delivering better solutions to the customers. If people stay focused on being flexible and serving customers according to the needs of our business plan, then the benefit is that we’ll be as flexible as possible with them.

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Work/Life Balance: An Issue of Leadership Paper presented by Robin Elliott at the Work/Life Issues Conference in Sydney 2002
The challenge in moving the work/life balance issue from rhetoric to reality is one of leadership. At both an organisational and individual level, leadership is called for in terms of willingness to change, motivation to do things differently and the ability to forge a new path. Consciously creating organisational cultures which embody new values requires commitment and courage, but these cultures are the key to keeping and motivating a productive, multi-skilled workforce. These cultures build the sustainable workplaces of the future. Work/life balance is more than a family-friendly promotion; it is an organisational imperative.

My interest in leadership within organisations was first sparked in the mid 1990’s when I studied the experiences of female partners in chartered accounting firms. I figured that these women would have a leadership story to tell, they were the trailblazers of their time, they went where women had not previously been, they tackled obstacles and barriers, removed them and in doing so created new workplace cultures. This study, along with my subsequent work with organisations and their people, has led me to the following insights about how to drive new initiatives in business.

What’s It About?
There’s been a lot written about leadership. At last count some 70,000 books. Here’s some of my thoughts to add to the debate.

I believe that leadership is about taking a stand. It is about confronting belief systems, it is about ‘fighting the fights that need fighting’, it is about consciously dealing with resistance. Now this may sound a little war-like, I can assure you that I am a most gentle person! But the reality of change is about removing old boundaries, old terms of reference, and replacing them with new ones. I would urge you all today to take the stance of being a gentle warrior, to know that at times you must agitate for change, that nothing will happen unless you start the process. That until you take that first step towards changing what you see has had its day, the status quo will remain.

When I say these things (I am known to say them often) I invariably hear people say ‘but where do I start’. An overwhelmed look comes over their face, and they look at me and say ‘do you expect me to be the change, do you expect me to start this process, do you expect me to overturn the system? And I say to them, but you are the system, if you want the system to change, the only sure place to start is with yourself. Mahatma Gandhi said it first: ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

My call to action, if you like, is because it appears that leadership is not a quality we are necessarily comfortable with, or rewarded for. A recent study from Mt Eliza Business School (February 2002), in which 300 Australasian businesses were surveyed, showed that there is a cultural resistance to strong leadership. Australian business managers are focused on short-term managing at the expense of long-term strategy and leadership. Whilst many view leadership as an ideal few are translating theory into action.

Well I am speaking to a room full of Australian business leaders here today and I wonder if you share that view, or if you are meeting that scene back in your organisations? I wonder if you are prepared to prove the study wrong? I wonder if you have a different opinion?

Getting Started and Keeping Going
People I have encountered who have led change are invariably courageous, with an ability to rise to a challenge rather than fall into a problem. They are, as a Professor of Entrepreneurship recently observed, driven by a desire, or even a need, to leave permanent footprints in human history, but who never feel that the footprints they have so far left are significant enough. They are relentless in their pursuit of excellence.

Starting change is one thing, but it is this ability of leaders to keep going which defines success. Because invariably when driving change, you will meet resistance, you will find yourself confronting and working with the established power bases within your organisation, the very factors which have formed and shaped your business and made it what it is today.

Influence can come from a variety of sources. We can persuade, exchange, praise, assert, inspire and consult. We can form coalitions or use our legitimate position power in a more authoritian manner. But through all this a process of change and influence arises.

Getting To Yes
This process or ritual of change I liken to a ritual I would assume we’ve all experienced, the dating process. The change process seems to me to be that same dance of caution and boldness, with the same stages of courting, engagement and commitment. Initiating, influencing and implementing change is the process of going from no to yes, with various transition points in between.

Courting
We must court a new idea or process as we would a prospective partner. This stage is the ‘getting to know you’ stage, both in terms of the organisation and particular individuals. It is the time when we start talking, because real change only ever happens when real talking begins. Start the education process, address the ‘so what’ factor. Why is the change needed? Unearth the organisational issues, who thinks what, who are your allies, who are your supporters? Actively court your allies and try to understand your foes. The courting stage is about dismantling mind sets, setting visions, showing people there is another way. It is about presenting the business case, selling your idea. This is the agitation period, where you throw the stone into the pond and make ripples. It is the period where you seek to gain your critical mass.

Engagement
Try it. Introduce some new trial policies, make some trial adjustments, test the water. Set and refine your boundaries. Get some tentative assurances.

Commitment
Make a decision. Take a stand. Put the pressure on. Get a commitment so that you can implement your ideas and anchor them into reality. Get to yes.

Finally, within this process, is the part that time plays. I am a firm believer in time being the great sifter of all things, and that structural change such as we are seeking in the work/life balance argument takes time. A long time. Our great leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, know this. They see time as their ally, they work with it rather than against it. Know when to react and when to be still, because both have a part to play in the change process. Some parts of the change process are quieter than others, but just as legitimate.

Change does not happen over night but it does happen. Work/life balance is an issue that remains firmly on the change agenda. Increasingly, as the business case for it is accepted, the issue will become one of leadership, about ensuring it moves from rhetoric to reality.
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Ethical Business and Sustainable Communities
An article by Attacta Lagan author of Why Ethics Matter (Information Aust)

In this article Attracta makes a business case for ethical behaviour in the workplace. She points out that major corporations are increasingly recognising that they now need to negotiate their social as well as their legal licence to operate. That what now informs the new business development strategies of leading corporations is enlightened self-interest and corporate philosophies of doing well by doing good. And that when practiced with integrity ethics is a major contributor to performance, to increased market capitalisation and to the enhancement of the wider social context in which business is embedded. To find out: