History and Background

Bullying is a term which is familiar to almost everyone in recent days. It is basically a kind of harassment that can severely affect the mental wellbeing of any person. This unwelcomed behaviour mostly characterized as insulting, malicious and offensive that can humiliate or even injure the person as well. Bullying in the workplace is one of the greatest concerns in Canada. It has become a health and safety issue for the workers (Nielsen, Einarsen, Notelaers & Nielsen, 2016). In this regard it has gained widespread attention as bullying contributes to the reduction in employee productivity. Indeed, it creates a toxic environment in the workplace and employees suffer from several mental health hazards due to this (Verkuil, Atasayi & Molendijk, 2015). This paper will thoroughly check the history and background of bullying and how it harms the wellbeing of workers. It will also review some literatures to find evidence in this regard. Finally the paper will conclude with some vital recommendations that can be helpful in achieving a healthy environment in the workplace.   

Workplace bullying is directly associated with variety of physical as well as psychological issues suffered by victims and it includes stress, shock, excessive anger, loss of sleep, frustration and others. In some studies it has also been found that victims can suffer from post-traumatic disorder. The physical health injury due to bullying can also be immediate such as headaches, somatisation, stomach-ache etc. Many previous studies have revealed that workplace bullying can even cause some serious health problems and even it may lead to heart attack or some other diseases which are life-threatening as well. In some cases, due to the adverse effects of bullying, the victims could not come back to the work and at the same time it is harmful for the reputation of the organization. It affects it productivity and turnover. The organizations also face difficulties in hiring if the reputation is affected due the practice of bullying (Sansone & Sansone, 2015).

In order to reach in the depth of analysis it is important to find the actual definition of the term workplace bullying. According to some authors, bullying is basically defined by its social manifestations and it is clearly classifiable similar to some unwanted behaviours during interpersonal interactions in work settings (Ariza-Montes, Muniz, Montero-Simó & Araque-Padilla, 2013). Again according to some other authors, bullying at work refers to offending, harassing and socially excluding someone in the workplace and also affecting someone’s task in a negative manner (Giorgi et al., 2016). Therefore, workplace bullying, an act or using verbal words that affects the mental wellbeing of the workers in an organization.

Research

Workplace bullying has been a great concern for the Canadians but unfortunately no specific laws and regulations are not there addressing the issue. However, various rules and regulations have been identified by the government that includes occupational health and safety act and the jurisdiction is specific workplace violence and harassment but no legislation specifically addressed workplace bullying that will establish the duty of employers to protect the employees from risks within the workplace. In addition, some human right laws that prohibits the harassments that are related to race, sex, age, religion or sexual orientation and others. In certain difficult situation, these laws can be applied to bullying in order to save the victim (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and safety, 2017).   

Prevalence of bullying and its effects of the mental health of the victims are severe. According to some authors, workplace bullying generates physical, psychological as well as behavioural changes among the employees. Studies revealed the fact that bullying exposure and witnessed bullying of others is associated with lower levels of psychological health status. Literatures indicated that victims of bullying suffers from several mental health disorders such as anxiety, low self confidence, depression, disappointment, uncertainty and others. Due to adverse effects of bullying, victims suffer from insomnia that leads to frustration and depression. Moreover, in the comparative study between the psychological health status of victims of bullying and the people who did not experience bullying, clearly disclosed that fact that in case of the victims of bullying, their psychological health status is comparatively poor (Chatziioannidis, Bascialla, Chatzivalsama, Vouzas & Mitsiakos, 2018).  

Workplace violence is an extremely serious issue and organizations must follow proper strategies to address and remove them from the working environment to create a safe and secure workplace for all the employees. Some studies focussed on the intervention strategies against bullying and they indicated that organizations should form anti-bullying policies in this regard which will look upon the overall organizational culture and health. Again, studies also indicated that conflict moderation can also be an effective strategy in order to address the issue regarding workplace bullying. Coaching or training of the employees about the adverse effects of bullying can be also helpful for the organization to create a bullying free environment within the workplace. A strong communication among all the members of the organization will be helpful. In this way, employees will have the access to the communication channel and support systems provided by the higher authority of the organization. Clear guidelines and fast and effective processing of complaints can be also helpful as the strategy against bullying (Escartín, 2016).

Recommendations

Bullying has become an issue in many organizations and they are looking forward for the most effective strategies that can help to address the issue and to uproot it in order to maintain the safety of the workers which in turn will improve the productivity of the organization. Various strategies have been implemented by various organizations to stop the bullying within the organization and in most of the cases the strategies were helpful in stopping the bullying action. One of those successful strategies includes training and education of the employees on the adverse effects of workplace bullying. Making all the employees aware of the possible negative effects was helpful in many organizations. Again some other studies in this regard indicated, an improved access to the communication services available within the organization was also helpful in reducing the action of bullying (Van den Brande et al., 2017).

According to Canadian Legislations and occupational safety act, no significant jurisdiction is present in addressing the issue of bullying in the workplace and therefore, it is the duty of parliament to look into matter and amend different laws to address the issue. Application of some extensive literature on bullying as a control technique would be effective, and if all the employees of any organization are motivated to have knowledge about the literatures and be self-confident and respectful to each other, then that would be helpful. Training in this regard is the best way to educate the employees (Akella, 2016). An effective leader to monitor the working practice and to manage any conflict is also necessary. Employees should have allowance to access the communication and support system of the organization in case of any complaint or help. The duty of organization would be to set some policies and strategies to ensure the safety of the workers whist working.

Conclusion

This study represents a comprehensive attempt to review the definition of workplace bullying and its adverse effects on the mental as well as the physical wellbeing of the victims of it. The paper clearly depicted the issues that victims of bullying might face and how it affects the reputation of the organization also been clearly portrayed in the paper. A thorough research has been made to find the answers of several questions such as definition of bullying, laws and legislations of Canada against bullying, health impacts on employees, strategies to prevent bullying and some proven strategies against bullying in the workplace. Finally some recommendations, addressing workplace bullying has also been illustrated in this paper. It is being assumed that government action in this regard is essential and if all the recommendations are duly followed then it will be easier to develop a better workplace environment by removing bullying from it.

References

Akella, D. (2016). Workplace Bullying: Not a Manager’s Right?. SAGE Open, 6(1), 2158244016629394. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244016629394 

Ariza-Montes, A., Muniz, N. M., Montero-Simó, M. J., & Araque-Padilla, R. A. (2013). Workplace bullying among healthcare workers. International journal of environmental research and public health, 10(8), 3121-3139. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10083121

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and safety. (2017, November 07). Bullying in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/bullying.html#top 

Chatziioannidis, I., Bascialla, F. G., Chatzivalsama, P., Vouzas, F., & Mitsiakos, G. (2018). Prevalence, causes and mental health impact of workplace bullying in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit environment. BMJ open, 8(2), e018766. Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/2/e018766 

Escartín, J. (2016). Insights into workplace bullying: psychosocial drivers and effective interventions. Psychology research and behavior management, 9, 157. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2FPRBM.S91211 

Giorgi, G., Perminien?, M., Montani, F., Fiz-Perez, J., Mucci, N., & Arcangeli, G. (2016). Detrimental effects of workplace bullying: impediment of self-management competence via psychological distress. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 60. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpsyg.2016.00060

Nielsen, M. B., Einarsen, S., Notelaers, G., & Nielsen, G. H. (2016). Does exposure to bullying behaviors at the workplace contribute to later suicidal ideation? A three-wave longitudinal study. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. Doi:10.5271/sjweh.3554

Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2015). Workplace bullying: a tale of adverse consequences. Innovations in clinical neuroscience, 12(1-2), 32. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4382139/ 

Van den Brande, W., Baillien, E., Vander Elst, T., De Witte, H., Van den Broeck, A., & Godderis, L. (2017). Exposure to workplace bullying: the role of coping strategies in dealing with work stressors. BioMed research international, 2017. Retrieved from https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2017/1019529/ 

Verkuil, B., Atasayi, S., & Molendijk, M. L. (2015). Workplace bullying and mental health: a meta-analysis on cross-sectional and longitudinal data. PloS one, 10(8), e0135225. Doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0135225