Incentive - May 2008 - (Page 33)

BULLY t might be as simple as spreading an unflattering rumor, or as serious as the deliberate sabotage of a coworker’s project, but bullying in the workplace is more common and more severe than many realize, new research indicates. And as the problem of on-the-job aggression gets more attention, experts suggest that incentives will be a valuable tool for shutting down this bad behavior and ensuring a civil and safe workplace. The Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash., that researches the behavior, defines workplace bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment” that includes verbal abuse, threatening or humiliating conduct and work interference. The group differentiates a “bully” from a “tough boss,” particularly by defining a bully as one who undermines the legitimate business interests of the organization, putting personal agendas over the work itself (while a tough boss who might be a jerk—making employees stay late or coming down hard on underperformers— at least ostensibly has the organization’s best interests in mind). Bullying is personal, ongoing, and destructive, and according to recent reports, it’s a big problem. Researchers at Canada’s Queen’s University and the University of Manitoba released a study in March that made the claim that hostility in the office causes more serious emotional and performance-related problems than sexual harassment. Drawing on 110 studies, the researchers examined bullying and sexual harassment in relation to outcomes such as job satisfaction, turnover and psychological health. The results indicated that both sexual harassment and aggression BY ALEX PALMER I had unhealthy consequences for employees, but in the cases of bullying these were consistently more severe. This study came just a few months after a Zogby International survey estimated that 37 percent of employees had experienced bullying at work. When made aware of the cases, employers in 62 percent of them ignored the problem or made it worse, according to Zogby. “The experience is terrifying and sometimes really life-destroying for all periods of peoples’ lives,” says Professor Pamela Lutgin-Sandvik of Arizona State University, who has been studying workplace bullying for about eight years. Unlike the broad and quantitative surveys impact bullying has on companies financially. He says organizations that ignore bullying “are hurting themselves. [Bullies] work counter to the business mission, they work counter to productivity and profitability.” The institute’s research puts annual turnover costs for an average Fortune 500 company at $16 million, and litigation costs at anywhere between $225,000 to $1.4 million, due to bullying. “And yet, the organization [protects] the bullies, the assertive ones, the highly aggressive ones, out of loyalty, instead of paying attention to the bottom line,” says Namie. Namie and others have been actively lobbying for “healthy workplace” legislation that would make certain kinds of “[Bullies] work counter to the business mission, they work counter to productivity and profitability.” –Gary Namie, the Workplace Bullying Institute conducted by Zogby and the Canadian researchers, Lutgin-Sandvik’s research draws on focus group interviews and detailed case studies of individual victims. During a set of interviews she and two colleagues conducted in 2003, LutginSandvik says that the victims “described the experience as ‘like a nightmare’ or ‘being in prison,’ or they described the bully as being ‘evil’ or a ‘demon’…It was very, very disturbing. After those focus groups, the three of us had to debrief for about an hour or so because it was so emotionally draining.” Gary Namie, the founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, emphasizes the hostile behavior illegal. These sorts of laws proliferate in many other developed nations, including Britain’s Protection from Harassment Act (2001) and Quebec’s Psychological Harassment at Work regulation (2004). The United States’ discrimination and sexual harassment laws prohibit unfair treatment based on race, gender or lifestyle, but general workplace harassment continues as “discrimination without illegality,” as Namie describes it. “We’re starting to give a name to [bullying], which helps give a sense of meaning to it,” says David Yamado, a professor at the Suffolk University Law School in Boston and president of the incentivemag.com | May 2008 | Incentive | 33 http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - May 2008

Incentive - May 2008 Contents Editor's Note: Turn to Incentives in Hard Times In The News: At IMRA Conference, Trade Show Talk; In Utah, Team-Building Trauma Cover Story: Can Incentives Save the Media Business? Incentive Interview: Our New Columnist, Christi L. Gibson Case Study: Architecture Firm WESKetch Builds a Recognition Plan Incentives in a Recession: Advice on Adjusting Your Plan Office Bullies: The Scourge of the Workplace Can Be Reined In Original Research: Incentive Sales IQ Report Recognition@Work: Stop Driving Your Top People Away Incentive Primer: Ways to Foster Creativity in Your Organization Travel News Puerto Rico: Shining Star's Trendy Makeover Mexico: Cancun and Cabo Still Have It Potentials Here and Now Luggage and Leather Goods Gift Cards: F&B Advertiser Index Last Word: Stanley Bing Gives Wimpy Bosses a Nuggie

Incentive - May 2008

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