Term Paper on "Workplace Bullying"

Term Paper 44 pages (11976 words) Sources: 25 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Workplace Bullying

"Do you bully people or have you done so in the past?" (Peyton, 2003, p. 7) constitutes one contemporary concern/question currently challenging employees in workplaces all over the world. In response to contemporary, challenging concerns related to answers to this leading question, this paper explores the prevalence, forms and impact of workplace bullying in a sample of 26 executive secretaries and personal assistants from 22 private organizations in Bangkok, Thailand during June 2007.

Using a Workplace Bullying Questionnaire, this study seeks to answer the following questions:

How many of the executive secretaries and personal assistants are victims of workplace bullying?

How many of the executive secretaries and personal assistants have witnessed an individual being bullied at work?

What are the different forms of workplace bullying experienced by the executive secretaries and personal assistants?

What are the consequences of workplace bullying?

Is there a significant relationship between the position of the bully and the event of bullying?

How does the company handle workplace bullying?

Methods of statistical analysis utilized to complete this study include:

1) Percentile ranks (to obtain the number of victims of workplace bullying and those who have witnessed workplace bullying), and 2) Chi square test (to discover the extent of relationships between the position of the bully and the event of bullying).

Answers retrieved from additional research questions complements this research effort. Information collected from this research may help human resource managers, industrial psychologists and counselors to create new or complement current visionary programs and policies related to workplace bullying. This study also discusses theoretical and practical issues, as well as, reports limitations experienced during the course of completing answers to "bullying," sometimes serve to fuse senseless explosive scenarios.

Abstract ii

List of Figures vi

List of Tables vii

CHAPTER: INTRODUCTION 1

Bullying Admissions 1 Definitely Out There 2 Research Background 2 Study Area 3 Research Questions and/or Considerations 4 Aim and Objectives 6 Bank, Thailand 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 10

Significance of this Literature Review 10 Review of Research Questions and Hypothesis 10 Bullying, per se 11 One Research Project 12 in Time 13 Seven Tests of Just Cause 14

Serious, Potentially Harmful Behaviors 16

CHAPTER 3: DATA and METHODS 19

The "Solution" Process 19 Mixed Method Methodology

Workplace Bullying Questionnaire

CHAPTER 4: Presentation and Analyses of Data

Considering Complaints, Consequences and Constraints 26 Participants' Demographics and Data

Participants' Personal Perceptions 29

Constraints on Complaints? 40

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS 45

Just Cause" 45

Discussion 47

Conclusion

Recommendations

APPENDICES

Appendix a:

Appendix B:

References

LIST of FIGURES

Figure 1: Map Bangkok, Thailand - Distant View 8 Figure 2: Map Bangkok, Thailand - Closer Perspective 8 Figure 3: Map Bangkok, Thailand - Closer to Bangkok 9 Figure 4: Map Bangkok, Thailand - Bulls Eye View 9

Figure 5: Mind Map for Workplace Bullying Research Project

Figure 6: Seven Tests for "Just Cause" Relating to Zero Tolerance 27

Figure 7: Percentages of Victimized Participants Compared to Witnesses of Victims 29

Figure 8: Sexes of Bullies Identified by Participants 30

Figure 9: Comparison of Authority of Bully and Victim 31

Figure 10: Participants' Perceived Reasons for Bullying Incidents 32 Figure 11: Bullying Forms reported by Participants (Part 1) 34

Figure 12: Bullying Forms reported by Participants (Part 2) 35

Figure 13: Physical Impact from Bullying Experience - Part 1

Figure 14: Physical Impact from Bullying Experience - Part 2 39

Figure 15: Physical Impact from Bullying Experience - Part 3

Figure 16: Complaints Reported and Not Reported - Partial Response

Figure 17: Complaints Reported and Not Reported - All Responses 41

Figure 18: Participants Reasons Related to Not Reporting Bullying Incidents 43

Table 1: Incidents of Bullying Behaviours (sic) 17

Table 2: Mixed Methods Research

TABLE 3: Bullying Behaviors 36

Table 4: Serious, Potentially Deadly Bullying and Violent Behaviors 37

WORKPLACE BULLYING

INTRODUCTION

Do you bully people or have you done so in the past?' (Peyton, 2003, p. 7)

Bullying Admissions

Jennifer, according to newspaper report in a 2007 English newspaper account, "was targeted as the only woman on the staff at Phoenix Select's food factory in Hull." Jennifer stated: "The bullying went on for a year and got worse and worse. The men told me no one would believe me if I complained." "Poisoned, Bound Gagged, Beaten," 2007, p. 11)

Jennifer, unfortunately, does not constitute a solitary statistic. In response to the question: "Do you bully people or have you done so in the past?" Peyton (2003, p. 7) reports, "the surprising response is normally that 99 per cent admit to having been involved in some way." Becker (2005) relates a number of unsettling concerns regarding individuals involved in bullying in some way, presented in the literature review, and reports that incidents of bullying outnumber sexual harassment 3 to 1. According to Becker (Ibid.), "Twenty-one percent of all workers have been targeted by bullies. "Eighty-four percent of bullied employees," however, "are female." An even more disturbing point noted by Baker (2005) proposes that: "As many as ten percent of suicides may be related to workplace traumatization (sic)." In other words, as this study confirmed through the literature review, along with information/data retrieved from the complimentary questionnaire implemented during the study - it's out there.

Definitely Out There Leymann (2000) reports that results from an extensive Swedish study on bullying, also referred to as "mobbing," reveal:

An individual experiences a 25% risk of being subjected to bullying or mobbing. "One out of every four employees entering the labor market will risk being subjected to at least one period of mobbing of at least six months' duration during his or her working career."

In regard to gender, men (45%) and women (55%) are estimated to be subjected in bullying or mobbing in generally equal proportions, with no significant difference determined.

Individuals, ages 21 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years, are overrepresented, when compared with individuals in the age groups 41 to 50, 51 to 60 and over 61 years old.

Approximately ten to twenty percent of individuals who have been bullied or mobbed seem to contract serious illnesses or commit suicide.

Research Background

This researcher chose to examine the impact of workplace bullying on executive secretaries and personal assistants in selected private organizations in Bangkok, Thailand, after Study Area

Bullying components investigated during this research effort included, but were not limited to:

Victims of workplace bullying

Witnesses an individual being bullied at work

Different forms of bullying in the workplace

Consequences of workplace bullying

Relationship between the position of the bully and the event of bullying (if one exists

Company policy regarding workplace bullying (if exists); and when policy is enforced.

From the questionnaire this researcher implemented, results contributed to answering the following questions:

How many of the executive secretaries and personal assistants are victims of workplace bullying?

How many of the executive secretaries and personal assistants have witnessed an individual being bullied at work?

What are the different forms of workplace bullying experienced by the executive secretaries and personal assistants?

What are the consequences of workplace bullying?

Is there a significant relationship between the position of the bully and the event of bullying?

How does the company handle workplace bullying?

Research Questions and/or Considerations

Data obtained from the questionnaire implemented by this researcher combined with information gleaned from the literature review contributed to answering the above, as well as, the following research questions.

1. How prevalent is bullying in today's workplace?

2. What forms of bullying are demonstrated in workplace?

3. In what ways do bullying impact workers and the workplace?

Hypothesis

Researched information retrieved, combined with data this is researcher obtained from questionnaire implemented during the study, served to answer this project's research questions, simultaneously contributing to the determination of the following hypothesis: When employers investigate, identify and implement positive counters to workplace bullying, then employers, bullying victims and bullies may, in turn, be empowered to become more productive.

Significance of this Study

This researcher purports that although work environment bullying and harassment currently have merited recognition in the sense that it has been identified, not enough information "out there'" exists. Too often in the workplace, albeit, bullying is "overlooked," discounted, or ignored as people do not recognize bullying behavior or do not acknowledge it as inappropriate. Although an acute awareness currently exists in the world regarding bullying, this serious, potentially deadly, destructive, degrading behavior continues in the workplace, too frequently unabated (Peyton, 2003, p. 3) the study proves to be particularly relevant, as well as, a potential positive resource for employers, bullying victims and bullies, this researcher proposes, as it presents significant, vital counters that could be implemented to challenge bullying behaviors in the workplace. This researcher additionally contends that ____ _ Study Structure Chapters included in this research project include the following traditional categorizations:

Literature Review

Methodology (Mixed Method)

Analyses

Conclusions

The second chapter in this research effort presents relevant researched sources, which this researcher accessed from more than 25 sources, which included books, scholarly journals, articles (magazine and newspaper)… READ MORE

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