Consequences of bullying at work
Bullying has been defined as a form of aggressive behaviour in which one person repeatedly and intentionally causes harm or distress to another. Bullying may involve physical contact, words, or more covert actions. As it has been put forth by leading US scholar, Louise Fitzgerald, sexual harassment is a function of organisational and job gender context. In the same manner, the consequences of bullying too can be broadly categorized into two categories – Individual Consequences and Organisational Consequences.
Individual Consequences
Three decades of research show bullying harms the targets’ health and well-being. Research suggests bullying is a social stressor that can cause trauma in victims. Studies have linked bullying to psychosomatic, psychological, and physical stress symptoms. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and irritability are common symptoms. Bullying also affects targets’ self-esteem, leading to self-blame.
Research in this area has moved away from cross-sectional studies to longitudinal studies, where the research design may allow for firmer conclusions on cause-effect relationships and the direction of the relationship between variables studied (e.g. bullying causes health problems but health problems themselves may make someone more vulnerable to bullying). Bullying is also linked to mental and physical health issues, PTSD, and burnout.
Most frequently bullied and long-term bullied people suffer the most anxiety and depression. Also, while those already vulnerable due to health problems or previous victimisation may show the most negative effects of low exposure if the exposure is severe enough, everyone, even those perceived as resilient, will succumb to the experience with severe negative outcomes. Self-labelling has no impact when the impact is high, reinforcing the view that high exposure is likely to exhaust any coping resources targets may use with low exposure.
Bullying victims report PTSD-like symptoms (PTSD). PTSD is most often linked to single traumatic events, but the distress experienced by many bullying victims - who are exposed to frequent negative events over a long period - appears to be equal to or worse than what is reported for single traumatic events. A recent meta-analysis found that more than half of victims of workplace (or school) bullying reported PTSD symptoms. In addition to health outcomes, research shows that victims' organisational functioning suffers, affecting job satisfaction, commitment, self-perception, work performance, and absenteeism.
Bystanders who witness bullying often report higher levels of general and mental stress and physical health symptoms than those who did not. EU OSHA raised concerns about bullying's health effects. According to EU-level surveys, work-related stress and harassment (and bullying) can harm workers' health and performance.
Organisational Consequences
To convince organisations that it's in their own interest to acknowledge and counter bullying, researchers identified the type of effect and its contribution to the overall cost to the organisation (and society). Bullying can cause turnover and absenteeism. Research has found a strong link between bullying and quitting. Targeted workers may leave voluntarily to avoid a bully and an undignified situation, or they may be forced out. Thus, bullying appears to increase job-insecurity, with targets fearing their experience may undermine their long-term job-prospects and professional future in their current organisation or in the labour market altogether. As the employee is replaced and retrained, the organization's direct costs rise. Bullying and absenteeism, though often linked, are weaker.
While bullying affects targets’ health and should increase absenteeism, research shows that many victims would rather stay at work, even when ill, to avoid negative repercussions from the bully or undermine their relationship with colleagues. Presenteeism costs, though hard to quantify, may outweigh absenteeism costs . While the statistical link between bullying and productivity is modest and hard to estimate in monetary terms, productivity loss due to reduced efficiency, output quality, job satisfaction, and commitment is likely. Additional costs include complaints, litigation, and negative publicity, according to research.
Witnesses who are not targets but whose job satisfaction and productivity may suffer may leave and look for work elsewhere.
Bullying may also cost society in general in the following ways:
· health sector impact – waste of scarce resources
· drop in productivity
· impact on service quality – more errors
· Family and friends - relationship strain, social stigma
Bullying's overall cost has been estimated several times. Despite methodological challenges, such studies could cost billions annually.
Consequences of sexual harassment in the workplace
Sexual harassment has been defined by the EEOS as an unwelcome sexual advance, unwelcome request for sexual favours, or other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that causes a person to feel offended, humiliated, and/or intimidated, and where a reasonable person would anticipate such a reaction.
One of the major causes of sexual harassment has been considered to be men’s economic power over women. It is no doubt that we live in a patriarchal society, and it is that mindset that we live in which also gives men the rationale that they are entitled to do what they want with the opposite gender.
There is less scientific evidence for sexual harassment than there is for workplace bullying. Even yet, the evidence is robust enough to draw the conclusion that sexual harassment is a major source of social stress and a significant financial burden on the organisation.
Individual Consequences
Multiple research findings indicate that sexual harassment is associated with poor physical and mental health, decreased job satisfaction, decreased organisational commitment, and employment withdrawal. These findings were recently verified by a longitudinal study that examined the consequences of sexual harassment over time, allowing for a direct correlation between the experience and the bad outcomes. Further, it has been seen that women indicated that sexual harassment caused them to feel humiliated, prompting them to avoid specific work situations and to feel less secure at work. It also affected their mental health, making them feel more anxious, unhappy, and stressed.
While PTSD symptoms are related with the most severe instances, frequent, less severe sexual harassment has also been linked to substantial detrimental effects. Therefore, more intense but less frequent negative experiences (such as sexual coercion and unwanted sexual attention) and less intense but more frequent bad experiences (sexist organisational atmosphere and gender harassment) tend to have a comparable impact on women's well-being. Sexual harassment may also result in maladaptive reactions, including eating disorders and substance addiction.
In terms of gender variations in responses to sexual harassment, women tend to report more negative impacts than males, whilst men find it less stressful and unpleasant. This may be due to the fact that women suffer more severe and physical types of sexual harassment, whilst males may see their experiences as less dangerous and mostly as annoying. The perpetrator's status may also play a role, with more intense harassment by a person in a higher-status position being associated with increased fear and subsequent suffering for both women and men. There is some evidence, however, that when the experience is more severe, men may react more negatively than women, possibly experiencing the ordeal as emasculating and stigmatising because their masculinity is being questioned, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a woman or another man, which may elicit homophobia.
Organisational Consequences
When it comes to organisational outcomes, research indicates an increase in attrition, absenteeism, and turnover, with consequential financial implications.
Targets’ organisational engagement may erode if the problem persists or when employers fail to address it, with resignation as a possible consequence. However, sexual harassment may also have greater long-term effects on a person's career, whether they are driven out of their employment or leave 'voluntarily' as a result of the harassment, with income loss being a potential outcome. Among the elements that contribute to such a bad career trajectory is the loss of human capital specific to the organisation one is leaving and difficulties in acquiring references for future job applications, with negative consequences in an early career. Targets may also hunt for occupations ns that are regarded safe/r, which may have a negative impact on their career paths and long-term financial security.
Conclusion
The dissemination of knowledge regarding the effects of bullying on individuals, organisations, and society, as well as its total cost, will be a crucial strategy for altering behaviour and attitudes and elevating the issue to the top of the organisational agenda. To establish the causal linkages between bullying/sexual harassment and PTSD, longitudinal research coupled with clinical interview studies with seriously afflicted targets are required. As a result of sexual harassment and bullying, there must be an increase in the number and rigour of studies conducted to quantify organisational results, notably the productivity loss caused by sexual harassment and bullying.
Self-blame for bullying and sexual harassment is a common occurrence among health professionals, consultants, and researchers. Especially when they have been bullied for an extended period of time, targets begin to blame themselves.
It is necessary to offer more information and training regarding the causes of bullying and sexual harassment.
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