Group Project — Bullying in the Workplace

Ting-Chun Chen, Shane Howard, Charles Allen

As we have found throughout our project, Workplace Bullying is a much bigger problem than any of us ever imagined. Bullying in the workplace usually includes repeated incidents or a pattern of behavior demonstrated by an individual or individuals directed at an individual or group of people. This behavior can be in several forms such as intimidation, spreading rumors, yelling, or using profanity, undeserved punishment, physical abuse or the threat of physical abuse, and there are many more ways that bullying manifests itself in our workplaces.

Most companies in Canada have a workplace harassment and violence policy (which is Bullying) to help prevent and or deal with these cases of workplace bullying. Unfortunately to some degree workplace bullying happens in all workplaces. Even with these policies in place, workplace bullying is still very prevalent, why is that? The effect that bullying has on the victim can be life changing. It can cause the individual to have loss of confidence, inability to concentrate, poor work performance, and anger. This is a high price to pay for coming to work and trying to make a difference and provide for your family.

The workplace suffers a great deal as well when workplace bullying is present; low morale, increased absenteeism, high turnover and increased risk for incidents are all things that can and do negatively impact the workplace. What can we do to start to prevent and/or reduce workplace bullying? This is the question we asked ourselves. Through exploration of this question we concluded that increased education and awareness for everyone in the workplace was the necessary way to go. To bolster this even further, we would want the company to commit to enforcing a zero-tolerance bullying policy. This policy would outline the consequences for anyone bullying others, specifically outline what would happen if found to be the bully in each situation.

We have formulated a program and some deliverables that we would present to companies and their employees on a yearly basis, to keep bullying in the forefront of everyone’s mind and keep awareness high in each organization. We will explore and explain the different aspects of our anti-bullying program for the workplace further in the rest of this document. We will support our ideas and thoughts for this final end product, by showing how we brainstormed the idea through several tools utilized from the course. Our goal is to raise the awareness and education around bullying and make it something we talk about that used to happen, rather than is happening.

As a group we decided to complete an empathy map to fully understand the problem for the victim of bullying as well as the perpetrator of the bullying behavior. Please see the copy of the document created below, as it explains our process as we pursued our end user program.

Empathy Map

So based on the conclusions from the empathy map we decided to create a survey of questions of current real time responses from a minimum of 100 responses to justify our final idea for an end user product. Please see below for the results of the survey which we distributed in the following forums: Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, WhatsApp. Please see the survey below, following this we present the results from 102 participants to give us the real time data to formulate our final end user product.

Bullying Survey

*Survey results from 102 participants as of June 28, 2022.

Based on the results from the survey that was presented to users for a period of five days, we were able to take the results and start a brain writing exercise to start formulating our end user product to address the problem of ending bullying in the workplace. Please see the brainwriting exercise below.

Brainwriting Exercise

End Product Chart

We created the end product chart based off of the brain writing exercise that we completed, to determine the best course of action to create an end user product based off of human centered design with real time contribution from users of social media applications in a five day period. This helped us zero in on the needs of the users that we would be targeting to help end bullying in the workplace.

Our end product chart we outlined the structure portion of the deliverable product to which the end user would obtain the most benefit. It was decided, based on feedback, that we would require bully sensitivity training in the workplace, educational meetings, a zero tolerance bullying program, and ultimately we would include an auditing process on a yearly basis to evaluate the effectiveness of the deliverable program in each workplace.

Mind Map

We use the mind map to define the scope of our project and deduce that our product is to focus on how to help the bullied as well as curbing bullying at the workplace.

1. Sensitivity training:

Sensitivity training focuses on making employees aware of their attitudes and behavior toward others. This includes people who are different in race, color, gender, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, ethnicity and other categories protected under the Canadian Multiculturalism Act[1988, c. 31, assented to 21st July, 1988]. Sensitivity training also teaches employees how to be respectful of people with different experiences, backgrounds and communication styles. Based on the survey responses received, many were bullied due to their ethnicities, gender or cultural background and thus we think that it is mandatory for each company to provide sensitivity training to all the employees.

2. General Workplace Survey:

Surveys have long been a staple for every successful business owner to solicit feedback and assess the satisfaction and level of engagement. Successful companies are built on the backs of satisfied and happy employees so it would only make sense that organizations should focus deeply on general workplace surveys in order to spot any unwanted patterns or areas that need to be changed. Based on our empathy map, we think that for a company to conduct an anonymous survey on a regular basis will be useful since most of the victims might fear losing their jobs after disclosing the issues.

3. Graphical representation:

To emphasize on the severity of workplace bullying, graphic representation such as videos or official statistical data from authorities should be included in the anti-bullying training. This is an efficient way of getting the message across and bringing awareness to everyone. For example, we find this video from CBC very impactful: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2464493741/ Furthermore, even the responses from workplace surveys can be compiled into graphic representation so that people can have easier access to all the information they need. It can also be a valuable documentation for auditing.

4. Guest speakers who survived the bullying:

Getting someone who has survived workplace bullying as a guest speaker in a workplace seminar or training can inspire people, encourage them to speak up and most importantly, empower them to find the benefits of a positive attitude and take action. In addition, the in-person interaction also enhances participants’ ability to empathize with others.

5. Guest speakers who have bullied before:

Likewise, getting someone who has bullied others at work as a guest speaker will discourage any potential bullies by stressing the fact that bullying does not feel good and it leaves a mental scar in the conscience level. Having this close interaction also helps people understand the motives of bullies. For example, bullies often have low self esteem and want to dominate others in order to improve their social status. Or it could be that they have a lack of remorse or failing to recognize their behavior as a problem. It can also be that they were victims of bullying before.

6. Anti-Bullying training to be revisited annually:

The essence of effective training to address workplace bullying is a systematic, planned training process.

Training may cover leadership, conflict management, communication and team building for managers; definitions of bullying, expected behavior, policy. Since the scope is rather extensive, we feel that there’s a need to revisit it on a yearly basis, especially for large-scaled organizations, so that people’s memory and awareness can be refreshed. Also, we propose to include anti-bullying training in the auditing process so for this purpose the training must be held at least once a year. In addition, the management and HR should also examine the training content on a yearly basis and update it if necessary.

7. Bullying simulation with participation from all employees:

Role play simulation will enhance learning experience on how to effectively handle bullying. It also trains people how to confront the aggressors and seek professional help afterwards as well as reporting the incident. It is suggested that each participant take turns in different roles, the bully/the bullied/the observer. The role of observers is included to allow an opportunity for targets to solicit support from observers or for observers to intervene during the bullying simulation. At the end of the role play simulation, time should be allocated to all participants for them to reflect individually on their experiences.

8. Message from the owner of the company to stress on zero tolerance on bullying:

The aim of zero-tolerance policies is to encourage staff members who have experienced bullying to come forward, making it more difficult for bullies to act with impunity, and allow remedial action to take place as quickly and effectively as possible. They not only serve to stop bullying in the workplace, but also promote a better, healthier office culture, where poor behavior is less likely to occur. The owner of the company should send out a clear message to demonstrate the company’s pledge to fight workplace bullying. It should also be stated in the job contract that anyone who breaches the zero-tolerance policy of bullying, regardless of their position, will be dismissed immediately.

9. We decided to use the following medium for our product:

• PowerPoint Presentation — To show the introduction, objective and outline of our product.
• Video — For easier offline/online distribution of information.
• Professional or first-hand knowledge from a guest speaker
• Current stats from company surveys — to get a baseline of a company’s performance regarding workplace bullying.
• Current stats from the country of origin
• Handout containing stats and helplines for bullying — To stress on the severity of bullying and provide useful info on how to seek help.
• Online sensitivity training prior to the course which is mandatory to all the employees — To make sure people have preliminary knowledge and what to be expected from the course.
• Company’s zero tolerance policy in a handout — To remind everyone of the consequence of bullying. It also promotes a positive image of the company to outsiders.
• Presentation of the company’s anonymous forum for complaint submission — To show that the company’s resolution in fighting bullying and provide a channel for people to speak up.

As you’re aware the problem of workplace bullying is far reaching, coming in many different forms such as physical abuse, profanity, intimidation, and rumors. This is unacceptable in any workplace and has deep reaching repercussions as a result. An unhappy employee is an employee who is more likely to not try their best, be satisfied at work, feel like they fit in, and want to continue working at that company. The financial cost of this is high, but above all the human cost is unacceptable.

We performed a survey that received 102 responses and the prevalence in workplace bullying is astonishing. We found that 68% of people have experienced workplace bullying at one time or another and another 19% have witnessed bullying. Astonishingly when people who were victims of workplace bullying reached out for help over 70% of people felt like their bullying issue was not resolved.

It is on this information we believe a zero-tolerance bullying program combined with our multifaceted educational approach to bullying in the workplace by covering topics such as the company’s zero tolerance policy, guest speakers with first hand knowledge, sensitivity training, and the presentation of the company’s new anonymous complaint forum combined with everything backed with statistics to let people know how wide reaching this problem is, we will improve the workplace interpersonal relationships of your employees. By allowing people to understand the personal repercussions to the bullied and bullies through education we hope to end workplace bullying once and for all. This will result in happier, more motivated, employees who will more likely be retained are your business.

Reference:

• Consolidated federal laws of Canada, Canadian multiculturalism act. Canadian Multiculturalism Act. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-18.7/page-1.html
• Safe Work Australia. (n.d.). Guide for preventing and responding to workplace bullying. Safe Work Australia. Retrieved July 3, 2022, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/guide-preventing-responding-workplace-bullying.pdf