It’s hard to escape stories around bullying and harassment at work, and many headlines will have led organisations to reflect on their own culture and practices. David Liddle offers a resolution plan for organisations that want to avoid developing an unhealthy culture.
The stream of stories about bullying and harassment in the workplace is never-ending. Insurance market Lloyd’s of London recently issued the largest fine in its history after a member firm was shown to have tolerated discrimination, harassment and bullying over a number of years.
In February, an IOPC report highlighted ingrained misogyny, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment within the ranks of the Metropolitan Police. Meanwhile, BrewDog has found itself in the headlines on numerous occasions over the past year, with employees accusing the company of having a culture of fear, in which workers were bullied and treated like objects.
Sadly, it appears that these toxic cultures are far from unusual. The CIPD’s recent review into bullying and incivility found that interpersonal conflict and uncivil behaviour, such as bullying and harassment, were very common in the workplace.
Just over a third of UK workers had experienced some form of conflict or an ongoing difficult relationship, with 15% specifically saying they had been bullied. The Health and Safety Executive statistics also suggest that bullying is one of the top three reasons contributing to spiralling levels of workplace stress, depression and anxiety.
Is bullying getting worse?
Data drawn from TCM Group suggests that the issue is getting worse. Around 75% of the workplace complaints referred to us for mediation or investigation involve an allegation of bullying. The recent shift to hybrid working seems to have exacerbated the problem, with toxic behaviour taking place behind computer screens and out of sight of supportive colleagues who might have called it out.
Bullying
Lloyd’s of London firm fined £1m over bullying and sexual harassment
Organisations are clearly struggling to provide the healthy, happy, harmonious workplaces employees need if they are to perform at their best. So what exactly is going wrong – and what should HR be doing to improve the situation?
Bullying causes untold damage – to the people on the receiving end, to those who have to witness it from the sidelines, to levels of productivity and to corporate reputations.
It’s tempting to think it is just about power-hungry managers, belittling others in a bid to demonstrate their importance and make it clear they are top dog. But the problem is rarely that simple.
What are the causes?
There are three key issues at play here: firstly, we are living in incredibly stressful times. The pandemic has changed the way we work forever, blurred work-life boundaries and plunged us into unprecedented levels of uncertainty and anxiety.
People have become unclear about their roles, overloaded with work and distanced from the managers supporting them. The CIPD’s review points out that when people are stressed, frustrated and uncertain, they are more likely to display uncivil or aggressive behaviour.
In other words, when people have lost their compass, their emotions run high, they behave irrationally and take their stress and distress out on others.
Secondly, the term bullying is frequently being used incorrectly. Bullying is not specifically defined in UK law, but is generally understood to be offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, intended to undermine, humiliate or cause harm.
All of the above behaviours are of course unacceptable. But I’ve dealt with hundreds of people who have initiated complaints about bullying behaviour, and in virtually all these cases, bullying per se was not what was happening.
Typically, the situation began life as a low-level, dysfunctional conflict of one form or another: a breakdown in communication, a misunderstanding, a poorly delivered management instruction, or clashing working styles.
Left unaddressed, these issues have quickly escalated into more serious conflict
Left unaddressed, these issues have quickly escalated into more serious conflict, and due to the confusing and incoherent nature of conflict management in many organisations, the parties involved have resorted to use of the term ‘bullying’, because they have no other meaningful way of describing their negative experience.
The problem is that to describe conflict in this way is disingenuous to the victims of real bullying and harassment, who are often unheard, and who experience significant levels of pain and trauma.
Finally, at the root of the issue is an overall lack of investment in the training and support managers need to help them lead dynamic, complex and diverse teams of people.
As a result, managers may lack the self-awareness and emotional intelligence required to manage conflict effectively and lead their teams compassionately.
As a result, their approach to managing performance and delivering results often ends up being perceived as unfair, unpleasant or bullying behaviour.
The CIPD makes an interesting point about gender and bullying in its review. Research suggests women are more likely than men to experience bullying behaviour. One potential reason is a difference in what men and women believe constitutes bullying. It seems men may be more likely to perceive potential bullying behaviour as part and parcel of management, while women may be more likely to perceive these behaviours as threatening.
Be proactive
When complaints about bullying and harassment are raised, organisations typically reach for their formal grievance or bullying and harassment policies.
But the problem with these processes – and indeed many of the other anti-bullying initiatives that organisations employ – is that they are reactive. What’s needed are proactive systems, processes and support to make bullying unacceptable and to encourage people to speak out at the earliest possible stage.
This is my seven-point strategy for HR practitioners who want to transform their cultures and create fair, just, people-centred climates for their people:
- Be values-led: Ensure values are visible and become a core part of your culture. It is vital everyone in the organisation understands the core values, recognises their importance and lives them through their everyday interactions and behaviours.
- Define desirable and undesirable management behaviours: It is important to set out clear expectations of how the business wants managers and leaders to behave, which should link directly to the corporate values. Required behaviours should be set out in a simple behavioural framework that shows clearly the positive and desirable behaviours and the undesirable behaviours. These behaviours need to be driven from the very top. Negative, destructive and aggressive behaviour should be so counter-cultural that it rarely happens, and when it does, it is dealt with quickly and effectively.
- Create an open culture where people can speak up about their experiences: Encouraging people to speak freely is vital for the overall health and wellbeing of the business. The true test of an organisation is whether it listens to its people when they have tough messages to share at a time when the organisation and working relationships are under stress. This is genuine employee voice and it is this kind of dialogue that will ensure underlying problems are spotted early and can be resolved.
- Review grievance and anti-bullying procedures: Formal processes perpetuate a right/wrong, defend/attack, win/lose approach to problems in the workplace. They are damaging, divisive, and create a culture of fear. They rarely, if ever, uncover the root cause of an issue, and in many cases exacerbate the trauma for the individuals involved. An overarching resolution framework will allow the business to resolve the majority of problems using informal dialogue, mediation, and facilitated conversations.
- Offer ongoing coaching, training and support: It’s not about everyone going on a one day course and then being left to fend for themselves.Living the values, demonstrating the right behaviours, listening to employees and handling conflict need to be part of core competencies of all managers so they understand what is expected of them and can access the support they need.
- Respond robustly, swiftly and fairly when bullying does occur: A resolution framework will allow recourse to formal measures when needed. Managers need to have the right skills to be objective and with the support of HR, carry out factual assessments or investigations when appropriate.
- Use mediation and restorative justice if bullying does occur: The most powerful way to address and change behaviour is to confront it head on and face-to-face. This may seem counter-intuitive, but bringing victims and perpetrators together can ensure victims are heard, and perpetrators understand the impact of their bullying behaviour. The benefit of a restorative approach, above and beyond the dialogue itself, is the potential that it creates for understanding, reconciliation and forgiveness.
Conflict exists in every organisation and is part of working life. Not all conflict is bullying, and the labels of “bullied” and “bully” are often misleading and create rather than assist its resolution. Nevertheless, when people perceive they are being bullied, they should be supported, trusted and believed. It takes courage to speak out and to challenge bad behaviour. Behavioural change can and does come about when the parties sit down together and discuss their situation openly and honestly.
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Talking about how you deal with bullying, harassment and conflict in general does not make you look like a bad employer struggling with a problem. It makes you look like a good one, dealing with a difficult fact of life.
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