HCS Business Matters
2 March 2010
The Bullying Debate
With allegations of bullying at Downing Street at the centre of political debate this week, we thought we would take the opportunity to add our viewpoint.
Turning a blind eye to bullying and harassment at work can have devastating consequences, not least due to increased sickness levels and higher staff turnover, both of which can be damaging to business performance.
The Downing Street accusations if founded certainly would highlight the consequences when those in leadership lack the relevant ‘people’ skills and self-awareness and have the potential to abuse their power. And what does it say about the culture of the organisation as a whole if bullying is perceived to take place from those at the very top?
Whether bullying takes the aggressive approach or a more subtle one, such as undermining staff, the real challenge faced by organisations is the fact that bullying is often based on perception.
At HCS, we see cases where employees who are underperforming taking any form of criticism as bullying and it is often those managers who actively manage and set clear expectations of staff who are perceived as bullies.
It is also evident that many of those accused of being bullies often have poor communication skills and a lack of emotional awareness. Training all employees, and particularly senior management to raise awareness of potentially damaging patterns of behaviour goes a long way to preventing bullying and harassment in the workplace and avoiding a Downing Street scenario.
04 March 2010, webeditor
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