Canadian Safety Reporter

4 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2015 CSR |April 2015 | News Bullying < pg. 1 Social media can be used to undermine someone "It could involve a text during a meeting from one colleague to another about another colleague in the room: 'Did you see what she's wearing?' or 'Did you hear what that idiot said this time?'" in some cases, we're hearing high-profile instances of ha- rassment and up the continuum to sexual assault. "So I think that there's grow- ing social awareness and, from our perspective, we know that, ultimately, the schoolyard bul- lying grows up and moves into the workplace." That was among the mes- sages of the Conference Board's publication Workplace Bullying Primer: What It Is and How to Manage It. "It's always been there — we're not saying that there's more bul- lying but I think there's broader social awareness of it. And from our perspective, we think it's re- ally important that employers treat this proactively as an issue," said Wright. Limited data on prevalence of workplace bullying At this point, data on the preva- lence of workplace bullying is rather limited, said Aaron Schat, associate professor at the De- Groote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamil- ton, Ont. "I don't think we have really good data to know whether it's increasing. I think certainly it's fair to say that our awareness is increasing," he said. Statistical-based estimates suggest about 25 per cent of people in an organization are impacted by bullying, but it can vary substantially, said Ruth McKay, associate professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa and a report co-author. "One of the challenges we have is that a lot of organiza- tions are not surveying their employees, and also the meth- odology by which surveys are completed." One of the difficulties inher- ent in measuring the prevalence of bullying is the fact it can take so many different — and often subtle — forms, said Schat. "It can be subtle, non-verbal behaviours such as a sneer or a smirk or an eye-roll," he said. "Turning away from someone when they enter the room, a re- fusal to give eye contact, a refusal to answer someone… there can be some very subtle, non-verbal behaviours that can constitute bullying." In some cases, the target him- self may not even be aware these behaviours are taking place. It's about harm to individu- als and it often involves a power imbalance in some way, shape or form, said Wright. "(But) it's pretty context-spe- cific and there are different types of bullying, and that's going to be a factor as well. Yes, there's the top-down (bullying) and that's the predominant form, but peer- to-peer is quite an issue and also bottom-up bullying, where an individual can be bullying a su- pervisor." Cyberbullying in the workplace One type of bullying that is not always associated with the work- place is cyberbullying, said Schat. "We hear more about it in schools and educational con- texts but really what cyberbul- lying is is it involves the use of technology, the use of social me- dia to undermine someone. And certainly that can and does take place in organizational settings as well." There are many different ways it can unfold, and the target of the bullying may or may not be aware of it, he said. "It could involve a text during a meeting, for example — a text from one colleague to another about perhaps another colleague in the room, whether it's 'Did you see what she's wearing?' or 'Did you hear what that idiot said this time?' so it can be some- thing like that. It could be emails sent between individuals about someone else," said Schat. "It could be the sending of pic- tures of the person, perhaps doc- tored in a way that makes them look ridiculous. And it could also involve sending the victim directly him or herself a text, an email, pictures, links, et cetera that in some way belittle them, make them feel foolish." Cyberbullying can also ex- pand into employees' personal time and social media accounts, he said. "That's certainly one of the challenges of cyberbullying is it doesn't necessarily have physical barriers on it, so it could kind of bleed outside of the workplace but still involve co-workers." There's also the false sense of anonymity that comes along with cyberbullying, said Schat — but it can still create reputational risk for an organization. "Anybody who is using these kinds of technologies can eas- ily develop a feeling of this not being public domain — until of course somebody shares it and it becomes public domain. The recent situation involving the Dalhousie dental students, for example — it was supposedly internal sharing, until a mem- ber decides to share it publicly, and suddenly it blows up," he said. "There's a lot of risk that com- panies face in their reputation, and possibly legal risks and so forth if their workers are engag- ing in this type of behaviour." Guarding your workplace Employers need to have solid, well-disseminated policies and procedures to address work- BULLLIED < pg. 7 Credit: jesadaphorn

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