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Workplace Bullying And Employee Reaction; Demographics, Work Position And Form Of Mistreatment

Authors: Andreas Petasis

DOI : 10.18639/MERJ.2023.9900077

Section : Original Research Article

Published Date : May 01, 2023

Abstract

It has been reported that workplace violence occurs every other day, and this is quite a misnomer. It ranges from ordinary verbal abuse to getting physical among employees. All forms of workplace bullying should be shunned and completely rebuffed towards creating a more enabling and healthier working environment for employees, as this is the only way to actual growth and productivity of an organization. A reasoning for this study is to acquaint managers with what workplace bullying is all about so that they can take full responsibility for their employees in a way to clamp down on the hazard and provide a better working environment for their employees. Organizations should take conscious efforts by looking into some of the practices and cultures that are operational in their workplace and annul some of them that are promoting workplace bullying. This qualitative study aimed to copiously probe into the phenomenon of workplace bullying, in a way to adequately study the style and pattern, via the use of 1050 questionnaire responses from employees in Cyprus. Results revealed that bullying is more rampant in the workplace, between the superiors/ managers and their junior workers. Junior workers are subjected to different forms of ill-treatment from the superiors like hurling abuses at them, making them work overtime, out of which job intimidation takes the lead. Female workers are more vulnerable to workplace bullying than their male counterparts -but it’s noteworthy to say that the bully can either be a male or female- the question of who bullies is not determined by gender. Employee responses may not however, reflect reality due to the nature of the study and the subtlety of the issue. Further studies can focus in which segments of the industry workplace bullying occurs more frequently, as well as in legislative matters.


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