Dealing with Bullying at Work

Industrial Management & Data Systems

ISSN: 0263-5577

Article publication date: 1 February 2000

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Keywords

Citation

of Management, I. (2000), "Dealing with Bullying at Work", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 100 No. 1, pp. 46-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds.2000.100.1.46.1

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Despite the playground rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”, verbal intimidation can be damaging and is recognised as a form of bullying in the workplace. But the good news is you do not have to put up with it.

Victims of workplace bullying now have access to a range of material to help them deal with the problem. In launching a new publication, Dealing with Bullying at Work in a Week, the institute of management (IM) and Hodder and Stroughton Educational are adding a concise, accessible guide that employees and managers at all levels will find quick and easy to pick up and use.

The seven‐day guide provides daily case studies and action checklists, which identify what bullying is, how to respond to bullying, how to provide support for the bullied and the bully and what the role of the organisation is in dealing with bullying.

It highlights the high cost of bullying for both individuals and organisations. Individuals suffer from stress‐related illnesses, mental health problems, poor performance, demotivation and breakdowns. The costs to organisations are reduced efficiency and productivity, lowered motivation and morale, high recruitment and retention costs and potential legal costs.

For individuals the book provides different options for dealing with bullying, such as confronting the bully directly or making an informal or official complaint. It gives guidance on sources of advice and support, such as colleagues and the personnel department inside an organisation and, externally, trade unions, professional associations and Citizens Advice Bureaux.

To beat the workplace bully the book gives advice on how organisations can develop, publish and monitor a bullying policy, put procedures in place to deal with complaints, train managers on the issues involved and set up help lines for those being bullied.

To order copies of the In a Week series: Lavis Marketing. Tel: 0845 7023736 or e‐mail: lavismarkt@aol.com

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