Bullying in the workplace is a common issue that is facing many organizations. Bullying through not only a physical confrontation, but also it can also entail how a person talks to another person. Bullying in the workplace can also include an individual preventing or denying a fellow colleague from using the company’s facilities. Bullying in the workplace can also amount to colleagues often noticing you and confronting and making fun at you. This habit is carried from tertiary schools to workplaces. Bullying can be first be seen in schools where the bullies constantly harass weak students if these habits are not rectified at an early age the bullies carry their habit to maturity and practice it in their workplaces.
Bullying is quite different from conflict in workplaces. Conflict In workplaces involves two parties that have disagreed on a certain issue. Bullying is just an individual harassing a fellow colleague. Bullying and conflict in workplaces are commonly experienced in workplaces with high numbers of employees. Bullying is offensive and can be annoying and intimidating and undermine the recipient. Bullying and conflicts in an organization can affect the productivity of workers and hence can ruin the company’s workflow. Conflicts in any organizations can arise due to communication barriers or even minor misunderstanding between employees. It is hence wise for a company to stop and establish measures that will effectively curb bullying and any conflicts that may arise in the workplace. The most offensive being bullying because it can undermine a person is right and can lead to injury. Bullying should not be allowed at all in the workplace and organizations should pass harsh penalties to workers found bullying others. Organizations should also be keen to differentiate between what can be termed as workplace conflict and what can be termed as bullying. The two are to be differentiated to identify the right kind of penalty to issue when an individual is found (Ballard & Easteal, 2018).
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Conflict in the workplace is an invisible issue, workplaces conflict should not be ignored at all cost. Over time, little conflict between individuals can turn and develop into long-standing antagonisms and that can affect workflow and will kill down employee morale. Poor communication can cause workplace conflict. It is one of the main causes of workplaces conflicts. Failure to communicate the duties and responsibilities of each employee in the organization can cause conflicts. Communications in the workplaces should be effective and convenient for each employee. This is so to avoid conflicting roles in the organization. Some employees have the tendency of holding onto a certain role and will take offence if other employees step into their shoes. This can cause conflict in the workplace ( McAvoy & Murtagh, 2003 ).
Personality clashes can also cause conflicts in the workplace. An individual can get upset when a new member of a staff joins their team. When employees fail to understand the personalities of fellow colleague’s members can easily lead to a personality clash and this need to be resolved. Failure to understand the personality of other employees can result in workplace conflict. Conflict can also be caused when employees ignore the needs of other employees, they can even set unrealistic expectations for them. The other employee will feel used and conflict can arise. Increase in workload is another major cause of workplace conflict. When people feel that they are being pushed and cannot complain about it, they will, in turn, develop conflicts towards that individual. This is some of the common causes that cause conflict in workplaces; these conflicts will later develop and result to either long-term antagonism or bullying when it is worse. Bullying, in this case, will come when the other employee is weak, he will certainly be a victim of being bullied (Rhodes, Pullen, Vickers, Clegg, & Pitsis, 2010).
Workplaces bullying is mostly an issue brought up unnecessary conflicts in the workplace. Workplace bullying is a form of violence in any place that is being practiced. Bullying creates an environment of fear and uncertainty. It can ruin a person’s morale and can cause psychological problems in the person being bullied. The targets of bullying are usually silent employees in the workplaces and they usually fell humiliated because they are always the point of ridicule and being constantly harassed.
Employees who bully others in the workplace usually waste time about 50 per cent of the time is lost for both the person being bullied and the bullies. Bullied employees spend more time thinking of the situation and feeling unmotivated something, that can cause unproductiveness and inefficient workflow. Bullying creates liabilities in an organization, instead of employees working some are spending more time in feeling ashamed, unwanted and unmotivated. This creates a liability for the employer and the workflow is greatly affected. Bullying can increase an organization’s turnover rate, good and quality employee may depart from the organization making the form to have a poor retention rate. In addition, this, in turn, can ruin the reputation of the firm. Competitors can easily take advantage of the situation and remove you out of business. It is a big deal to address bullying and conflicts in workplaces because a successful firm will rely heavily on its employees to be motivated and feel appreciated among their fellow colleagues. This is a business strategy that most organizations have not realized. Companies like Google, have completely ensured that their employees are happy and that cases of conflicts and bullying are rectified almost immediately. Bullying and conflicts in any organization can be detrimental and need to rectify (Vartia, 2001).
The Lines shows the co relation between Workplace conflict and bullying on what effect they have on Employee performance. As bullying and conflict rises the employee performance drops.
The pie chart shows that Men suffer from workplace bullying than their female colleagues.
| Conflicts and Bullying | Employees affected | Performance |
| 50 percent | 50 percent | 25 percent |
| 10 percent | 5 percent | 70 percent |
References
Ballard, A., & Easteal, P. (2018). The Secret Silent Spaces of Workplace Violence: Focus on Bullying (and Harassment). Laws , 7 (4), 35. doi:10.3390/laws7040035
McAvoy, B. R., & Murtagh, J. (2003). Workplace bullying. BMJ (Clinical research ed.) , 326 (7393), 776-7.
Rhodes, C., Pullen, A., Vickers, M. H., Clegg, S. R., & Pitsis, A. (2010). Violence and Workplace Bullying. Administrative Theory & Praxis , 32 (1), 96-115. doi:10.2753/atp1084-1806320105
Vartia, M. A. (2001). Consequences of workplace bullying with respect to the well-being of its targets and the observers of bullying. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health , 27 (1), 63-69. doi:10.5271/sjweh.588
