The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu

Nov. 17, 2008

UNM Organizational Communication Expert Lutgen-Sandvik Studies Workplace Bullying

One person in 10 is bullied at work in the United State in any given 6-month period, according to Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, assistant professor in organizational communication in the University of New Mexico Department of Communication & Journalism. As a social worker in a women’s resource center in Alaska, she noticed that the center director received many complaints about boss bullying.

She saw the need within organizations to take bullying seriously, especially since nothing seemed to work to correct the bullies’ behavior. “Everything I learned in problem solving and mediation didn’t work. The only thing that did work was firing or demoting the bully,” she said.

She conducted a study to assess the prevalence of workplace bullying in a sample of US workers, using a standardized questionnaire and comparing the prevalence with other bullying and aggression studies. “Workplace bullying is defined as a persistent, enduring form of abuse at work. I contrast it with other negative workplace actions and interactions,” she said.

Lutgen-Sandvik said that extensive research on the topic has been done over the past three decades in Scandinavia, across the European Union and in the United Kingdom. “We’re just beginning to catch up here,” she said.

Bully Bosses

The majority of bullies, more than over 79 percent, are bosses. Bullying bosses can be categorized as the controlling, micro-managers; bosses with shifting goals that makes it impossible to ever get the job right; and those psychologically described as “high aggressives.”

“The ‘high aggressive’ bullying boss possesses an overblown sense of self, is easily threatened and so is on constant alert to potential threats. He or she puts down anything that is perceived as a threat, especially someone who speaks up. It is both dangerous and naïve to confront this kind of bully,” she said. High aggressives typically also have an underdeveloped sense of or non-existent capacity for empathy.

All bullies are not high-aggressive bosses, however. “As organizations become leaner and meaner, there is a corollary increase in bullying,” she cautions. “As organizations become more stressful, bosses more often take their frustrations out on people around them. Change, increased pressure, and job insecurity can lead to bullying, even for persons who aren’t typically aggressive. Bullying may include a pattern of on-going criticism, social ostracism, or verbal abuse,” Lutgen-Sandvik said. She added that explaining bullying behavior to human resources professionals is difficult because it is a long-term pattern of many abusive, insulting and humiliating acts, rather than one horrendous interaction. “This boss employs every technique from slamming someone against the wall, which is rare, to much more subtle forms of power and control,” she said.

Lutgen-Sandvik said this boss may be perceived positively by superiors – their aggressiveness and forcefulness seen as assertive. Indeed, they are outstanding at “managing up” and presenting themselves positively to superiors. They may even be rewarded for their behavior by being promoted.

Strategies for the Bullied

Lutgen-Sandvik recommends strategies for bullied workers. “Individuals should take time off to think over the situation because it is difficult to do so while in the environment,” she said. She also said that some may consider whether or not they want to fight it or “pack up.”

“If choosing to fight, the individual needs to understand that circumventing a boss is risky. It is best, usually, to make a case about the economic impact on the organization,” she said. She added that the individual needs to be prepared to never know what happens “both because of privacy issues and protracted results.” It’s also good to collect corroborating witnesses among co-workers, especially if they aren’t targeted, she said. It’s also important to state one’s case as unemotionally as possible, she said.

“Targeted employees feel stigmatized, as if they brought it on themselves. They may also want to take care of themselves and solve the problem on their own – not to be perceived as a whiner, but witnesses who aren’t bullied have no stigma and can lend evidence to the situation,” Lutgen-Sandvik said.

She cautions that bullied employees need to be prepared for reporting abuse to have little effect, but “eventually it will catch up to them,” she said. In longitudinal work following 30 cases over a 12-month period, all but two bullies were fired or demoted, she discovered.

Some professions where there is a power differential are particularly rife with bullying. ”Physicians often bully nurses, who also take verbal abuse from both doctors and the public,” she said. High end kitchens with temperamental chefs are also common worksites of bullying.

Health Effects of Being Bullied

Bullying and negative work environments take a toll on workers’ health. “Those with perceived justice in the workplace have lower incidence of coronary heart disease,” Lutgen-Sandvik said. Being treated justly equates to lifelong health, she said, noting that bullied employees spend more time and money on health care, which is costly to an organization. Even those who aren’t bullied but witness it are physically and emotionally affected. She said, “It’s akin to witnessing a mugging on the job daily.”

Lutgen-Sandvik said that research in the area is problem focused. “We look for answers to fix the problem, and identify organizational strengths in good work climates, where it’s going well, and then look to replicate these practices,” she said.

Organizations can diminish bullying by not rewarding aggressive behavior, either directly or indirectly, but rather rewarding positive social behavior. “They must address harassment, abuse and humiliation. Systems can be problematic, but cannot be an excuse for bullying and degradation.”

Lutgen-Sandvik said that 80 percent of targets transfer or leave the organization. She said that in addition to 10 percent of the workforce experiencing bullying in any six months, 45 percent experience it at some point in their work history. Seventy-five percent, therefore have either experienced or witnessed it, leaving a meager 25 percent not being affected by it in some way.

“Some employees are damaged forever.” she said.

Who Bullies Whom

Lutgen-Sandvik said that men and women are equally targeted and abused. Men may be bullied because they fail to perform stereotypically. For example, if a man wants to spend more time at home with his children than at work, he may be targeted. Women, on the other hand, might be trying to break into a male dominated environment, setting up competition with other women, and then become other women’s worst enemies. Indeed, bullying at work appears to be a same-sex form of abuse. “Women tend to bully women; men bully men, predominantly,” she said.

What she learned is that careful hiring is the best strategy. “People friendly individuals make good bosses and co-workers,” she said.

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