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Dealing with Negative and Inappropriate Behaviours in the Workplace and Academia:
A Practical Guide
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Welcome

Kia ora everyone, and welcome to the Workplace Resilience corner of AWAWS – a place dedicated to discussion and information about keeping us safe, healthy and in control of our work and study environments.
 
The following pages are assembled from current public knowledge, together with specialist research around workplace bullying. References can be found at the end of the document and there are other useful links throughout.
We will talk about 5 main topics around bullying, and provide resources for further information:
  1. Sexual harassment and assault
  2. Discrimination
  3. Academic bullying, including that at conferences
  4. Online bullying
  5. What about my own behaviour?
  6. Resources

Did you know? 

Workplace bullying is often approached under the umbrella of ‘cultural change,’ but specific training in coping with it is relatively rare. For example, we may be advised on what might constitute bullying, and encouraged to ‘speak up,’ but often without advice to help us with this potentially risky task. This is where personal development comes in, which we begin here.

An important note:

Advice contained in these pages does not replace any employer / institution policy or procedure around making a bullying complaint. These resources are instead aimed to build your understanding of the bullying phenomenon and offer a framework under which to manage acute workplace bullying situations – to know how to help, when you can.
 
Do feel free to dip into links in this document, but remember that specific or personal issues (about someone else’s behaviour, or your own), may still be taken to the available support people in your workplace. You are also welcome to get in touch with DrAlfie@word.net.nz – all inquiries are in strict confidence.
 
Before we begin, it is important to understand what we mean by bullying, and get some ideas about its causes.

Bullying Aetiology

We know many bullying incidents are simply the result of bad behaviour.

Did you know that bullying can also be caused by stress? This is especially the case in workplaces involving a heavy workload, significant risk, life or death situations and where staff have a lack of control, such as where they are micro managed. Stressors can also take the form of financial worries, pressure to perform and issues at home. If you, or your staff work in such conditions, or have wellbeing concerns, these issues are worth bearing in mind to control behaviours at a foundational level. This is especially the case during this time that Covid-19 has added extra burdens to us all.
 
Bullying can also occur (i.e. be felt to be bullying) where differing cultural behaviours intersect (e.g. where senses of humour differ). Bullying can also result from a skill deficit (e.g. in teaching or communication) and some people who have been bullied in the past might adopt this behaviour – bullying can be learned and inherited.

Because investigative processes can be challenging, involve a substantial stigma and create a lot of drama, bullying complaints can also can be made in retribution - perhaps as a way to ‘get someone back’ or scupper a rival’s chances of promotion.
 
The field of bullying is therefore complex and it would be impossible to include advice and information about all permutations here. We provide these pages with some of the more common issues in mind, to help your practice and hopefully pique your interest in proactive ways to approach such behaviours.

If you would like advice for a specific workplace, feel free to get in touch – recent research indicates that many bullying incidents can be bypassed by the use of a relatively simple framework for ensuring staff have all their needs met in the workplace.

Values

In academia (and many other workplaces), values issues can be at the root of bullying behaviours. These subconscious or conscious belief systems can differ greatly between people and are usually a combination of ‘inherited’ values (familial, cultural) and those created from a collection of life experiences (e.g. learning experiences).
 
Because values are at the very ‘soul’ of who we are, incidents which implicate them can quickly escalate into conflict situations, commonly based on a defensive reaction of the people involved. This understanding is at the heart of much advice offered here, and is the subject of important ongoing research. It is important that we take potential values issues into account when handling bullying incidents, because failing to do so can exacerbate the situation for all concerned.

Definition of Bullying

There is currently a lack of consensus on a definition of bullying in the workplace. In recent research, the following has been used because of its explicit inclusion of the learner:
Mistreatment, either intentional or unintentional occurs when behaviour shows disrespect for the dignity of others and unreasonably interferes with the learning process. Examples of mistreatment include sexual harassment; discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation; humiliation; psychological or physical punishment; and the use of grading and other forms of assessment in a punitive manner."
(Mavis, et al, 2014, p. 706)

What is and isn't bullying?

To begin, we also need a sense of what bullying is, and isn’t. Feel free to chat these examples over with your colleagues, and think of your own. This is a good way to extend one’s understanding of workplace behaviours. 
​
What might bullying in the workplace look like?
Why?
Treating a person differently to another based on a personal characteristic, e.g. gender
Discrimination
Purposefully failing to share vital information, e.g. about a project or assessment
Setting up to fail, marginalisation
Making fun of a student who gets the answer to a question wrong
Verbal abuse, intention to shame publically
Making jokes about a student’s specific characteristics, e.g. religion
Discriminatory, words intended to offend
Sending a colleague repeated messages about their looks
Sexual harassment & online bullying
Repeatedly standing very close to a student while they are sitting down
Sexual harassment, intimidation
A student openly challenging your knowledge, competency or their grading on the basis of your qualifications
Verbal abuse, intent to humiliate
Refusing a high grade to a student because they did not go for a drink with you
Sexual harassment & academic bullying
What might bullying in the workplace not look like?
Why?
Offering one student a quick meeting about a specific learning issue, but not the others
This is usually a part of the teacher-learner contract  - not marginalisation unless habitual and about common learning issues
Asking a student to find out about, and follow the guidelines for an assessment
Encouraging independent learning and search skills also part of teaching and learning
Nicely asking a question, with the purpose of challenging someone’s beliefs
Developing thinking can require presenting a different view
Respectfully asking a person about their preferred personal pronouns
When done well this is respectful, not discriminatory
Not accepting a colleague’s work where it  wasn’t up to standard (they thought it was)
Documents of a certain standard are usually part of a job description
A student challenging their teacher to explain or defend their point of view
Teachers need their thinking developed too
Standing very close to a colleague while they are sitting down, to quickly rescue a coffee from falling over
Accidental closeness can happen often

Follow the links to find out more about:

Sexual Harassment and Assault
Discrimination
Academic Bullying
Online bullying
Our Own Behaviour
Other Resources

​​For comments or suggestions on the material presented here, please contact DrAlfie@word.net.nz
Help us keep our website up to date. If you see any errors or outdated content please get in touch via socawaws@gmail.com

The black and white background images used throughout this website are from the Woodhouse Archive and provided by the Nicholson Collection, The University of Sydney.
  • Home
  • About
    • News
  • Membership
  • Local Chapters
    • Local Chapter Funding
  • Mentoring
    • How to Join
    • Meet Our Mentors >
      • Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides
      • Lisa Bailey
      • Anastasia Bakogianni
      • Craig Barker
      • Lea Beness
      • Amelia Brown
      • Diana Burton
      • Andrew Connor
      • Rhiannon Evans
      • Sarah Gador-Whyte
      • Caleb Hamilton
      • Julia Hamilton
      • Jennifer Hellum
      • Marguerite Johnson
      • Peter Keegan
      • Julia Kindt
      • Jayne Knight
      • Ray Laurence
      • Sarah Lawrence
      • Joseph Lehner
      • Maxine Lewis
      • Kristen Mann
      • Gwynaeth McIntyre
      • Aleksandra Michalewicz
      • Sarah Midford
      • Elizabeth Minchin
      • Kit Morrell
      • Ronika Power
      • Candace Richards
      • Karin Sowada
      • Hannah Vogel
      • Gareth Wearne
      • Kathryn Welch
      • Alexandra Woods
      • Sonja Wurster
  • Grants
    • Research Grant >
      • Susan Kelly
      • Kylie Constantine
      • Sonia Pertsinidis
      • Elizabeth Stockdale
      • Michelle Negus Cleary
      • Leanne Campbell
    • Microgrants
  • Harassment & Bullying
    • Sexual Harassment
    • Discrimination
    • Academic Bullying
    • Online Bullying
    • Our Own Behaviour
    • Other Resources
  • Blogging our History
  • Reading Group
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact Us
  • Resources
  • test