Walking the Tightrope: Workplace Bullying and the Human Resource Professional

Human resource professionals have extensive involvement in workplace bullying situations and workplace bullying research is not reflective of their experience. This study sought to better understand how HR professionals understood and defined bullying, how they made sense of bullying situations and their position in them, and how policies associated with bullying activities were understood and utilized. Using qualitative methods, the findings indicate that HR professionals define and understand bullying as targets do, except they differed in what elements actually turn bullying behaviors into a situation they would label as "bullying." They also felt that addressing and dealing with bullying was complicated due to its definitional state and their low power position. Still, they felt they took complaints of bullying very seriously and acted in these situations. The HR professionals also made sense of how and why bullying happened by pointing to issues like management style, conflict skills, and personality clashes. Additionally, the roles they played in bullying situations were marked by contradiction and paradox and equated to ?walking a tightrope?. Although many felt their organizations had policies that addressed bullying, it was found that most were ambiguous in regards to bullying or did not mention it at all. This study suggests a number of implications for both theory and practice. The findings also point to many necessary areas of future research which could further our understanding of workplace bullying and where organizations in the U.S. formally stand on the issue

Cases in organizational and managerial communication: Stretching boundaries

Sean Horan is a contributing author (with Hailey Gillen Hoke, Renee L. Cowan, and Rebecca M. Chory), Jim and Pam made this look so easy, pp.265-269. Book Description: In the 21st century, shifting workplace demographics, globalization, and the flattening of the world via new communication technologies has ushered in radical changes in our understandings of organizations and their members. Given the interest in engaged scholarship and more flexible and virtual forms within organizational communication, cases in this volume cross over different areas within the field and related disciplines. Furthermore, they cover topics and populations that are increasingly being seen in organizational communication literature. Cases delve into organizing structures, relationships, and visions for global not-for-profits, hybrid, creative industry, and entrepreneurial organizations. Some cases are positive in orientation and display exemplars of organizations that have qualities to emulate. Others display destructive elements and processes (e.g., dysfunctional leadership, workplace bullying). Furthermore, the cases reflect an awareness of the necessity of intercultural communication competencies, emphasizing communication in multicultural contexts (e.g., China, India, Africa, Russia). This book can benefit instructors and students in at least four ways. First, it provides instructors with an application-based teaching tool to help spark discussion. Second, students often find case studies interesting and applicable to their current and future work lives, especially undergraduates who anticipate graduating within the next year or two and entering full-time membership in the labor force. Third, students and instructors note that cases help students grasp course materials that may be otherwise challenging. In their case study learning, students sometimes derive insights, lessons, and strategies that broaden the theoretical and practical implications for which instructors plan. Finally, for graduate students, the book encourages reflection on important topics for future research and provides a resource for making their lessons come alive in classrooms and in other settings.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/communications-books/1022/thumbnail.jp

Prevention of and interventions in workplace bullying: A global study of human resource professionals’ reflections on preferred action

The aim of this study was to analyze Human Resource Professionals’ reflections on the prevention of and intervention in workplace bullying across different countries. More specifically, the study sought to identify what actions were, in the experience of human resource professionals, best to prevent and intervene in bullying and uncover organizations’ motives for engaging in such work. The study was conducted through semi-structured interviews (n = 214) in 14 different countries/regions, representing all continents and all GLOBE cultural clusters. Qualitative content analysis was performed to analyze the material. The findings indicate that bullying was largely conceptualized as a productivity and cost issue, and that was largely driving efforts to counter bullying. Training and policies were highlighted as preferred means to prevent bullying across countries. In contrast, there were large national differences in terms of preferences for either disciplinary or reconciliatory approaches to intervene in bullying. This study advances our understanding of what human resource professionals consider preferred ways of managing workplace bullying, and adds to our understanding of cross-national differences and similarities in views of this phenomenon. As such, the results are of relevance to both practitioners and scholars.peerReviewe