Guide for employers Essay

Eliminating would mean developing a zero tolerance anti-bully policy while the work environment is being structured to incorporate a sense of autonomy and individual challenge. The best way is to define specific duties and responsibilities of every employee working in the organization. This shall give one a good reference of what and what not to do as covered by the job description. People management practices of managers and work systems must be determined like staff shortages, poorly defined jobs, and lack of policies and procedures including leadership styles. A good and strong HR is but appropriate when there is a need for control of attitude and behavior like when the bullies are the managers. It is high time that HR shall have a distinct place in the organizational chart like organization reengineering that will really make them effective in responding to employee’s problems like sexual harassment, bullies, and workplace violence. However bullying is not always intentional. Workplace diversity also plays a minor role in it when people do not seem to realize that the effects on seemingly innocent gestures or words on others may be perceived negatively and may have a detrimental effect brought about by relative cultural differences. The organization then is encouraged to carefully design and implement an equal opportunity or diversity policies to initiate culture change and work ethics like what is and what is not an acceptable behavior. This will of course lessen counterproductive behaviors. Allow no idle time, see to it that each one is performing and completing their job on time. Preoccupation with the task on hand makes employees look and observe other people less. Idle times promotes chatting and looking at other people’s personal businesses. HR of course shall make use of productivity tools measurement like man-machine charts to make sure that employees used their time wisely but not overworked. The organization must promote team empowerment and group dynamics leadership to care for the values, interest and emotional responses of the members while taking care of the interests of the organization. Develop a code of ethics that everyone is able to understand and follow. HR needed to establish an independent contact with employees and secretly conduct attitude surveys especially on departments where there is high statistics of staff turnover. Eliminate trouble spots by holding awareness seminar and providing a kind of online hotline where employees may be able to tell their problems to HR direct. It could be a tedious task reading emails and complaints but there is not much option better than open communication. Procedure must be developed in handling complaints regarding bullying. The easiest part is to make a blog as part of the company website and encourage employees to contribute. One can know if something is happening within the organization or not by the way they write. To manage stress, deep rooted problems even domestic ones, big organizations must be able to have a counselor (Tehrani 2001, p. 209) offline and online. If it is too expensive then the organization must be able to refer them to one that is not so expensive and that can closely work with HR. Domestic problems has greater tendency to get spilled out in workplaces. Stress and anxiety affects productivity and so employers must provide all the features that could eliminate such deficiency. Domestic violence is not just a private matter anymore because it could get spilled in the workplace anytime. Bullying breed bullying and violence breeds violence. Bully and violence complaints must be immediately responded, investigated and properly documented. This will also paved way to improving current anti-bully policy on hand. Since this is a problem of global dimension, there is a need to evaluate the violence prevention programs and refer any difficulties to an organization that specializes in the field. Employers must keep records of the bullying to help determine the reasons for the bully to be able to find relative solutions for it. The anti-bully policy must be made available in the company’s website along with the organization’s contact person for quick reference. Remember that one is dealing with the behavior and not with the person so it would be good to provide counseling and personal development programs too. References ACT Workcover 2004 Preventing workplace bullying: a guide for employers and employees ACT, Australia, pp. 4. Retrieved November 6, 2007 Website: http://www. workcover. act. gov. au/pdfs/guides_cop/Bullying_Guide-Final. pdf SHARP 2006 Workplace bullying: what everyone needs to know Department of Labor and Industries, Western Australia, pp. 1. Retrieved November 6, 2007 Website: http://www. lni. wa. gov/Safety/Research/Files/Bullying. pdf Tehrani, N. 2001 Building a culture of respect: managing bullying at work Taylor & Francis, London, pp. 209. The CMR Group 2006 Workplace bullying: what can you do? Retrieved November 6, 2007 Website: http://www. badbossology. com/i9763-c47