Bulling in the Workplace

Bullying in the workplace is a growing problem in the corporate world. There have been incidents of abusive upper management, mistreating employees by kicking, yelling, abusive and foul language, and not following policy and procedures. Some have the nerve to degrade an employee to show their superiority, and then terminating them for no apparent reason.  People have lost their lives due this type of behavior whereas the ex-employee return to the workplace looking for revenge.

It’s a corporate social responsibility to provide a workplace that’s free of a hostility, and a safe environment. Bullying and abusive attitude causes, stress, low production and poor quality of work, low retention rate of employees and retaliation which could cause an unsafe workplace.

The ethical decision making models involves defining the problem, gathering information concerning the problem, apply values and standards that are ethical, and evaluate other alternatives.   There are several approaches that are used such as utilitarian approach and the right approach.  Utilitarian approach weighs the good with the least amount of harm. The rights approach looks at people’s rights and the fairness approach looks at the fairness of all involved. In some situations going through all approaches may be necessary.

“Utilitarianism offers a relatively straightforward method for deciding the morally right course of action consequences or outcomes determine what is right or wrong. Good outcomes can be measured by happiness and unhappiness, the preferences of the individual and for any particular situation we may find ourselves in. To discover what we ought to do in any situation, we first identify the various courses of action that we could perform. Second, we determine all of the foreseeable benefits and harms that would result from each course of action for everyone affected by the action. And third, we choose the course of action that provides the greatest benefits after the costs have been taken into account  Knouse, Hill, (2009)”.

First, we identify the problem.  Bullying is defined as abusive and offensive language, criticism, rude and demeaning attitude. Creating unrealistic duties and impossible deadlines so the employee can fail is also a form of bullying because it sets employee up for failure. Unjustly blaming a person for mistakes they didn’t make.

Secondly, identify the harm that bullying causes. It creates excessive absenteeism, increased work injuries, and a host of physiological problems in the workplace.  Most employees that experience this type of behavior from their managers’ suffer with stress related illnesses, such as heartache and stroke.

Third, decide the course of action. With all the information gathered, policy and procedures should be put in place because bullying is not ethical or morally right.  This type of behavior should not be tolerated under any circumstances.

References

Hamilton, J., Knouse, S., Hill, V., (2009) The Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 86, No. 2 Issues in Ethics V2 N1 (1989), Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/calculating.html#sthash.XOfvCAnw.dpuf