One in five New Zealanders experience bullying in the workplace, with the country coming in at number two in the list of worst nations for bullying.
A new review on the subject, Workplace Bullying, discusses the prevalence of the issue and how to combat it.
"This has been going on for a while and unfortunately, only recently brought to light, so we’re still in the process of having those conversations and trying to create a culture of change where bullying is no longer tolerated," Massey University researcher Dr Natalia D'Souza explained on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning.
"Unfortunately, a lot of it comes down to organisational culture, whether we have good leadership, the required management competencies to actually manage and prevent bullying effectively, and our research suggests that probably not, but we're getting there."
Dr D'Souza said the book provides some practical guidelines around reporting bullying in the workplace, including taking notes of what is happening.
"Keep a journal of things that have happened, because bullying is this repeated behaviour – it’s not a one-off, usually, and so it's this accumulation of behaviours over time that often get intense and worsen over time, so having a record of what's happened, speaking up to someone, even if you feel like you can’t speak up to your manager, maybe a colleague or coworker in the workplace that you feel you can trust. There are other options out there. There are Citizens Advice Bureaus, legal advisers and so on that you can consult."
She added that it is especially difficult if a supervisor or manager is the one doing the bullying, as people may feel they have no one else to turn to.
"A lot of the time, people get promoted because they’ve got a certain set of technical competencies, let's say, but they don’t necessarily have those competencies to manage or prevent things like bullying and harassment in the workplace.
"There's very little options there, aside from seeking some sort of legal advice there, and a lot of the time, people will just leave because they feel they have no options. We do have some resources provided by Worksafe now, and even Netsafe because we're seeing other forms of workplace bullying, so that’s another area we would recommend priority in terms of research and funding and so on."
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