Research is currently underway on this topic which describes how corporations that invest and focus on their human capital financially outperform corporations that do not.
The Death of the Bully Culture in High Performing Organizations-11/2022
The team of Dr. Janet L. Walsh, Dr. Laura Persky, and Mr. Ken Pinnock SHRM-SCP, have been working on bullying in organizations identifying the financial and operational costs. The following information is from the current research abstract as of 11/2022 and is awaiting publication.
Environmental pressures such as the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, shortage of staff have underscored the need for businesses to be agile, adaptable, and high-performing in order to overcome competitive pressures (Das, Mukhopadhyay, and Suar 2022, Enablers Robertson, 2021). A bullying environment in the workforce reduces a firm’s ability to be successful by reducing agility, adaptability, and high performance (Gercans, 2021). Organizations historically have been reluctant or ineffective in confronting and addressing workplace bullying resulting in higher human capital costs, employee resignations, decline in company reputation, difficulty in replacing employees and higher costs (Hodgins, Lewis, et. al., 2020) Changing employee expectations of the firm and workplace and full employment has underscored the importance of diagnosing and solving bullying in organization (Cooney, Marshall, and Zaharchuk, 2022). The purpose of this paper is to show how bullying limits an organization’s ability to be high performing and provides diagnostic suggestions and recommended solutions to eliminate bullying.
The Effect of High Performing Bullying Behavior on Organizational Performance: A Bullying Management Dilemma
The team of Dr. Janet L. Walsh, Dr. Laura Persky, and Mr. Ken Pinnock SHRM-SCP, researched and published this information which has become a top journal download. This paper is available at: Global Journal of Business Research, v. 13 (1) p. 71-81, 2019
Workplace bullying is well-documented as harmful to individuals and organizations. What has not been explored as thoroughly is the management dilemma human resources and business leaders face when the bully is a high-performing worker making significant financial or operational contributions to the organization. High-performing bullies make it harder for leaders to know when and how to intervene. In this phenomenological study, the authors compare the positive and negative organizational effects of maintaining high-performance bullies in the workplace. The authors review the literature to identify the differences between demanding and bullying behaviors. Examples are provided that illustrate why high performing bullies remain in organizations, how their behavior is exposed to public view, and the resulting consequences and outcomes. The mitigating role of social media in resolving bullying in organizations is revealed to be definitive. In conclusion the authors suggest managing high-performance bullies through a combination of education, organizational structure, job design coupled and a pro-active data gathering process through social media and internal outreach.