Workplace Bullying Doesn't Work

Most of us have witnessed incidents of workplace bullying. Some of us have seen strings of incidents that form patterns of bullying. And some have concluded that people who bully others at work can evade accountability. Sadly, this interpretation of observables is oversimplified. It leads to more incidents of workplace bullying — more hurt, more harm, and more humiliation. We need a more careful assessment of what happens when people engage in bullying. We need it because it illuminates the path to more effective responses to workplace bullying. And we need effective responses to workplace bullying because workplace bullying doesn't work.

What workplace bullying is

Not all abusive behavior at work is workplace bullying. And unfortunately there is no universally accepted definition of workplace bullying. Here's the definition I use:

Workplace bullying is any aggressive behavior, associated with work, and primarily intended to cause physical or psychological harm to others.

Workplace bullying need not occur in the workplace, though it can. It need not involve abuse of power, though it can. It doesn't even have to actually cause physical or psychological harm to others, though it can. All that's required is that it be aggressive, that it be associated with work, and that it be primarily intended to cause harm, physically or psychologically.

What's missing from this definition, compared to others, is the requirement that the bullying be repeated. There are several reasons why I omit that requirement, but the most important is that for the perpetrator, bullying is addictive. And that's what often leads to repetition. More about this in a moment.

What it means for bullying to 'work'

Perhaps the most discussed sense in which bullying doesn't work is as a management technique. Although bullying truly is a horrid way to motivate, in my experience, only rarely are business objectives the primary motivator of perpetrators. So let me set this interpretation aside, and turn to comparing intended results to actual results.

To decide To decide how well a strategy is working,
we must know what its intended results arehow well a strategy is working, we must know what its intended results are. Then we can compare the intended results of the strategy to its actual results. In the case of workplace bullying, the immediate objective of the perpetrator is witnessing suffering that the perpetrator created. Witnessing suffering creates in the perpetrator an acute feeling of being alive and powerful — almost euphoria — a euphoria that cannot be otherwise easily achieved at work.

But that experience is just the immediate objective. After the euphoria passes, the perpetrator experiences a growing sense of a need for more. My own view — admittedly, a minority view — is that bullying is a behavioral addiction, analogous to gambling addiction, Internet addiction, and overeating addiction. [Grant, et al. 2010] That's a primary reason why perpetrators repeat their offenses. They don't necessarily need to repeat with the same target, though often they do.

The perpetrators' need to repeat their offenses suggests that the bullying doesn't actually work. The effect of the bullying on the perpetrator is ephemeral — transitory, fleeting, brief — it creates a need to bully again. If the intended result of the bullying is the perpetrator's feeling of extended euphoria, then bullying doesn't "work."

Last words

This perspective, this view of bullying as an addiction, has important consequences for targets of perpetrators. Many targets come to realize that only bullying tactics can deter further attacks. But they're reluctant to apply that insight. In a future post I'll explore this line of thinking and point to a way around this conundrum.   Next issue in this series   Top  

Is a workplace bully targeting you? Do you know what to do to end the bullying? Workplace bullying is so widespread that a 2014 survey indicated that 27% of American workers have experienced bullying firsthand, that 21% have witnessed it, and that 72% are aware that bullying happens. Yet, there are few laws to protect workers from bullies, and bullying is not a crime in most jurisdictions. 101 Tips for Targets of Workplace Bullies is filled with the insights targets of bullying need to find a way to survive, and then to finally end the bullying. Also available at Apple's iTunes store! Just . Order Now!

Footnotes

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Related articles

More articles on Workplace Bullying:

Covert Bullying

The workplace bully is a tragically familiar figure to many. Bullying is costly to organizations, and painful to everyone within them — especially targets. But the situation is worse than many realize, because much bullying is covert. Here are some of the methods of covert bullies.

How Targets of Bullies Can Use OODA: II

To make the bullying stop, many targets of bullies try to defend themselves. But defense alone is not sufficient — someone must make the bully stop. That's why counterattack is much more likely to work.

Meeting Bullies: Advice for Chairs

Bullying in meetings is difficult to address, because intervention in the moment is inherently public. When bullying happens in meetings, what can you do?

Strategy for Targets of Verbal Abuse

Many targets of verbal abuse at work believe that they have just two strategic options: find a new job, or accept the abuse. In some cases, they're correct. But not always.

Unrecognized Bullying: I

Much workplace bullying goes unrecognized. Three reasons: (a) conventional definitions of bullying exclude much actual bullying; (b) perpetrators cleverly evade detection; and (c) cognitive biases skew our perceptions so we don't see some bullying as bullying.

See also Workplace Bullying for more related articles.

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