1. 12/18/2016 Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
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Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
Submitted by Raymonda Burgman on June 15, 2016 - 3:00am
Are you trying to lead a committee, department, unit, school, college, university or group through
change yet have a bully on your team?
Whenever you meet with colleagues to discuss a change project, this person “aids” the team in
eliminating information she says is not germane to the group’s scope of work or charge. As other
team members start to speak, this person interrupts and changes the topic. Team members leave
the meeting saying how productive the meeting was because they got to the heart of the matter. But
the actual fact is that they do not know how to respond to the chilly climate during the meeting
because they feel threatened or humiliated. And each feels isolated, thinking he or she is the only
one who perceives the comments as harsh and off-putting.
You are not the only one experiencing such situations. According to Morgan State University
professor Leah P. Hollis, in Bully in the Ivory Tower: How Aggression and Incivility Erode American
Higher Education [1], more than 60 percent of respondents in an independent study of 175 four-year
colleges reported experiencing workplace bullying, compared to less than 40 percent of the general
public.
A biting email message, excluding a colleague from the office happy hour invitation or using the
silent treatment when asked for an opinion about a new idea proposed by a colleague -- these all
are forms of manipulation that we now recognize as bullying. If a supervisor or colleague removes
areas of responsibility without explanation, yells at employees in public, constantly monitors
employees or sabotages or discounts the quality of an employee’s work, it’s bullying.
The University of Louisville Ombuds Office offers their campus a self-help guide [2] on bullying and
succinctly defines bullying as “repeated, unreasonable actions of individuals (or a group) directed
toward an employee (or a group of employees), which is intended to intimidate and creates a risk to
the health and safety of the employee(s).” In the academic environment, bullying derails not only our
hopes for a collaborative workplace but also the learning and discovery that are our mission. And
with so many people impacted, you can imagine the emotional and psychological toll: anxiety,
insomnia, low morale, trouble concentrating and fear of humiliation.
In 2014, HERS partnered with several organizations to look at the pathways to senior leadership in
higher education. The research [3], in which 35 women presidents and senior officers were
interviewed, described positive and negative aspects of being top leaders in their respective
institutions. Two negative aspects are eerily similar to bullying: scrutiny and criticism, and not fitting
in or being heard. Resistance to change and lack of buy-in, in their most extreme forms, are also
bullying.
2. 12/18/2016 Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/15/advice-dealing-bullying-behavior-essay 2/3
Statistically, men perpetrate most bullying in the workplace, but women are more likely to bully other
women and tend to use less explicit forms of bullying. Women may not physically bully, but they will
use verbal or indirect bullying, social alienation, intimidation bullying, or cyberbullying. If you witness
such incidents, you may question whether you left bullying on a grade school playground [4].
The High Cost of Bullying
For the leader who encounters a bully on her team, here are some reasons why you should take
action.
Usually bullying is about fear and insecurity. Differences in others make some people uncomfortable
and foretell troubling consequences if such behavior runs rampant on your campus for faculty
members, administrators and students from diverse backgrounds. In her research, Hollis found that
bullies disproportionately target women, African-Americans and members of the LGBTQA
community. And if your college or university is pursuing vigorous diversity and inclusion initiatives,
such groups will be greatly affected if a systemic bullying problem exists. The people your institution
most wants to attract, retain and develop may have the shortest employment or time on your
campus. Those targeted by a bully tend to lose their jobs or quit.
The cost of such staff turnover is high. Some researchers believe workplace bullying costs at a
minimum $250 million annually throughout all workplaces. Consider replacing a chief career
services administrator. According to data from the College and University Professional Association
of Human Resources, the average salary [5]for a person in that position is $74,423, and a
conservative estimate is that direct replacement costs will range from 40-60 percent of that salary, or
almost $45,000 at the upper end. The total turnover cost, which includes an assortment of benefits,
search costs and other impacts to your campus, ranges from 90-200 percent of the employee’s
salary. In the worst case, that means it may cost almost $150,000 to replace a single employee.
Can your campus afford to lose $1.5 million because 10 employees voluntarily leave your campus
due to avoidable dysfunction? Employee retention especially matters today, given the limited
financial resources available on many campuses.
And, in addition to such high turnover costs, your institution may face potential lawsuits, health care
costs and productivity declines as a result of bullying behavior. At the very least, in a collaborative
work environment, a bully or bullies will impede you from reaching desired outcomes.
Options to Pursue
How can you as an institutional leader help lessen the risk and incidences of bullying -- potentially
saving money and building campus morale? Taking action by learning to be a better ally is best for
handling and reducing the risk of bullying. Developing people is the business of higher education,
and when we work together to reach our goals, we are at our best.
A bully often lacks empathy, so you must teach and require this conduct if you are to make headway
against bullying behavior. And you can’t assume that only certain types of people will engage in
such behavior -- anyone can be a bully -- which is why you should make “no bullying” a broad
mandate.
As you begin forming a no-bullying (and healthy) work environment, ask yourself and colleagues
these three simple questions:
1. Does your supervisor have a positive attitude?
2. Does the administration respect all employees?
3. Do your colleagues respect you?
3. 12/18/2016 Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
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Answering these questions will help you identify the depth and breadth of campus programs needed
for faculty members, administrators and students. Sponsoring or championing a course or workshop
on ethics and civility in higher education -- open to all students, faculty and staff -- can serve as a
signal of community standards of behavior. An active human resources department, which guides
people and develops clear policies about bullying, as well as spaces and systems that allow
employees to voice discomfort or concerns, is also important.
You must communicate and ensure that bullying behavior won’t be tolerated in any setting at any
time. It’s for the greater good to have collaborative work environments where all employees are
valued and appreciated.
At the heart of every campus are people who aren’t looking for salvation for one target of bullying
but liberation for all of us as we pursue new modes of operation and systems. As campus leaders,
our principal strength is that we are not lone agents of good. We can reach out and work with other
people to eradicate bullying and create and sustain a community of thinkers, dreamers, learners and
innovators. Bullying is everyone’s issue.
Author Bio:
Raymonda Burgman is director of HERS Institutes.
Source URL: https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/15/advice-dealing-bullying-behavior-essay?
width=775&height=500&iframe=true
Links:
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Bully-Ivory-Tower-Aggression-Incivility/dp/0988478226
[2] http://louisville.edu/ombuds/selfhelp/reading/Workplace%20Bullying.pdf
[3] https://hersnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/StoriesfromtheSummitTrail.pdf
[4] http://www.ted.com/talks/shane_koyczan_to_this_day_for_the_bullied_and_beautiful?language=en
[5] https://www.higheredjobs.com/salary/salaryDisplay.cfm?SurveyID=34
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![12/18/2016 Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/15/advice-dealing-bullying-behavior-essay 1/3
(https://www.insidehighered.com)
Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
Submitted by Raymonda Burgman on June 15, 2016 - 3:00am
Are you trying to lead a committee, department, unit, school, college, university or group through
change yet have a bully on your team?
Whenever you meet with colleagues to discuss a change project, this person “aids” the team in
eliminating information she says is not germane to the group’s scope of work or charge. As other
team members start to speak, this person interrupts and changes the topic. Team members leave
the meeting saying how productive the meeting was because they got to the heart of the matter. But
the actual fact is that they do not know how to respond to the chilly climate during the meeting
because they feel threatened or humiliated. And each feels isolated, thinking he or she is the only
one who perceives the comments as harsh and off-putting.
You are not the only one experiencing such situations. According to Morgan State University
professor Leah P. Hollis, in Bully in the Ivory Tower: How Aggression and Incivility Erode American
Higher Education [1], more than 60 percent of respondents in an independent study of 175 four-year
colleges reported experiencing workplace bullying, compared to less than 40 percent of the general
public.
A biting email message, excluding a colleague from the office happy hour invitation or using the
silent treatment when asked for an opinion about a new idea proposed by a colleague -- these all
are forms of manipulation that we now recognize as bullying. If a supervisor or colleague removes
areas of responsibility without explanation, yells at employees in public, constantly monitors
employees or sabotages or discounts the quality of an employee’s work, it’s bullying.
The University of Louisville Ombuds Office offers their campus a self-help guide [2] on bullying and
succinctly defines bullying as “repeated, unreasonable actions of individuals (or a group) directed
toward an employee (or a group of employees), which is intended to intimidate and creates a risk to
the health and safety of the employee(s).” In the academic environment, bullying derails not only our
hopes for a collaborative workplace but also the learning and discovery that are our mission. And
with so many people impacted, you can imagine the emotional and psychological toll: anxiety,
insomnia, low morale, trouble concentrating and fear of humiliation.
In 2014, HERS partnered with several organizations to look at the pathways to senior leadership in
higher education. The research [3], in which 35 women presidents and senior officers were
interviewed, described positive and negative aspects of being top leaders in their respective
institutions. Two negative aspects are eerily similar to bullying: scrutiny and criticism, and not fitting
in or being heard. Resistance to change and lack of buy-in, in their most extreme forms, are also
bullying.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/66afa5c8-ff7d-4e1e-9a4a-2cd5c8fc5c79-161218142854/85/advice-for-dealing-with-bullying-behavior-essay-1-320.jpg)
![12/18/2016 Advice for dealing with bullying behavior (essay)
https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/15/advice-dealing-bullying-behavior-essay 2/3
Statistically, men perpetrate most bullying in the workplace, but women are more likely to bully other
women and tend to use less explicit forms of bullying. Women may not physically bully, but they will
use verbal or indirect bullying, social alienation, intimidation bullying, or cyberbullying. If you witness
such incidents, you may question whether you left bullying on a grade school playground [4].
The High Cost of Bullying
For the leader who encounters a bully on her team, here are some reasons why you should take
action.
Usually bullying is about fear and insecurity. Differences in others make some people uncomfortable
and foretell troubling consequences if such behavior runs rampant on your campus for faculty
members, administrators and students from diverse backgrounds. In her research, Hollis found that
bullies disproportionately target women, African-Americans and members of the LGBTQA
community. And if your college or university is pursuing vigorous diversity and inclusion initiatives,
such groups will be greatly affected if a systemic bullying problem exists. The people your institution
most wants to attract, retain and develop may have the shortest employment or time on your
campus. Those targeted by a bully tend to lose their jobs or quit.
The cost of such staff turnover is high. Some researchers believe workplace bullying costs at a
minimum $250 million annually throughout all workplaces. Consider replacing a chief career
services administrator. According to data from the College and University Professional Association
of Human Resources, the average salary [5]for a person in that position is $74,423, and a
conservative estimate is that direct replacement costs will range from 40-60 percent of that salary, or
almost $45,000 at the upper end. The total turnover cost, which includes an assortment of benefits,
search costs and other impacts to your campus, ranges from 90-200 percent of the employee’s
salary. In the worst case, that means it may cost almost $150,000 to replace a single employee.
Can your campus afford to lose $1.5 million because 10 employees voluntarily leave your campus
due to avoidable dysfunction? Employee retention especially matters today, given the limited
financial resources available on many campuses.
And, in addition to such high turnover costs, your institution may face potential lawsuits, health care
costs and productivity declines as a result of bullying behavior. At the very least, in a collaborative
work environment, a bully or bullies will impede you from reaching desired outcomes.
Options to Pursue
How can you as an institutional leader help lessen the risk and incidences of bullying -- potentially
saving money and building campus morale? Taking action by learning to be a better ally is best for
handling and reducing the risk of bullying. Developing people is the business of higher education,
and when we work together to reach our goals, we are at our best.
A bully often lacks empathy, so you must teach and require this conduct if you are to make headway
against bullying behavior. And you can’t assume that only certain types of people will engage in
such behavior -- anyone can be a bully -- which is why you should make “no bullying” a broad
mandate.
As you begin forming a no-bullying (and healthy) work environment, ask yourself and colleagues
these three simple questions:
1. Does your supervisor have a positive attitude?
2. Does the administration respect all employees?
3. Do your colleagues respect you?](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)