Who is vulnerable?
There are groups of people who are more vulnerable in their places of work than others. Recent times have brought a trend towards employing people on short-term contracts. This makes them particularly vulnerable to being bullied, as they want their contract renewed, especially if it is the bully who makes the decision. Low status employees such as apprentices and juniors are also particularly vulnerable, as often they are too afraid of losing their job to say anything. Besides, they feel “who is going to take my word against a senior bloke like him?”
People can be bullied through socialization. One young Asian woman who worked as an accounting clerk was bullied by her manager who was an older Asian man, over a period of years. The bullying was bought to the attention of senior management, but not by the woman herself. When asked why she had never complained she said ‘In my culture I can’t show disrespect for an older Asian man.’
People with obvious mental and physical disabilities, or who suffer from mental or physical health problems are vulnerable. A June 2001 survey commissioned by MENCAP, the Royal Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults, indicated the nine out of ten disability sufferers had suffered bullying in the last year.
Read and Baker (1996) quoted the research designed by MIND, the health clarity and give the following figures: Of the 778 people questioned, 34% said they had been dismissed or forced o resign from their jobs, 69% had been put off applying for jobs for fear of unfair treatment. ‘The most intolerant sector’
AN ALTERNATIVE TO A BULLYING CULTURE
In an alternative culture, people manage their own time and they are judged by their results (not by the number of hours they are to be seen at their desks). If they have a medical appointment they can go without inquisition, working from home is possible and shorter working weeks are negotiable. In these days of easy remote access, none of the above should cause the problems to a people-focused culture.
Wright and Smye (1997) discuss a US Law firm that set limits on the number of hours that staff can work. They also have a policy of not paying their senior staff unrealistically high salaries compared to the junior staff. This results in people wanting to work at the firm
The support staff who keep things ticking over deserve the same respect as the professional fee earners. Think of the disruption that would be caused in a busy organization if there was no coffee in the machines, the rubbish bins not emptied, the toilets not cleaned and the printing not done.
In an alternative culture, equal weighting is given to performance and people skills in managers’ evaluations. Someone who brings in good revenues and achieves good results, but who has a transient and unhappy team under him/her, is likely to be prey to long-term disadvantages. Those managers who almost live a work and expect others to do the same have no respect for the personal lives of others. Some managers even expect their staff to keep the company in the bar, after work. This ‘baby-sitting’ of managers is to be discouraged.
Similarly, appraisals should not reveal any surprises. If the employee’s performance had been less than satisfactory, they should be given constructive feedback on an ongoing basis long before the appraisal. This would ideally take the form of discussions as well as written objectives to enable he employee o put right what may have gone wrong.
THE ROLE OF TEACHERS IN CLASSROOM BULLYING
To address bullying effectively, educators, students and families must work together to tackle the issue at school-wide level. It is possible that many people (including school personnel/teachers ) of all ages perpetuate or tolerate a pattern of abusive behaviors simply because they do not realize that abuse like bullying has different underlying dynamics than the healthy processes of conflict resolution ad problem solving. In the problem of bullying, much focus should be given into the most basic venue of academic socialization in the children – the classroom. In the classroom, teacher assumes the role of loco-parentis , the second parent. Teachers, like parents, have no right to expect children not to bully each other if they provide a bullying role model in the way they interact with children or each other. All adults have responsibilities for the welfare of children and young people should adopt common approaches to dealing with bullying wherever it occurs—at school community or at home. It is true that reducing the level of bullying in schools is dependent on having an effective whole school policy which involves all members of a school community, but individual teachers can make a difference. Many psychosocial professionals believe that by educating the faculty , the school personnel, students and the entire school community on the underlying dynamics of bullying—this will be the first step in reducing the frequency first on our campuses, then, hopefully in our community’s homes. The same atmosphere that promotes effective teaching and successful student learning can help address the challenge of student bullying. Dedicated teachers can develop and apply a repertoire of strategies that will help prevent, deter, and respond to classroom bullying while promoting their academic mission. Specific strategies may include:
1. Modeling desired attitudes and behaviors and fostering student-shared responsibility for the classroom’s social and physical environment.
2. Applying classroom rules and fairly and consistently thus, establishing and communicating rules and sanctions regarding bullying;
3. Praise and reward systems have their origin in behaviorist psychology which in turn underpins many of the commercial packages on promoting good discipline that are now available to schools. In brief, these packages suggest that schools can make a difference to children’s behavior by setting out clear rules and specifying rewards and sanctions for breaking the rules.
4. Teaching students how to ask for help and how to report cruelty, bullying and harassment learning to respond of help and referring critical bullying cases to appropriate sources of support.
5. Aligning instructional topics of courage, reasoning, fairness, justice, responsibility, citizenship, and collaboration with appropriate academic/elective content or extra curricular activities.
6. Promote personal and social skills development;
ANTI BULLYING EDUCATION INTEGRATED IN CURRICULUM
Schools need to think carefully about how such knowledge attitudes and skills can be promoted. Here are some suggestions on what could be included when designing a curriculum where anti-bullying is promoted:
Knowledge:
What bullying is?
The school anti-bullying policy
Why it must be stopped—the harm it does.
LIFE-SKILLS
Being assertive and not acting aggressively
Resolving differences constructively, using conflict resolution techniques
Helping others who are being bullied, as a good bystander
Reacting effectively if bullied
It should be noted that in including these elements care must be taken o make sure hat the content is age-appropriate and sufficient class time is provided that the knowledge can be assimilated, student attitudes significantly influenced and the necessary skills developed as far as is possible.
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