Bullying As a Management Style
The findings of the Community, Diversity, and Social Justice Initiative often indicated that departments needed to improve the workplace climate for all employees before they could hope to attract new applicants, including those from underrepresented groups.
Department A, a 150-employee unit that provides technical services to faculty, staff, and students, was concerned about its lack of racial and ethnic diversity. The prevailing belief within the department was that the lack of diversity occurred because the department couldn’t pay salaries high enough to attract and retain employees of color. However, assessment data from the climate survey for this department revealed disturbing findings: 26 percent of employees agreed that bullying was a problem in their work areas; 29 percent said they could not make complaints without fear of retaliation; 35 percent disagreed that their supervisors were role models for appropriate workplace behavior; and 37 percent disagreed that their supervisors adequately addressed inappropriate behavior that occurred in the workplace.
From these results, and from responses to open-ended questions that elaborated on them, it was evident that Department A had a poor workplace climate that would make it difficult to attract and retain any employee.
When the assessment results were shared with the department’s managers, a several-hour discussion resulted. Two of the managers asserted that bullying (yelling at and physically cornering people, slamming doors, pounding on desks) was a legitimate management style. Fortunately, the new director made it clear that such behavior was unacceptable and that he expected any employee experiencing or witnessing such behavior to report it immediately, to him if necessary. He also made explicit his expectation that managers and supervisors should model appropriate behavior and take the lead in confronting inappropriate behavior by others.
The director reiterated these same strong messages at subsequent presentations of the assessment data to employees throughout the department. Although a reassessment will not take place until later this year, anecdotal evidence suggests that significant improvements occurred regarding behavior related to the four survey items noted above. This example is one of ten changes this department has made to become an employer of choice for any prospective employee.
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