Psychopathic Bosses are Bullies and Create Bullies- UK Study Reveals
A study conducted by a research team from the University of Manchester’s Business School has suggested that psychopathic or narcissistic bosses create workplace bullies. The study involved 1,200 participants from a wide range of industries and countries. These participants completed questionnaires relating to their own psychological wellbeing, the prevalence of working bullying in their organisation and their manager’s personality. The study indicated that those working for leaders who display psychopathic and narcissistic traits had lower levels of job satisfaction and scored higher on a clinical measure of depression. Further, incidents of counterproductive work behaviour and workplace bullying were also higher among those with narcissistic leaders. Lead researcher, Ms Phillips stated that leaders high in psychopathy and narcissism are more likely to be bullies and more like to produce bullies amongst other staff.
Perhaps more frighteningly, Roughly, one-fifth of top corporate professionals have ‘extremely high’ levels of psychopathic traits.
This is about the same rate as seen among prisoners.
Colleagues More Likely to Intervene in Offline Bullying than On-line Bullying
A study undertaken by Loughborough University’s School of Business and Economics has suggested that work colleagues are less likely to intervene in workplace bullying if it takes place online. As part of the study, 110 participants were provided with examples of four different types of workplace bullying (personal vs. work-related; offline vs. online) that was perpetrated by a supervisor on a subordinate. The results indicated that co-workers were “significantly more likely to intervene in scenarios that took place offline and when the bullying was personal as opposed to being work-related, with an increase in support for the supervisor’s bullying also being observed when the behaviour was online.”
Catholic Church Employee Sues for Bullying
Rox Subramany, a former Catholic Church employee, has alleged that she was unfairly dismissed from her position after she complained about workplace bullying and questionable practices that had occurred in her workplace. In October 2016, Ms Subramany alleges that she was the subject of workplace bullying in two incidents. In one incident, it is alleged that a co-worker screamed and swore aggressively in Ms Subramany’s face and “charged” at her with “clenched fists.” In a subsequent meeting with parish council representative and parish priest, Father Shaju John, Ms Subramany claims that she raised concerns about workplace bullying and disclosed a series of questionable and negligent practices that she had witnessed in the office. Seven days after this meeting, Ms Subramany received a letter advising her of the termination of her position. This letter made no reference to the allegations of workplace bullying. The Catholic Church agreed to settle this case following a conciliation hearing.
Employee Sacked for Road Rage Whilst Driving Company Car
Employee was sacked after being filmed in an aggressive road-range incident whilst using a company car. Although the other driver was the initiator of the behaviour the employee’s behaviour then became aggressive, intimidating he followed her in his car, drove closing to her and went up to her in her car and abused her. The employee was allowed to resign and subsequently made an unfair dismissal claim. The court said that the employee’s behaviour warranted dismissal and was not harsh, unjust or unreasonable.