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Well-being through work

Well-being through work. Vartia, Maarit, Senior Specialist, PhD. Workplace bullying and harassment in the EU Workplace bullying in Finland. The short history of bullying research. Carroll M. Brodsky “The harassed worker” (1976) in US

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Well-being through work

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  1. Well-being through work

  2. Vartia, Maarit, Senior Specialist, PhD Workplace bullying and harassment in the EUWorkplace bullying in Finland

  3. The short history of bullying research Carroll M. Brodsky “The harassed worker” (1976) in US Heinz Leymann, research, reports and books (1984 - ) in Sweden Finland, Norway 1989 – Nordic symposium on bullying at work: September 1989 in Stockholm arrangedby Heinz Leymann Rapid expansion in Europe: Andrea Adams 1992 in the UK, Marie-France Hirigoyen 1998 International Conference on Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace: Stafford 1998, Brisbane 2000, London 2002, Bergen 2004, Dublin 2006, Montreal 2008, Cardiff 2010, Copenhagen 2012, Milan 2014 International Association on WorkplaceBullying and Harassment (IAWBH), established in Montreal in 2008 170 members (February 7th, 2013) www.iawbh.org 3

  4. Workplace bullying and harassment – the concept and definition No single uniform definition. Most definitions share some common features: Wide range of negative acts that may cause psychological harm; direct and indirect behaviours; work-related, person-related forms of negative acts, social exclusion Repeated and frequent Long duration Power imbalance; making it difficult to defend one-self "Bullying at work means harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting someone’s work tasks. In order for the label bullying to be applied to a particular activity, interaction or process, the bullying behaviour has to occur repeatedly and regularly and over a period of time. Bullying is an escalating process in the course of which the person confronted end up in an inferior position and becomes the target of systematic negative social acts. (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf & Cooper 2011)

  5. Workplace bullying and harassment – the term The term refers most often to negative acts inside the workplace, by colleagues, supervisors or managers, or subordinates. Sometimes also third parties, customers, patient etc. are included as possible perpetrators. In English, varying terms are used; 'bullying' and 'harassment' (sometimes also 'mobbing') used interchangeably. The term 'harassment is preferred e.g. by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). Sometimes 'bullying' is used to refer to negative behaviour by a single person and 'mobbing' to negative behaviour by groups.

  6. Some facts(Zapf, Einarsen,Hoel &Vartia, 2003) • 5-10 % of the working population • 15 months to 3 years • Both men and women • On all organisational levels • Conducted by both supervisors and colleague • Both single and multiple bullies • 49% of the cases involves male bullies only • 30% of the cases female bullies only • In all industries • More long-lasting cases in education, administration and service work

  7. EU –level surveys Fifth European Working Conditions Survey 2010 (EWCS) by Eurofound. About 1000 employees were interviewed in 34 countries, EU27 + Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Norway, Turkey. European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging risks (ESENER) by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in 2009. The survey explored the views of managers and health and safety representatives on how health and safety risks (including bullying and harassment at work) are managed in their organization. A total of 28 649 managers and 7 226 health and safety representatives were interviewed in 31 countries (EU27 + Croatia, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland.

  8. Prevalence of bullying in some EU countries(Haveyoubeensubjected to bullyingorharassment at work in the pastyear?) (EWCS 2010)

  9. Concernregardingbullying at work and procedures in place to deal with it in someEuropeancountries(ESENER 2009) (%)

  10. Orientations and means for the prevention and management of bullying at work (Vartia & Leka 2010 adapted from Murphy & Sauter 2004) 10

  11. Framework agreement on harassment and violence at work The autonomous framework agreement on harassment and violence at work was signed in 2007 by the European social partners, ETUC/CES, BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP. The agreement aims to increase awareness and understanding among employees, workers and their representatives of workplace harassment and violence and to provide employers, workers and their representatives at all levels with an action-oriented framework to identify, manage and prevent problems of harassment and violence at work. According to the agreement enterprises - need to have a clear statement emphasizing that harassment and violence will not be tolerated - should implement procedures to be followed where cases should arise

  12. Framework agreement on harassment and violence at work "if it is established that harassment and violence has occurred, appropriate measures should be taken in relation to the perpetrator(s). The agreement was supposed to be implemented and monitored within three years of the signing at the national level in all EU countries. Evidence from different countries shows that the agreement has evoked activities at national levels and contributed to raising public awareness of the issue.

  13. Interventions for the prevention and management of workplace bullying - organizational level Anti bullyingpolicies, management, staff, health and safetyrepresentativetraining, development of organizational culture, distribution of informationthroughdifferentmeans. ExampleDenmark: Intervention study in twoorganizations.(GemzoeMikkelsen & Hoeg 2011) Aim: to preventbullying and conflicts at work, indentifyprocessfactorsassociatedwith the implementation and effects of suchinterventions. Lectureson bullying for allemployees, twodaycoursein conflict prevention and management for allmanagers and keyemployees, , dialoguemeetings with allemployees, distibution of fournewsletters and pamphletstoallemployees, posters to the departmentlevel, steeringgroupmeetings. Participantsbenefitedfrom the interventions, in particular the dialoguemeetingsand the course in conflict prevention and management.

  14. Workplace level interventions Psychosocialworkenvironmentredesign, riskanalysis, training (awareness, recognition, facts, conflict management), case resolution, mediation Example Finland: Eightprimaryschoolsparticipatedin a oneyear intervention project. Aim: To reduceinappropriatebehaviour and bullying at work with a workplacelevel intervention with the wholestaff? 2-3 meetings in everyschool, training, discussions and groupwork, halfdayjointevent with allschools. Someemployeesattendedalsootherevents and othertraining on bullying. The amount of inappropriatebehaviourdecreased, manyemployeesreportedthattheytakemorenotice on theirownbehaviourtowardstheirco-workersafter the project, and thatiftheynoticethatsomebody is beingtreatedinappropriatelytheyintervene in the situationmoreeasilyormoreoftenthanbefore.

  15. Individual interventions Individualinterventions: training, social support, counselling, individual and grouptherapy, physicalactivities Example Germany: Rehabilitation of bullying victims with inpatient therapeutic treatment in a specialized hospital. An evaluation study with 102 patients showed very positive results e.g. in relation to depression. (Schwickerath & Zapf 2011).

  16. Long term activities ExampleNorway: With long-termwork for the prevention and management of bullying at work - activeresearch, publication of books and articles, training, communication, activeparticipation of unions, nation widecampaing "The Bully-FreeWorkplace" positiveresultshavebeenachieved. 1996: 8.6% bullied, 4.5% severelybullied 2005: 4.6% bullied, 2% severelybullied (Nielsen, Skogstad, Matthiesen et al. 2009)

  17. Workplacebullying and harassment in Finland Firstarticle on workplacebullying in the leadingFinnishnewspaper in 20.7.1989.

  18. Prevalence of workplacebullying(Work and Health in Finland 1997-2012) (%)

  19. Occupational Safety and Health Act (738/2002) 28 § Harassment If harassment or other inappropriate treatment of an employee occurs at work and causes hazards or risks to the employee’s health, the employer, after becoming aware of the matter, shall by available means take measures for remedying this situation. 18 § Employees’ general obligations (3) Employees shall avoid such harassment and other inappropriate treatment of other employees at the workplace which causes hazards or risks to their safety or health.

  20. Dimensions in preventing harassment at work and the Occupational Safety and Health Act FOCUS ON THE STRUCTURE AND WORKING COMMUNITY • The employer • monitors the impact of the measures (section 8) • monitors the common rules (section 10) • The employer • identifies the hazards and risks (section 10) • elaborates rules for the prevention of harassment (sections 8, 9, 14) • monitors the state of the working community (section 8) CORRECTIVE MEASURES PREVENTIVE MEASURES Employees shall avoid harassment (section 18) Employees shall be orientated to the common rules (section 14) The employer shall take measures after becoming aware of any harassment (section 28) FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL

  21. Active participation of different players Trade unionsarestrong. Importantdecisionsrelating to working life arediscussed and decidedbetweenemployerorganization and tradeunionsortripartite. Safety and healthrepresentatives and shop stewardstakeactivelypart in actions to addresshealth and safety at workincludingbullying at work. Occupational Health Care Act: Employersareobliged to arrangehealthcareservices for allemployees. Occupationalhealthcarepersonnel, particularlyoccupational health psychologists, take part in activities for the prevention of workplace bullying. They support supervisors and managers to investigate and resolve situations where someone perceives him/herself as a target of inappropriate behavior or bullying in the workplace. Safety and health inspectors: Inappropriate behavior is always taken into account and discussed when inspectors visit a workplace. The inspectorcangive a request to implement a policy in the workplace.

  22. Measures taken in the organizations Finnish Quality of Work Life Survey (2008) by Statistics Finland Measures taken to eliminate or prevent workplace bullying at the workplace 1) good treatment or elimination of bullying has been taken into consideration in supervisory activity (45% of respondents), 2) prevention of bullying has been taken into account in occupational health and safety (39%) 3) a set of rules for good treatment has been drawn up (33%). (Lehto & Sutela 2009)

  23. THANK YOU! maarit.vartia@ttl.fi

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