Transcript Well-being through work

Well-being through work
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
–
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Workplace bullying and harassment in the EU
Workplace bullying in Finland
Vartia, Maarit, Senior Specialist, PhD
© Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
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The short history of bullying research
•
Carroll M. Brodsky “The harassed worker” (1976) in US
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Heinz Leymann, research, reports and books (1984 - ) in Sweden
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Finland, Norway 1989 –
Nordic symposium on bullying at work:
September 1989 in Stockholm arranged by Heinz Leymann
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Rapid expansion in Europe: Andrea Adams 1992 in the UK, Marie-France
Hirigoyen 1998
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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
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International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH),
established in Montreal in 2008
170 members (February 7th, 2013) www.iawbh.org
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Workplace bullying and harassment – the
concept and definition
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No single uniform definition. Most definitions share some common
features:
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•
•
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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)
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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.
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Some facts
(Zapf, Einarsen,Hoel &Vartia, 2003)
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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
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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
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EU –level surveys
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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.
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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.
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Prevalence of bullying in some EU countries
(Have you been subjected to bullying or harassment at
work in the past year?) (EWCS 2010)
Country
%
Country
%
France
9.5
The UK
4.6
Belgium
8.6
Germany
4.6
The Netherlands
7.7
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Luxembourg
7.2
Estonia
1.6
Austria
7.2
Turkey
1.3
Finland
6.2
Slovakia
1.2
Latvia
5.5
Italy
0.9
Ireland
5.5
Bulgaria
0.6
Slovenia
4.8
Poland
0.2
Lithuania
4.6
EU27
4.1
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Concern regarding bullying at work and procedures in
place to deal with it in some European countries
(ESENER 2009) (%)
Major concern
Managers
Major concern
Workers reprs.
Turkey
73
67
33
Portugal
46
69
27
Norway
45
44
10
Romania
44
59
10
Bulgaria
34
47
59
France
27
35
24
Ireland
19
7
90
Finland
1
3
72
Sweden
1
1
79
Italy
2
2
13
Estonia
1
0
3
Hungary
2
0
6
20
20
33
Total
Procedures in place
to deal with bullying
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Orientations and means for the prevention and
management of bullying at work
(Vartia & Leka 2010 adapted from Murphy & Sauter 2004)
Levels
Primary
Interventions
Secondary
interventions
Tertiary
interventions
Policy
Laws and regulations
Collective agreements
Court case
Industrial tribunal
Social security system
Provision of rehabilitation
opportunities
Organization/
employer
Anti-bullying policies
Development of
organizational culture
Handling procedures
Mediation
Investigation of complaints
Corporate agreements
Programs and contracts of
professional after-care
Management training
Organizational surveys
Workplace/
Group/task
Psychosocial work
environment redesign
Risk analysis
Training (awareness,
recognition, reseach
based knowledge
Individual
Training
Training (e.g. conflict
management, investigation
skills)
Awareness raising,
exploration of the situation
Case analysis, conflict/case
resolution, mediation
Group recovery
programmes
Social support
Counselling
Therapy
Counselling
Physical activities
Redress
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Framework agreement on harassment and
violence at work
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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.
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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.
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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
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Framework agreement on harassment and
violence at work
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"if it is established that harassment and violence has occurred,
appropriate measures should be taken in relation to the
perpetrator(s).
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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.
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Interventions for the prevention and management
of workplace bullying - organizational level
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Anti bullying policies, management, staff, health and safety
representative training, development of organizational culture,
distribution of information through different means.
Example Denmark: Intervention study in two organizations.
(Gemzoe Mikkelsen & Hoeg 2011)
Aim: to prevent bullying and conflicts at work, indentify process factors
associated with the implementation and effects of such interventions.
Lectures on bullying for all employees, two day course in conflict
prevention and management for all managers and key employees, ,
dialogue meetings with all employees, distibution of four newsletters
and pamphlets toall employees, posters to the department level,
steering group meetings.
Participants benefited from the interventions, in particular the dialogue
meetings and the course in conflict prevention and management.
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Workplace level interventions
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Psychosocial work environment redesign, risk analysis, training
(awareness, recognition, facts, conflict management), case resolution,
mediation
Example Finland: Eight primary schools participated in a one year
intervention project.
Aim: To reduce inappropriate behaviour and bullying at work with a
workplace level intervention with the whole staff?
2-3 meetings in every school, training, discussions and group work, half
day joint event with all schools. Some employees attended also other
events and other training on bullying.
The amount of inappropriate behaviour decreased, many employees
reported that they take more notice on their own behaviour towards their
co-workers after the project, and that if they notice that somebody is
being treated inappropriately they intervene in the situation more easily or
more often than before.
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Individual interventions
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Individual interventions: training, social support, counselling,
individual and group therapy, physical activities
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).
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Long term activities
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Example Norway: With long-term work for the prevention and
management of bullying at work - active research, publication of books
and articles, training, communication, active participation of unions,
nation wide campaing "The Bully-Free Workplace" positive results have
been achieved.
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1996: 8.6% bullied, 4.5% severely bullied
2005: 4.6% bullied, 2% severely bullied
(Nielsen, Skogstad, Matthiesen et al. 2009)
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Workplace bullying and harassment
in Finland
First article on workplace bullying in the leading
Finnish newspaper in 20.7.1989.
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Prevalence of workplace bullying
(Work and Health in Finland 1997-2012) (%)
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
All
3.6
4.4.
2.9
5
6
(4)
Men
Women
2.8
4.3
3.4
5.3
1.6
4.0
3
6
4
8
Private
companies
3.1
3.8
2.5
4
5
Government
sector
6.3
3.4
1.6
4
4
Municipal
sector
4.4
7.0
5.1
7
10
Health care
and social
work
4.4
6.6
5.5
7
10
6.2
6.3
6
13
Education
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Occupational Safety and Health Act
(738/2002)
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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.
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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.
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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
The employer shall take
measures after becoming
aware of any harassment
(section 28)
PREVENTIVE
MEASURES
Employees shall avoid harassment
(section 18)
Employees shall be orientated to the
common rules (section 14)
FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL
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Active participation of different players
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Trade unions are strong. Important decisions relating to working life
are discussed and decided between employer organization and trade
unions or tripartite.
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Safety and health representatives and shop stewards take actively part
in actions to address health and safety at work including bullying at
work.
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Occupational Health Care Act: Employers are obliged to arrange health
care services for all employees.
Occupational health care personnel, particularly occupational 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.
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Safety and health inspectors: Inappropriate behavior is always taken
into account and discussed when inspectors visit a workplace. The
inspector can give a request to implement a policy in the workplace.
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Measures taken in the organizations
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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)
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THANK YOU!
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