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Bullies, Managers, Workers and Trade Unionists

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Dignity and Inclusion at Work

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment ((HWBEAH,volume 3))

Abstract

This chapter takes the position that bullying at work in all its forms is a direct or indirect result of labour management policies and practices aimed at controlling workers at work. In particular, it argues that the power imbalance in favour of the employer, and their agent-managers, allows forms of “progress chasing” that make bullying endemic. Additional advantages that stem from a bullying management regime include “divide and rule” over workgroups, seeking to reduce union activity through the intimidation of union activists and maintaining management authority. The frequently expressed view that such behaviour is counterproductive in terms of productivity increases is seen to be self-serving and fails to explain the persistent widespread use of bullying. Most bullying is either carried out by managers or allowed by their inaction (Harrington, Rayner, & Warren, 2012). The evidence in all forms confirms that strong regulatory frameworks, company shaming that hurts reputation and publicized cases can mitigate management bullying. These tactics, however, are neither necessary nor sufficient to end the practice, and only strong workplace unions are ultimately effective. Unions can campaign against bullying, they can negotiate company-wide agreements to promote “dignity” at work policies, they can effectively represent victims and they can call industrial action to enforce fairness of treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wolverhampton Business School, Wolverhampton, UK

    Roger Seifert

Authors
  1. Roger Seifert
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Correspondence to Roger Seifert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Organizational Behaviour Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India

    Premilla D'Cruz

  2. Organizational Behaviour Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India

    Ernesto Noronha

  3. Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales, School of Aviation, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Carlo Caponecchia

  4. Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Jordi Escartín

  5. Department of Management and Organization, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland

    Denise Salin

  6. Centre for Workplace Excellence, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Michelle Rae Tuckey

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Seifert, R. (2021). Bullies, Managers, Workers and Trade Unionists. In: D'Cruz, P., Noronha, E., Caponecchia, C., Escartín, J., Salin, D., Tuckey, M.R. (eds) Dignity and Inclusion at Work. Handbooks of Workplace Bullying, Emotional Abuse and Harassment, vol 3. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0218-3_11

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