Cyberbullying widespread amongst public servants
One
in five Australian government employees, in a
Queensland University of Technology study of over 600, are
experiencing or observing workplace cyberbullying.
As opposed to the traditional
workplace bullying definition, which involves persistent face-to-face
harassment between a bully and their target(s), workplace cyberbullying is
defined by the ability of abusive content to go viral on the internet or work
intranet. It is defined as more intense because the content can be rapidly
disseminated, hard to remove, follows people from work to home and can
sometimes be anonymous.
Dr Lawrence has a BA SSc and a PhD in organisational social psychology and works with individuals and organisations as a consultant, speaker and trainer. She uses her social science expertise to enhance interactions between organisations and the people who lead and work in them by fostering new insights for diagnosing organisational problems, and build new capabilities and culture.
As opposed to the traditional
workplace bullying definition, which involves persistent face-to-face
harassment between a bully and their target(s), workplace cyberbullying is
defined by the ability of abusive content to go viral on the internet or work
intranet. It is defined as more intense because the content can be rapidly
disseminated, hard to remove, follows people from work to home and can
sometimes be anonymous.
Public servants in the study
reported cyberbullying through work related phone calls and email, text
messaging and instant message services.
Over half of the cyberbullying
was in the form of micromanagement, inconsistent workloads and persistent
criticism of a person and their work. Slander, social isolation and
insinuations about a person’s mental health occurred over in 18.8% of cases.
Public servants reported being
increasingly stressed about perpetrators' ability to use technology to mass
broadcast defamatory comments or images quickly and publicly, without the
target being able to easily defend themselves.
The findings are concerning as
public servants comprise nearly 2 million employees out of Australia’s total
workforce of nearly 12 million workers.
The research shows that employers
are struggling to meet their duty of care obligations within the Work Health Safety Act 2011 to detect and manage pyscho-social
hazards, such as face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying.
The study also suggests that a
specific federal anti-cyberbullying intervention and prevention law, followed
by specific workplace strategies, need to be developed for public sector
employees and the wider Australian labour force.
At the moment government
employees are offered anti-bullying advisory services from the Fair
Work Commission. This enables the Commission to mediate on workers
behalf to stop workplace bullying, or to raise an order to stop the behaviour.
This service is in addition to
existing laws which mandate the development and enforcement of anti-bullying
policies, training and education programs in each government agency.
Despite these measures, public
servants in the QUT research had lowered expectations that their organisation’s
anti-workplace bullying policies and procedures would quickly prevent or
intervene on their behalf in workplace cyberbullying cases.
The costs of traditional
face-to-face workplace bullying have been tallied before with the Australian Productivity Commission’s finding in 2010, which estimated the annual
costs to Australian businesses of between $6 and $36 billion.
As indicated by the Productivity Commission’s report, there are
direct costs from the time consumed in addressing and investigating allegations
of bullying through formal grievance procedures. Other economic costs include
treatments for victims, legal costs, income support and other government
benefits.
In 2012, research found
organisations were paying up to $24,000 for psychological injury claims.
Nearly half of participants
(43.8%) in the cyberbullying study ranked their work performance and
productivity as very negative to negative when they were being cyberbullied.
The QUT research was comprised of
three studies: 24 confidential face-to-face interviews, a nation-wide anonymous
online survey with 127 participants and a statistical online survey of 463
government employees. It is worth noting that research participants were
volunteers, so the results could be potentially skewed towards participants who
had either viewed or experienced workplace cyberbullying.'
Dr Lawrence has a BA SSc and a PhD in organisational social psychology and works with individuals and organisations as a consultant, speaker and trainer. She uses her social science expertise to enhance interactions between organisations and the people who lead and work in them by fostering new insights for diagnosing organisational problems, and build new capabilities and culture.
Authors
Felicity Lawrence
PhD in workplace cyberbullying, Queensland University of Technology
John Lidstone
Adjunct Professor in Faculty of Education QUT, Queensland University of Technology
- Felicity LawrencePhD in workplace cyberbullying, Queensland University of Technology
- John LidstoneAdjunct Professor in Faculty of Education QUT, Queensland University of Technology
Disclosure statement
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
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