QUEST INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY PERAK (QIUP)

FACULTY OF BUSINESS, MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL

SCIENCES

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Course Details
Subject Code

BBA 2106

Subject Title

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

Course of Study

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (Hons)

Year & Semester

2016/10 YEAR 1 - SEMESTER 2

Lecturers Name

MR. MUNIANDY A/L MUNUSAMY

Due Date

22nd DECEMBER 2016

Students Details
Full Name and Matric Number: 1. Paviteera a/p Muthewodiar (BBA 2016/040207)
2. Nithya Nanthini a/p Balakrishnan (BBA 2016/041193)
3. Nirmala Nanthini a/p Balakrishnan (BBA 2016/041175)
4. Wong Shie Mun (BBA 2016/040263)
5. Chai Shwu Tyng (BBA 2016/040260)

Assignment Overall Marks

: _______________ Marks.

Table of Content
No.
Content
1. Paragraph of Case Incident 2 (Bullying Bosses)

Page
34

2. Answers based on Case Incident 2:

i.

Workplace bullying demonstrates a lack of

which

ii.

one

of

the

three

types

of

organizational justice?
What aspects of motivation might workplace

bullying reduce? For example, are they likely

to be effects on an employees self-efficacy?
iii.

If so what might those effects be?

If you were a victim of workplace bullying,
what steps would you take to try to reduce its

7-8

occurrence? What strategies would be most

effective? Least effective? What would you
iv.

do if one of your colleagues were a victim?

What factors do you believe contribute to
workplace bullying? Are bullies a product of

9 - 10

the situation, or do they have flawed

personalities? What situations and what
personality factors might contribute to the
presence of bullies?
3. Summary of the case

11

4. Recommendation

12

5. Findings

13

6. Appendices

14

7. References

15

Case Incident 2
BULLYING BOSSES
After a long weekend, Kara stared at her computer with a sick feeling in her stomach:
Her boss had added her as a friend on Facebook. Kara did not feel particularly close to
her boss, nor did she like the idea of mixing her social life with her work. Still, it was her
boss. Kara reluctantly accepted her boss as a Facebook friend. Little did she know her
troubles were only beginning.

Kara's boss soon began using her online information to manipulate her work life. It began
with inappropriate innuendos regarding Facebook photos. Eventually, Kara's boss
manipulated her works hours, confronted her both on and off Facebook, and repeatedly
called Kara's cell phone questioning her whereabouts. My boss was a gossiping
domineering, contriving megalomaniac, and her behavior dramatically intensified when
she used Facebook to pry, Kara said. Eventually, Kara was forced to quit. I feel like I
got my freedom back and can breathe again, she said.

Although many individuals recall bullies from elementary school days, some are realizing
bullies can exist in the workplace, too. In a recent poll, 37 percent of employee report
being victim of a bullying boss. And these bullies don't pick on just the weakest in the
group, any subordinate may fall prey. As Kara found, bullying is not limited to male
bosses: 40 percent of bullies are women, and women are their targets 70 percent of the
time.

How does bullying affect employee motivation and behavior? Surprisingly, though
victims may feel less motivated to go to work every day, they continue performing their
required job duties. However, some are less motivated to perform extra role or citizenship
behaviors. Helping others, speaking positively about the organization, and going beyond
the call of duty are reduced as a result of bullying. According to Dr. Bennett Tepper of the
University of North Carolina, fear may be the reason many workers continue to perform.
And not all individuals reduce their citizenship behaviors. Some continue to engage in
extra role behaviors to make themselves look better than their colleagues.

What should you do if your boss is bullying you? Don't necessarily expect help from coworkers. As Emelise Aleandri, an actress and producer from New Work who left her job
after being bullied stated. Some people were afraid to do anything. But others didn't
mind what was happening at all, because they wanted my job. Moreover, according to
Dr. Michelle Duffy of the University of Kentucky, co-workers often blame victims of
bullying in order to resolve their own guilt. They do this by wondering whether maybe
the person deserved the treatment, that he or she has been annoying or lazy, [or] did
something to earn it, she says.

Answers based on Case Incident 2

1. Workplace bullying demonstrates a lack of which one of the three types of
organizational justice?
There have three main types of organizational justice which are
distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. Distributive
justice refers to employees concerns of the fairness of outcomes they receive.
Besides that, procedural justice is concerned with how employees view the
fairness of the process of how outcomes are decided while interactional justice is
the degree to which an individual fair treatment with dignity, concern and respect.
According to the case study, workplace bullying demonstrates a lack of
interactional justice from the three types of organizational justice. It is because
Karas boss was over concern about their employees. With the behavior of Karas
boss, she fails to treat her employees with dignity, concern and respect. Her boss
behavior also starts changing like gossiping or domineering when she used
Facebook to pry. From the case study, we can see that Kara was not treated with
dignity and respect. Instead, Karas boss began using her online information to
manipulate her work life after her boss added her as a Facebook friend. Not only
that, Karas boss also repeatedly called her cell phone to questioning her
whereabouts. Eventually, Kara was forced to quit from her job.

2. What aspects of motivation might workplace bullying reduce? For example, are
they likely to be effects on an employees self-efficacy? If so what might those
effects be?
In the case study, we considered that hierarchy of requirements hypothesis, an
early hypothesis of motivation exists a chain of command of five needs. The five
needs are Physiological needs, Safety needs, Belongingness needs, Esteem needs
and Self-actualization needs.
First and foremost, biological and physiological needs are very vital in our
daily life. We cannot survive without these five needs. For example air, food,
drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep and self-preservation. The second need is safety.
Its a protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, and freedom from
fear. The third one is social needs which are also known as love and
belongingness needs. Its about friendship, intimacy, trust and acceptance,
receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, being part of a group like
family, friends and work. For instance, mix with people who are different culture
and react according to their lifestyle. Its commonly happened in an organization
and foreign country too. Next, esteem needs are highlight about humans
achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect,
and respect from others. The last needs refer to self-actualization needs which
indicate to humans personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth
and peak experiences.
Workplace bullying can also affect ones self efficiency. For example, an
employee who has low self-efficacy when being bullied. He or she can experience
a decline in their low self-efficacy which may decline his or her need for power,
and need for affiliation according to McClellands theory of needs. There are few
amounts of people, which if they are being bullied would want to achieve a new
position, attain new power, or even want to belong to such a company where other
employees are bullied.

3. If you were a victim of workplace bullying, what steps would you take to try to
reduce its occurrence? What strategies would be most effective? Least effective?
What would you do if one of your colleagues were a victim?
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. (Source
from: Harvey S. Firestone). If I were a victim in workplace bullying, the first step
that I would like to take is to approach to the top management in order to discuss
the bullying issues. In the meeting, I will sort out the workplace bullying problem
and tried to solve it. In addition, I will suggest that the company to have a
department to handle all kind of workplace bullying cases and take the cases
seriously to avoid workers being bullying by their bosses. In the same time, the
workers are motivated to complete their jobs without worrying being bullying.
From the case study, Kara can eventually complain to the department about her
boss in tendency making her feel uncomfortable in the workplace.
Besides that, the most effective strategies to avoid workplace bullying is
get evidence from the security department like in the form of CCTV, video and so
on. With the strongly evidence in hands, the subordinate may get rid of workplace
bullying as the boss afraid of breaking against laws in result caught by the police.
Each corner of the organization must set up the CCTV in order to record the
workplace environment. If any workplace bullying happened in the organization,
the victim must search out the witnesses of the incident as it is the main resources
to protect the victim getting harm of being bullying. In addition, take the
appropriate actions by showing your evidence to the authority or top management
of the company to settle the workplace bullying problem.
The least effective strategies to cope with workplace bullying are the
victim leaving the jobs and trying to escape without finding out the truth of the
incident happened. This action may benefit the boss who bullying their workers
and have the opportunity to escape from legal sanctions. Failing to get strong
evidence to certify the workplace bullying happened may cause the victim to have
unstable emotional and no driving force in completing their job in the
organization. Besides that, the victim who is not getting any support from their
colleagues and in the same time the top management not taking the workplace
bullying cases seriously will be the least effective strategies to handle workplace
bullying. The policy of the organization not stated clearly in taking workplace
bullying seriously and just ignore when any of the employees making complaint
7

about the bullying incident happened in the workplace. It is not fair to treat their
employees like such situation because they are not motivated when any bullying
incident occurred in the workplace.
If one of my colleagues were a victim of workplace bullying, I will help
he or she find out the truth by sorting out the witnesses. By finding the truth, my
colleagues will have a peace of mind as when a person facing trouble they felt
helpless. During that time, fully supporting from me also significant by
motivating my colleagues to avoid he or she keep thinking of the incident
happened. Not only that, I will understand the incident happened and find out the
alternative solution to help my colleagues. If possible, searching out the evidence
by getting permission to referring to the CCTV from the security department of
the workplace and hand in the video to the appropriate authority to solve the
problem.

4. What factors do you believe contribute to workplace bullying? Are bullies a

product of the situation, or do they have flawed personalities? What situations and
what personality factors might contribute to the presence of bullies?
Workplace bullying occurs when a person within the organization or in workplace
experience the mistreatment by the other person. There are different form of
bullying that consists of physical, verbal, psychological, non-verbal and
humiliation. Harassing in the work environment is in the larger part of cases
reported as having been executed by somebody in power over the objective.
There are varieties of factors on why a person may bully another person in
the workplace. Factors that contributing to workplace bullying includes people are
bullied because they are seen as a potential threat. Some people bully others
because the other person is perceived as a threat to them personally, or a threat to
their position within the company. Second factors is they are seen a different and
are targeted. An individual or group may become targets of workplace bullying
because others perceive them as being new or different. The workplace bullying
may be taking improvement of the power they possess. A person may use their
position of power or their physical dominance over those who are perceived to be
weaker. The bullying is often dependent upon the perceived power of the bully
over their victim.
Moreover, the workplace bullying caused low self-esteem. Bullies may put
down others to boost their own self-esteem and confidence to help deal with
personal feelings of inadequacy. Other than that, organizational culture in
workplace is often shown by its values, beliefs and what is considered to be
normal behavior. When the culture is positive, it encourages individuals to adopt
appropriate behavior that promote respect of others. In addition, employees may
find themselves in a negative culture where inappropriate behavior and attitudes
are encouraged or condoned by management. I have seen bullying as a normal
behavior for the majority of people in the workplace.

Bullies may be a product of both the condition as well as having flawed

personalities. The workplace bullying may be stressed in the workplace and let
9

their steam off on others. This is a product of the situation. To add on more,
workplace bullying may have grown up feeling insecure and not good enough and
therefore lack self-esteem. This is an indicator of a flawed personality.
Situations and personality factors that might contribute to the presence of
workplace bullying are narcissistic personalities. People who have these
personalities tend to be arrogant, have a sense of self-importance, require
excessive admiration and have a sense of entitlement. People with these
personalities tend to contribute to the presence of workplace bullying.
Some managers believed that giving threats will rise work productivity
while it may really scare employees to believe that they are not doing a good
enough job and in turn slow down productivity. When workers have a high
capacity, this may cause them to become stressed and unable to accomplish their
emotions and take their stress and anger on others around them.

Summary of the case

Workplace bullying takes place when an employee undergoes a persistent pattern of
mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes harm. Workplace bullies also an
10

unfair behavior direct nearly a worker or a group of workers that creates a risky.
Workplace bullying can mess up employees retention as well. According to the case
study, it talk about the condition where Kara had to face up cracking from her boss and
the consequences of bullying referred to what result of motivation. Besides that, the case
study mention about what can be done to keep off such circumstances and also being
discuss along with a statistical reference to workplace bullying based on genders. In this
case, I will analyze on the troubles of workplace bullying as well as some resolution that
could be exploited in order to face up this pattern of bosses.

Recommendations
In my opinion, the organizational want to discover some root to obstruct this problem.
For instance, they need to set up an important role in the company and bring into being a
11

fair work environment like employees needs training to know how to find a right
workplace and work in dependable workplace. Some company has bosses who are tough
to deal with. The most alternative way to deal with a difficult boss is to make a plan of
action in perspective place. Here are some strategies to utilize to deal with bosses who are
unprofessional, irresponsible or bosses who are straightforward bullies in workplace.
First, be proactive by carry toward the situation with a positive mental condition. The
employee must show self-reliance and stay poised. Second, be persistent in calling out
your boss bad behavior and putting your plan into action. In this case, the bosses mood
may be converting based on situation and employees must know how to manage this
situation in right ways. Lastly, fix to recognize the difficult bosses behavior and roles so
that can develop the reactions based on that.
In my opinion, individual employees who has been aim by the bullies in
workplace, they play a role on themselves in helping clear the issues of workplace
bullying and harassment. Individual employees should never be anxious or dread to look
for help when bullying issues move up. Hence, individual of workplace bullies victim
should always voice out as they can make a variation in solving the issues in right ways.
Next is, Human Resources must have obligation to measure and help build an employees
character. Human Resources have rights and ability to council or break off the issues of
workplace bullying by assessing the report of the 'victimized' employee and turn up a
better explanation for this case. Furthermore, Human Resources cans also discussing with
the top management to stipulate a solution to the victim and solving this trouble faster
and in skillful ways. Management also has to undergo on this issues to prevent from this
types of cases for better organization and for employees secure. Don't focus on
prejudicial action or bullying. Concentration on what's illegal.

Findings
According to our case study, its mainly highlight that how does bullying affect
employee motivation and behavior? The effects of workplace bullies don't end when you
12

leave the office. Being a victim of bullying can cause physical and psychological health
problems as well as, stress, anxiety, high blood pressure and so on. Employee cant
accomplish their jobs to the best of their capability. Performance issues contain, having
distress to making a choice, a loss of self-esteem, lower output as well as loss focus in
responsibilities. Bullied workers not only will lower down the level of motivation but
also have a chance to miss time because they are preoccupied with planning, how to deal
with the condition, avoiding the bullies, and trying to protect themselves. Moreover
boards of bullying feel a sense of isolation. In actual fact, workplace bullying can leave
the victim so disturbed that they feel incapable, confused, and helpless.
Besides that, fear also may be the motive many workers continue to accomplish
well. Having some fear of errors can be good things. It can help to recover your
performance. But extreme fear causes difficulties.
Workplace bullying has harmful effects on employers, not just the victim and their
co-workers who witness it. Furthermore, disrupting the work environment and impacting
worker morale, that also can decrease productivity, promote absenteeism, result in costly
and legal issues as well. Other costly effects to the employee are increased use of sick
leave, staff turnover, negative publicity and poor public image, also increased in risk of
legal action. People who are bullied are not productive. But the toxicity does not stop
there. The behavior is observed by peers and can lead to declines in workplace morale,
inspiration, efficiency and performance. You'll also see advanced rates of non-attendance.
If managers do not deal with bullies efficiently, there's an increased risk of a complaints.
Obviously, bully behavior is something to be disallowed. When an employee complains
about a workplace bully, it's too late.
It's always in your best attention to oppose workplace bullying and maintain a
bullying free workplace because prevention is more cost effective than intervention or
mediation. It's also the right thing to do if care about your employees. Employers must
offer education opportunities for managers, supervisors, and other authority figures
because the majority of workplace bullying comes from bullying bosses.

Appendices

13

The above pictures show that the bosses are bullying his employees.

The picture show that the complaints of the employees.

References
14

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