The problem of bullying at work in career counselling

Anna Skuzińska*, Elblag University of Humanities and Economy
Mieczysław Plopa, University of Finance and Management
in Warsaw
Wojciech Plopa, University of Finance and Management in Warsaw
The problem of bullying at work in career
counselling
Abstract
This article presents the specific character of career counsellor work with clients experiencing bullying at work. A synthetic description of the counselling process is presented,
and issues that should be took up in the course of the counselling interview with bullied
employee are described here. This model of counselling work with bullied employee is not
exhaustive, it is only a suggestion of career counsellor actions that should be considered
in the context of available knowledge on bullying at work process and it’s consequences.
QQ
Introduction
Very quickly changing labor market realities require from employees
flexibility, adaptation to changes and uncertainty tolerance. Working in
the contemporary world also require from employees the ability of work
stress management, including coping with such stressors as conflicts, discrimination and bullying at work. The results of cyclic study of the work
conditions realized by the European Foundation for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions show the importance of work activity and
it’s quality for many dimensions of human existence and whole community well-being (Cox, Griffiths, Rial-Goznales, 2006; Eurofound, 2012; por.
Czapiński, Panek, 2013). The negative consequences of work stress and bullying at work for the employee’s health and career progress were proved
by numerous studies (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, Cooper, 2003; Harvey, Keashly,
* Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Anna Skuzinska,
e-mail: [email protected]
138 Anna Skuzińska, Mieczysław Plopa, Wojciech Plopa
2005; Hoel, Faragher, Cooper, 2004; Mikkelsen, Einarsen, 2001; Matthiesen,
Einarsen, 2004). The career counselors may assist employees in their adaptation to changing labor market demands, and in their efforts to coping with
work stress. The aim of this article is to encourage career counselors’ reflection on to the methodology of the counseling bullied employees.
QQ
Career counseling
In accordance with employment promotion and labour market institutions law the career counselling consist among other in assist unemployed
people with occupation and workplace choice (Law journal 2004, No 99,
1001 with later modifications). The career counselling for adults in Poland
is realised by public and private employment agencies and other mentioned
in the employment and labour market institutions law (idem). Because of
the very quickly changing labour market demands and in the presence of
the lifelong learning necessity, the career counselling become necessary not
only for the young people or unemployed people but also for employed ones.
The career counselling aim is to assist individuals when they choose their
profession, when they change job or retrain, and when they make decision on
change their profession. The career counsellor help people who made wrong
profession choice and those who have not satisfaction with the occupation
they exercise. The career counselling is also about the problem of adaptation
to the workplace, career development planning, and the workplace choice.
According to Brown (Brown, 1985 in: Gladding, 1994) the career counselling
aim is to help individuals acquire their occupational role and to efficiently
exercise it. The career counsellor assist his clients in the better self-understanding, in the learning new behaviours, new ways of feeling and thinking
(Gladding, 1994). According to Rey Lamb, American career counselling specialist, the career counselling is a process in which the career counsellor help
his client to reach a better self-understanding with respect to the work environment, and in this way the career counsellor help his client to do a realistic
workplace choice or change and to reach appropriate adaptation to the workplace (Lamb, 1993). The difficulties with adaptation to the job include among
others overqualifiation and underqualification, conflicts with superiors and
/ or colleagues. The job adaptation problems comprise also coping with
stressors related to career development, including coping with the absence
of career development opportunities (career stagnation) (Cooper, Marshall,
1987; Lamb, 1993; Łoboda, 1990).
The problem of bullying at work in career counselling
QQ
139
Occupational career and bullying at work
The term of occupational career commonly means to move up career
ladder. Occupational career is a sequence of events in a person’s life that are
connected to his or her occupational activity (Suchar, 2010, p.7); it’s a sequence of professions and other life roles (Super, 1976 in: Gladding, 1994, p.
162). McDaniels adds to the notion of occupational career activities carried
out off duty, because they may be important for future occupations (in: Gladding, 1994). Besides paid and unpaid employment the contemporary notion of
occupational career comprises also the time passed on training and the time
spend on looking after one’s family. The occupational career is nowadays examined from a perspective of the whole human life cycle. Occupational career
consist not only in professional successes, promotions, rewards, but also in
failures in occupational domain (Rostowska, Rostowski, 2002). The lack of
stability, the diversity and the episodic character are features of the contemporary professional career as well as uncertainty of the professional future,
and the need for continuous occupational career building. To these features
may be added also employee’s ability to tolerate occupational career uncertainty and the ability to cope with this uncertainty (Mitchell, Krumboltz,
Levin, 1999; Suchar, 2010; Wojtasik, 2011).
The career ‘breakdown’ or career stagnation i.e. the lack of progress in
the professional development, may be caused by problems in adaptation to
work environment, by lack of social support in the workplace and by bullying at work (Abele, Volmer, Spurk, 2012). The bullying at work phenomenon
as well as its consequences for the health of bullied employees was already
extensively described in the literature (Brodsky, 1976; Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf,
Cooper, 2003; Keashly, Jagatic, 2003).
It is interesting to consider bullying at work impact on the employee’s
occupational career. The dismissal of an employee or the situation when an
employee gives up his work, are the most severe bullying at work consequences (Leyman, 1996). A dismissed employee has difficulty to find a new
job because he is brought into disrepute and he loses his professional contacts he has established so far. Bullying at work correlates with reduced
job satisfaction, decreased productivity, lower organizational commitment,
less creative behaviour, burnout, increased intentions to leave and greater
turnover (Bowling, Beehr, 2006; Johnson, 2011; Nielsen, Einarsen, 2012;
Matthiesen, Einarsen, Mykletun, 2008; Merecz, Mościcka, Drabek, 2005).
The experience of bullying at work is also correlated with lesser occupational
140 Anna Skuzińska, Mieczysław Plopa, Wojciech Plopa
development and promotion possibilities (Bruk-Lee, Spector, 2006; Neuman,
Keashly, 2004 in: Harvey, Keashly, 2005). Bullied employees are in fear for being dismissed, they lose their career development perspectives, they become
unemployed more frequently than non-bullied ones, and they take up a new
job which is not as good as the previous one (Zapf, Einarsen, 2005). Observed
relationships between bullying at work and its occupational outcomes regard
not only bullied employees but also bullying witnesses (Matthiesen, Einarsen, Mykletun, 2008). Bullying at work is a phenomenon that has negative
consequences for the employee’s occupational career development. Career
counselling is a new tool to prevent bullying consequences and to help employee to cope with negative outcomes of bullying at work (Abele, Volmer,
Spurk, 2012).
QQ
Career counselling and the problem of bullying
at work
As described above, the career counsellor tasks comprise among others
the assistance to people who experience or has experienced bullying at work.
How does such an assistance looks like? What a career counsellor can do?
This article will give some suggestions to support bullied employees. These
proposals may also be used by career counsellors working with unemployed
people who was bullied in their previous workplaces. The following proposals are based on the methodology of advising individual client (as opposed
to group sessions), on the general guidelines for psychological help of people after trauma experience and on the basis of the Author research results
(Dudek, 2003; Waidner, Sturm, Bauer, 1996).
The first step is to establish a good relationship with client and to define
the client’s problem. Are events reported on by the client characteristic of
bullying at work? Are they characteristic of conflict or of discrimination? It
is necessary to understand how the client interpret events he experienced
at work: does he fell bullied? Is he confused, uncertain? Career counsellor
should be empathic and he should show interest in the client’s problem as
well as he should express comprehension of the client’s difficulties. Career
counsellor should also exercise caution when qualifying events reported
by his client as bullying behaviours. Making the preliminary problem diagnosis requires from career counsellor inquisitiveness and knowledge about
social phenomena at workplace as well as knowledge of the labour law (Lewis,
The problem of bullying at work in career counselling
141
Coursol, Wahl, 2001). At this first stage of career counselling process, in addition to client’s problem diagnosis, the counsellor can inform client about
the bullying process and its outcomes. Providing client with information and
explanations of bullying process characteristics and consequences may take
a form normalization (Lewis, Coursol, Wahl, 2001; Lis-Turlejska, 1998).
Since the problem diagnosis is made, the counsellor and his client define
the aim of the counselling process, the purpose of their encounters. This may
be, for example, improvement of client’s coping with stress at work skills,
improvement of client’s ability to react to offences from co-workers or from
superior, assistance in making decision on workplace change and in new job
seeking.
In the second phase of the counselling process the counsellor determine the client’s resources such as education level, professional experience,
skills, economic resources. When facing up to the problem of workplace bullying it is important to determine client’s available social support network
in the workplace and outside the workplace. Social support can be one of
the buffers protecting employee from negative consequences of workplace
bullying (Schat, Kelloway, 2003). Additionally it may be turn out useful to
determine client’s features of personality and temperament because some
of them for example Neuroticism and Openness may alter the intensity of
the stress reaction. Leymann (1996) lists resistance factors important for
bullied people. These factors are: health, self-confidence, respect from others, social support, ability to solve problems, a good financial situation, ability
to seek support, i.e. the knowledge about people and institutions providing
assistance to bullied employees. Career counsellor should determine and enhance client’s resources. It would be good if career counsellor disposed of
information about institutions and organisations helping people with problems of workplace stress.
Career counsellor determines also styles and strategies of coping with
workplace stressors used so far by client. He discuss with client the efficacy
of these strategies in the context of the type of stressor experienced (stressors that one can have control over and stressors that one cannot control). It
is also important to determine if client requires psychiatric of psychological
assistance (Lewis, Coursol, Wahl, 2001).
The next step after client’s resources analysis is the search for possible
actions to take. During the encounter the career counsellor should create
confidence climate, he should strengthen client’s self-esteem and self-efficacy. The possible actions to take depends on the general goal of the interview
142 Anna Skuzińska, Mieczysław Plopa, Wojciech Plopa
( f.ex. client wants to remain in the current workplace and seek assistance in
coping with bullying and its consequences; client wants to change workplace,
change occupation and need counsellor’s support in job search, or client
wants take legal action against his employer).
Long-lasting bullying at work may be regarded as chronic stressor.
Workplace bullying deteriorates social support available to bullied person
(Einarsen, 1999; Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, Cooper, 2003; Groeblinghoff, Becker,
1996; Kaniasty, 2003; Zapf, Einarsen 2005). Co-workers may be exhausted by providing support to their colleague, they may be worried about
their own post and therefore they may be unwilling to help their bullied
colleague (Anderson, Pearson, 1999; Keashly, Jagatic, 2003). Since workplace bullying causes employee’s social isolation, career counsellor should
encourage his client to maintain social contacts and to establish new interpersonal relationships. The better social support source (best matching) are
co-workers and superiors (Dunkel-Schetter, Bennett, 1990; House, 1981).
The possibility to receive support from family is also very important – career counsellor should, when examining client’s resources, diagnose client’s
family situation and determine the degree of work-family stress crossover
(Burke, 1994; Haines, Marchand, Harvey, 2006; Plopa, 1996; Terelak, 2008;
Zalewska, 2008). Good family relationships may constitute a strong support
source for bullied employee. The conversation with spouse is conducive to
problem clarification and redefinition, as well as it make possible to find
out other stress coping strategies (Pearlin, McCall, 1990). Career counsellor
should yet remember that social support deterioration may also occurs in
family relations – spouse may be tired when his or her partner continuously
talk about problems at work; spouse may also suspect his or her partner of
being co-responsible for these job difficulties (Duffy, Sperry, 2007; Lewis,
Coursol, Wahl, 2002).
So as to increase client’s self-esteem and self-conflidence career counsellor may suggest him to engage out of workplace, for ex ample, to work to
his self-interests and hobbies, to learn something new, to raise his qualifications or get new qualifications. These activities not only enhance client’s
self-esteem but also prevent career interruption and protect client against
drop out of labour market. Career counsellor can also provide his client with
information about opportunities in the labour market and about labour
market institutions and organizations assistance. He can support client in
his job search and support him during the adaptation to the new workplace.
If client wants to change occupation, counsellor may diagnose his or her
professional predispositions and assist him in search for job training.
The problem of bullying at work in career counselling
QQ
143
Conclusions
Experience of workplace bullying is still a threat for employee’s professional career. Bigger and bigger social awareness of existence and importance
of social stressors in work environment, especially bullying at work, may be
the cause of growing number of career counsellors clients reporting the problem of adaptation to the workplace. Powerlessness, social and professional
employee isolation which are typical for bullying at work experience, may
be the cause of employee’s helplessness in occupational career management. The encounter with career counsellor may be helpful in coping with
this problem. Career counsellors should have knowledge and adequate abilities to work with bullied employees. Impartial and not complicit in negative
relationships, career counsellor is a good source of social support, and a conversation with such a counsellor may constitute for bullied person a form
of catharsis. Above mentioned considerations were limited to the issue of
support for individuals bullied at work. Career counsellor may meanwhile
be faced to the problem of workplace bullying prevention and bullying consequences reduction at the level of the whole organisation. This issue will be
raised in another article.
QQ
References
Abele, A.E., Volmer, J., Spurk, D. (2012). Career Stagnation: Underlying Dilemmas
and Solutions in Contemporary Work Environments, in: N.P. Reilly, M.J. Sirgy,
C.A. Gorman (eds.). Work and Quality of Live: Ethical Practices in Organizations
(107–132). Spriger.
Andersson, L.M., Pearson, C.M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in
the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 24, 452–471.
Brodsky, C.M. (1976). The harassed worker. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books,
D.C. Heath and Company.
Bowling, N.A., Beehr, T.A. (2006). Workplace Harassment From the Victim’s Perspective: A Theroretical Model and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91
(5), 998–1012.
Bruk-Lee, V., Spector, P.E. (2006). The Social Stressors-Counterproductive Work Behaviors Link: Are Conflict With Supervisors and Coworkers the Same? Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, 11(2). 145–156.
Burke, R.J. (1994). Sources of Managerial and Professional Stress in Large Organizations, in: C.L. Cooper, R. Payne (eds.). Causes, Coping and Consequences of Stress at
Work, (p. 77–114). Chickester: John Wiley & Sons.
144 Anna Skuzińska, Mieczysław Plopa, Wojciech Plopa
Cooper, C.L., Marshall, J. (1987). Źródła stresu w pracy kierowniczej i umysłowej
[Sources of stress in leader and white-collar job], in: C.L. Cooper, R. Payne (eds.).
Stres w pracy [Stress at work], (123–163). Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo
Naukowe [Warsaw: Polish Scientific Publishing House].
Cox, T., Griffiths, A., Rial-Gonzales, E. (2006). Badania nad stresem związanym z pracą
[Research on work-related stress]. Luksemburg: Europejska Agencja Bezpieczeństwa i Zdrowia w Pracy [Luxembourg: European Agency for Safety and Health
at Work]. Uzyskano [retrieved: ] 01.12.2008, http://osha.eu.int
Czapiski, J., Panek, T (2013). Diagnoza społeczna 2013. Warunki i jakość życia Polaków [Social diagnosis 2013. Objective and subjective quality of life in Poland].
Warszawa: Rada Monitoringu Społecznego [Warsaw: Social Monitoring Council].
Dudek, B. (2003). Zaburzenie po stresie traumatycznym [Post-traumatic stress disorder]. Gdańsk: GWP [Gdańsk Psychological Publishers].
Duffy, M., Sperry, L. (2007). Workplace Mobbing: Individual and Family Health Consequences. The Family Journal: Counseling and Therapy for Couples and Families,
15 (4), 398–404.
Dunkel-Schetter, C., Bennett, T.L. (1990). Differentiating the Cognitive and Behavioral
Aspects of Social Support, in: B.R. Sarason, I.G. Sarason, G.R. Pierce (eds.). Social
Support: An Interactional View, (p. 267–318). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., Cooper, C.L. (2003). The concept of bullying at work.
The European tradition, in: S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf, C.L. Cooper (eds.), Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace (p. 3–30). London: Taylor & Francis.
Eurofound (2012), Fifth European Working Conditions Survey. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Einarsen, S. (1999). The nature and causes of bullying at work. International Journal
of Manpower, 20(1/2), 16–27.
Johnson, S.L. (2011). En Ecological Model of Workplace Bullying: A Guide for Intervention and Research. Nursing Forum, 46, 2, 55–63.
Gladding, S.T. (1994). Poradnictwo zawodowe – zajęcie wszechstronne [Conselling:
A Comprehensive Profession] Warszawa: Krajowy Urząd Pracy [Warsaw: National
Labour Office].
Groeblinghoff, D., Becker, M. (1996). A Case Study of Mobbing and the Clinical
Treatment of Mobbing Victims. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, 5(2),277–294.
Haines, III, V.Y., Marchand, A., Harvey, S. (2006). Crossover of Workplace Aggression
Experiences in Dual-Earner Couples. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,
11 (4), 305–314.
Harvey, S., Keashly, L. (2005). Emotional abuse: How the concept sheds light on the understanding of psychological harassment (in Quebec). Pistes, 7(3). Uzyskane
[retrieved: ] 21.11.2005: http://www.pistes.uqam.ca/v7n3/pdf/v7n3a15en.pdf
The problem of bullying at work in career counselling
145
Hoel, H., Faragher, B., Cooper, C.L. (2004). Bullying is detrimental to health, but all
bullying behaviour are not necessarily equally damaging. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 32 (3), 367–387.
House, J.S. (1981). Work stress and social support. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company.
Keashly, L., Jagatic, K. (2003). By any other name, in: S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf,
C.L. Cooper (eds.). Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace (p. 31–61). London: Taylor & Francis.
Kaniasty, K. (2003). Klęska żywiołowa czy katastrofa społeczna? [Natural Disaster Or
Social Catastrophe?]. Gdańsk: Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne [Gdansk
Psychological Publishers].
Lamb, R. (1998). Poradnictwo zawodowe w zarysie [Overview of Occupational Counselling]. Warszawa: Krajowy Urząd Pracy [Warsaw: National Labour Office].
Lewis, J., Coursol, D., & Wahl, K.H. (2001). Addressing issues of workplace harassment: counselling the targets. Journal of Employment Counseling;39, 109–116.
Leymann, H. (1996). La persécution au travail. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Lis-Turlejska, M. (1998). Traumatyczny stres [Traumatic stress]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Psychologii PAN [Warsaw: Polish Academy of Science,
Institute of Psychology Publishing House
Łoboda, M. (1990). Czynniki stresogenne w organizacji [Stress factors in organization], in: A. Biela (ed.). Stres w pracy zawodowej [Stress at work], (p. 67–94).
Lublin: Redakcja Wydawnictw KUL [Catholic University of Lublin Publishing
House].
Matthiesen, S.B., Einarsen, S. (2004). Psychiatric distress and symptoms of PTSD
among victims of bullying at work. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling,
32(3), 335–356.
Mathiesen, G.E., Einarsen, S., Mykletun, R. (2008). The occurrences and correlates of
bullying and harassment in the restaurant sector. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 49, 59–68.
Merecz, D., Mościcka, A., Drabek, M. (2005). Mobbing w środowisku pracy. Charakterystyka zjawiska, jego konsekwencje, aspekty prawne i sposoby przeciwdziałania
[Mobbing at workplace. Characteristics, consequences, legal aspects and ways
of counteract]. Łódź: Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. Prof. J. Nofera [Professor’s
J. Nofer Occupational Medicine Institute in Lodz].
Mikkelsen, E.G., Einarsen, S. (2001). Bullying in Danish Work-Life: Prevalence and
health correlates. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology,
10(4), 393–413.
Mitchell, K.E. Lewin, S.A., Krumboltz, J.D. (1999). Planned Happenstance: Constructing Unexpected Career Opportunities. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77,
2, 115–124.
146 Anna Skuzińska, Mieczysław Plopa, Wojciech Plopa
Mościcka, A., Drabek, M. (2011). Agresja i mobbing w środowisku pracy [Aggression
and mobbing at work], (p.59–92), in: D. Merecz (ed.). Profilaktyka psychospołecznych zagrożeń w miejscu pracy: od teorii do praktyki [Psychosocial risks at
workplace: from theory to prevention], (p. 143–148). Łódź: Instytut Medycyny
Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera [Professor’s J. Nofer Occupational Medicine Institute in
Lodz].
Nielsen, M.B., Einarsen, S. (2012). Outcomes of exposure to workplace bullying:
A meta-analytic review. Work & Stress, 26, 4, 309–332.
Pearlin, L.I., McCall, M.E. (1990). Occupational Stress and Martial Support. A Description of Microprocesses, in: J. Eckenrode, S. Gore (eds.). Stress Between Work and
Family, (p. 39–60). New York: Plenum Press.
Plopa, M. (1996). Stres w izolacji morskiej [Stress of sea isolation]. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego [Gdansk Psychological Publishers].
Rostowska, T., Rostowski, J. (2002). Rodzina – rozwój – praca [Work – development –
family]. Łódź: Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki w Łodzi [High School of Informatics in
Lodz].
Employment promotion and labour market institutions law (Law journal 2004, No 99,
1001 with later modificatins)
Schat, A.C.H., Kelloway, E.K. (2003). Reducing the Adverse Consequences of Workplace Aggression and Violence: The Buffering Effects of Organizational Support.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8 (2), 110–122.
Suchar, M. (2010). Modele karier [Career models]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck
[Warsaw: C.H. Beck Publishing House].
Terelak, J.F. (2008). Człowiek i stres [The Man and the Stress]. Bydgoszcz-Warszawa:
Oficyna Wydawnicza Branta [Branta Publishing House].
Waidner, G., Sturm, J., Bauer, K-W. (1996). Metodyka poradnictwa zawodowego.
Aspekty psychologiczne – wskazówki praktyczne [Occupational couselling methodology – psychological aspects]. Warszawa: Krajowy Urząd Pracy [Warsaw:
National Labour Office]
Waszkowska, M. (2011). Profilaktyka i zwalczanie psychospołecznych zagrożeń jako
zadanie psychologa w służbie medycyny pracy [Prevention and combating psychosocial threats – a task of occupational medicine psychologist], in: D. Merecz (ed.).
Profilaktyka psychospołecznych zagrożeń w miejscu pracy: od teorii do praktyki
[Psychosocial risks at workplace: from theory to prevention], (p. 143–148). Łódź:
Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera Professor’s J. Nofer Occupational
Medicine Institute in Lodz].
Wojtasik, B. (2011). Podstawy poradnictwa kariery [Career counseling elements].
Warszawa: KOWEZiU.
Zalewska, A.M. (2008). Konflikty praca-rodzina – ich uwarunkowania i konsekwencje. Pomiar konfliktów [Work-family conflicts – antecedents and consequences.
The problem of bullying at work in career counselling
147
Conflicts measurement], in: L. Golińska, B. Dudek (eds.). Rodzina i praca z perspektywy wyzwań i zagrożeń [Family and work from chalenges and threats
perspective] (p. 403–418). Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego [Lodz
University Publishing House].
Zapf, D., Einarsen, S. (2003). Mobbing at Work: Escalated Conflicts in Organizations,
in: S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf, C.L. Cooper (eds.). Bullying and emotional abuse
in the workplace (p. 237–270). London: Taylor & Francis.
Zapf, D., Einarsen, S. (2005). Mobbing at Work: Escalated Conflicts in Organizations,
in: S. Fox i P.E. Spector (eds.). Counterproductive work behaviour, (p. 237–270).
Washington: American Psychological Association.