Workplace Harassment at Spark NZ LTD: Blacks Most Affected - Essay Sample

Introduction

Over the decades, bullying and harassment of workers cases in New Zealand have been increasing at a high rate. At Spark New Zealand Limited, one of the telecommunication companies in New Zealand, the instances of harassment of workers is high, and most of the victims are the blacks. The company offers mobile network, telephone services and internet service to the users. Further, the company, through its Digital Spark division provides ICT services to many businesses in the country. Harassment and bullying of workers at the organization refer to the directed actions to a worker that is repetitive that cause social, psychosomatic and psychological problems to the victim.

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Moreover, the victim may suffer from distress, humiliation, and offence that may negatively affect the victim's performance. In the company, the workers are subjected to different forms of harassment such as persistent criticisms, physical abuse, social exclusion, offensive remarks, isolation and insults (Einarsen et al., 2011). Ethnicity, gender, disability and age bias contributed to the high rates of bullying in the organization. Research shows that more women reported cases of bullying than men in all organizations. Further, young people reported more cases of harassment than the aged population. Besides, the research also showed that disabled people are likely to be bullied, and women from ethnic minorities were more bullied in organizations. This paper critically analyses the bullying and harassment problem in the Spark New Zealand Limited Company.

Alternative Solutions

Bullying and harassment cases affect the health of a worker negatively and also lead to an individual's negative performance. The deliberate focus should be on how to end bullying and harassment of workers for the adequate performance of the employees. Previous studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between ethnicity bias and the bullying and harassment problem. The women from ethnic minorities have a high probability of being bullied than the natives’ ladies. According to O'Driscoll et al., (2011), 14.4% of the reported cases of bullying were on Pacific women, 24.2% on African women and 15.5% on Asian women. To mitigate this problem, the government and NGO’s need to train individuals both at government institutions and public institutions on the recognition and value of diversity and inclusion in workplace culture.

Bullying and harassment of employees are one of the factors that led to the poor performance of Spark New Zealand in 2013. Generally, the problem is a limiting factor to the excellent performance of both government institutions and private institutions worldwide. Research shows that young population are likely to be bullied in organizations than the aged population. In Spark New Zealand Company, the bullying of young people is because they are less likely to know their rights, and it is their first time in the organization (Mayhew, 2007). The aged population take advantage to intimidate and frighten the young people; thus, most of the time, the victims lose morale of working, leading to their poor performance. The solution to this problem is imposing strict rules and policies in the organizations.

Over the years, Human rights Group has established reports showing a high prevalence of bullying and harassment cases in the organizations. Disabled people in organizations are likely bullied and harassed because of the existence of a belief that they are a minority in the country (Catley et al., 2013). There is a need of the organizations, Human Rights Groups, and the government to establish harsh punishment and policies that will protect the disabled in the society from harassment actions. To end this problem, the organizations need to develop valid codes of conduct and include them as part of training during the induction of each employee in the organization.

The adverse effects of bullying and harassment affect the Gross Domestic Product of New Zealand negatively. The poor performance of the Spark New Zealand Limited Company contributes to the slow economic growth of the state. The adverse effects put pressure on the government's legislation to pass strict laws that protect the health and safety of employees hence terminating the bullying and harassment acts.

Evaluation of the Alternative Solutions

Let A represent recognition of race and culture diversity. Letter B represent strict rules and policies in an organization. Letter C and D represent codes of conduct and government strict laws, respectively.

Behavioural Factors

In evaluating the above solutions to determine the best solution, several behavioural factors influenced the decision. First, ethical aspects refer to the principles accepted in society contributed to the answers to the problem. In developing the solution, a key consideration was to ensure that the solutions are acceptable and legal in the community. All the resolutions were passed under a reversibility test to determine whether they violate others rights and whether they respect others.

The value factor is another behavioural factor to consider when developing and evaluating the solutions. The values are general guidelines that a decision-maker uses to solve a problem. The value-focused thinking helped in understanding the situation better, and more objectives of solving the problem were recognized. The value-focused thinking helped in developing and choosing the most appropriate solution to the underlying problem.

Moreover, personality factors that describe the traits of an individual widely influenced the decision making of the most appealing alternative. The goal-oriented personality played a significant role in evaluating alternative solutions to choose the most appropriate solution that would solve the problem ultimately to achieve the desired goal.

Lastly, the propensity to risk influenced decision making. The low aversion to risk led to the act of developing many alternative solutions. After that, to reduce the probability of danger, I used the weighting method and the hierarchy analytical matrix to determine the most appropriate solution that had less exposure to risks. For instance, the solutions were evaluated based on the financial constraints to assess the risk, which was less costly and developing codes of conduct was the best.

Developmental Factors

The developmental factors refer to the variables and conditions that influence an individual's way of thinking. The peer relationship is one of the elements that influenced my decision making in developing alternative solutions. Secondly, heredity predispositions affected decision making. Heredity predispositions refer to the generic factors inherited from the parents. These factors influence one's decision making and many children tend to think the same way as their problems and opt for the solutions that are similar to their parents.

Thirdly, parental attitudes towards a particular problem is another developmental factor that influences one's way of thinking and solving a problem. For instance, due to my parents' negative attitude towards racism and ethnicity, I developed a solution that organizations and governments need to train the employees on the importance of recognition of racial diversity in an organization.

Lastly, the learning experience affects the thinking capacity of an individual. An illiterate person thinks different from a literate person. The high learning experience helped me develop alternative solutions to the underlying problem.

The process of Implementation and Monitoring

• Identify the resources needed for implementation and access the resources
• Design the implementation and monitoring schedule
• Implement the solution to solve the problem
• Continuous follow up of the implementation process

Conclusion

New Zealand is one of the countries that have high cases of bullying and harassment of workers. The action affects the health of the employees negatively. Moreover, bullying affects the morale of the employees towards the work hence leading to poor performance. The individuals’ poor performance also affects the organization's success negatively. There is a need for the government and organizations to put strict rules and codes of conduct that discourage bullying and harassment.

References

Catley, B., Bentley, T., Forsyth, D., Cooper-Thomas, H., Gardner, D., O'Driscoll, M., & Trenberth, L. (2013). Managing workplace bullying in New Zealand: Perspectives from occupational health and safety practitioners. Journal of Management and Organization, 19(5), 598.

Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., & Cooper, C. L. (2011). The concept of bullying and harassment at work: The European tradition. Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Developments in theory, research, and practice, 2, 3-40.

Mayhew, C. (2007). Young workers at risk: overlaps between initiation rites, pranks, bullying, sexual harassment and occupational violence. Journal of Occupational Health and Safety, Australia and New Zealand, 23(4), 333.

O'Driscoll, M. P., Cooper-Thomas, H. D., Bentley, T., Catley, B. E., Gardner, D. H., & Trenberth, L. (2011). Workplace bullying in New Zealand: A survey of employee perceptions and attitudes. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 49(4), 390-408.