Project Management and Workplace Respect

Not every unpleasant or challenging conflict with people at work or in a project is bullying. On the contrary, conflict is a normal part of life and, as you may know too well, conflict in projects is normal. So, it’s important to contrast normal work behavior and interaction from bullying.

Here are some helpful examples of reasonable and regular conflicts that take place while working on projects that wouldn’t qualify as bullying, unless they also involved some of the behaviors noted in the definition of “bullying:”

• Expressing differences of opinion;
• Offering constructive feedback, guidance, or advice about work-related behavior;
• Reasonable action taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of workers (such as managing performance, taking reasonable disciplinary actions, or assigning work);
• Unpopular, yet defensible decisions related to project management (such as resource allocation, solving budget problems, project scale reduction, and scheduling decisions which increase workload); and
• Project cancellation or delay.

The key is to approach each situation with a reasonable, objective perspective in order to properly assess if there is bullying involved. Seek the advice from trusted colleagues or human resources specialists (but, it is best not to ask those within your organization for help until you’ve received credible advice). Ask PMI credential holders who are outside of your workplace to provide their insight. Use the PMI ethics tools and the five-step Ethical Decision-Making Framework provided on the PMI website to assist in evaluating the situation http://www.pmi.org/en/About-Us/Ethics.aspx.

With the recent flurry of bad press about Amazon's workplace culture,  I thought I wold bring back a blog topic related to reputation and why it matters.

I recently commenced a discussion topic on ProjectManagement.com on the issue of the importance of organizational reputation.  Whenever leaders choose decisions that breach ethical boundaries, the impacts can be diasterous.

Here is the link - http://www.projectmanagement.com/discussion-topic/22088/The-Importance-of-Reputation-and-Trust--The-Lehman-Brothers-Collapse-

Discriminatory Workplace Harassment has a legal foundation that is different from workplace bullying.  

It is much more narrow than dictionary or workplace policy defined harassment. While many employers have policies that prohibit workplace harassment, these are separate from and flow directly from the issue of discrimination.

 Erica Pinsky’s book titled Road to Respect: Path to Profit  is helpful. She notes: 

   "Workplace harassment flows from human rights law…and is very specifically  defined...Human rights law was structured in response to historical discrimination in our society." (pages 63 - 68).

  In order for an individual to be deemed to be illegally harassing another at work, the victim must be able to prove that they were targeted for their race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, marital status, or sexual orientation.

It is a form of illegal discrimination and can be defined as “a type of discrimination and means engaging in a course of annoying comments or conduct that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome, that is tied to a prohibited ground of discrimination and that detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for the victim of harassment.” (Pinsky, page 66).

If you have questions about workplace harassment, I may be able to direct you to how to get answers.

Workplace Bullying is mistreatment of one or more persons (the Targets) by one or more perpetrators. It is mistreatment severe enough to compromise a targeted worker's health, jeopardize her or his job and career, and strain relationships with friends and family. 

The Workplace Bullying and Institute (WBI) defines workplace bullying as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment, verbal abuse, or conduct which is threatening, humiliating, intimidating, or sabotage that interferes with work, or some combination of the three".

It is a laser-focused, systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction. It has nothing to do with work itself. It is driven by the bully's personal agenda and actually prevents work from getting done and after all, that is precisely what  chapter leaders are responsible for doing – getting project and chapter work done through the efforts of others. 

The WBI is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to learn more about workplace bullying and their website also includes a page with a list of excellent reference materials (http://www.workplacebullying.org/recommended-books/).

Honoured to be a presenter at my local PMI West Coast Chapter event next week on "CSI Vancouver - How Project Management Guides Crime Scene Investigations".

See my local chapter colleagues there!