Project Management and Workplace Respect

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

Here are some helpful examples of reasonable and regular conflicts that take place while working on projects that wouldn’t qualify as disrepectful or bullying unless they also involved some of the behaviors in the definition of "bullying" (see this post for the definition):

• 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 (i.e., managing performance, taking reasonable disciplinary actions, assigning work);
• Unpopular, yet defensible decisions related to porject management (i.e.resource allocation, solving budget problems, project scope reduction, 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 best not to ask those within your organization for help until you’ve received credible advice).  Use the PMI Ethics tools and the five-step Ethics Decision-Making Framework to assist in evaluating the situation provided on the PMI.org website's Ethics Page

Many project managers would say that bullying is wrong, but not all recognize that it has tangible costs. Targets of bullying often punish their offenders and the organization, although most hide or bury their feelings and don’t necessarily think of their actions as revenge. Through a recent Workplace Bullying Institute poll of 800 managers and employees in 17 industries, we learned just how people’s reactions play out.

“Among workers who’ve been on the receiving end of bullying:

Is it now abundantly clear how bullying impacts Projects?

There is a wide range of direct negative and financial impacts which bullying has on projects. The most obvious are impacts on project success, team performance, budgets and timelines. 

In a 2014 Guardian article on the problems created by workplace bullying, writer Ian Erickson, references an article on Stuff.com, in which New Zealander, Shane Cowishlaw, writes that workplace bullying costs his country “hundreds of millions” of dollars. Australia reports losses in the billions. Not surprisingly for companies in the much larger United States, workplace bullying related costs are estimated to be over $200 billion. According to New Zealand News, workplace bullying affects about one in five employees.

Mr. Erickson also discusses how workplace bullying harms profits. He notes that: “The Workplace Bullying Institute describes workplace bullying in part, as behaviour that prevents work from being finished. Losses are caused by staff members struggling to cope at work, high rates of absenteeism and talented employees leaving in favour of a more harmonious place of employment”.

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/).

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”.

Desmond Tutu, Social Rights Activist and retired Archbishop, South Africa

This quote applies to bullies as well as it applies to elephants. Bullying can be as harmful in the workplace and on projects as it is in schools and other areas of soceity causing the well understood harmful physical and emotional impacts plus a long list of challenges for project managers and the organizations where it is taking place.  Sadly, the rates of workplace bullying across the globe, despite efforts to eliminate it, are increasingly dramatically. Projects are subsets of workplaces and since project management is, for the most part, an activity that involves working very closely with others, the impact of a bully in a project is potentially lethal to project success.

There is also an important connection between the "Neutrality isn't an option" expression and ethics. The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct included as part of the standard for Responsibility the statement "We report any illegal or unethical conduct. " In other words, the Code says that neutrality isn't an option.