**Abstract**

Nowadays, every organisation is looking for new approaches and ways that lead to the optimal usage of workforce and potential of workers which in turn leads to improved status of the business subject within the competitive environment. A still unappreciated element in business management is the level of relationship between the managers and employees and among the employees themselves. Good social relationships, open in-house climate and quality communication significantly influence the behaviour of employees and their performance, contribute to participation of employees in fulfilling the organisation's goals and by that increasing the performance of the workers and the organisation as a whole. This sphere of social relationships, in-house climate and quality of communication is a stabilizing or unstabilizing element in businesses. In and unsatisfactory and stressful environment, undesirable fluctuations in the employees' performance occur. Harmful practices (bullying), which prevent the optimal usage of the workforce, lead to the creation of an unfriendly and disfunctional Environment, breakup of teams, they lower the creativity of the employees and encourage bad attendance and fluctuations. A decline in morale of the whole company occurs and the performance, quality of work and productivity of workers also decreases. In spite of the aforementioned reasons why we should fight against these harmful practices which show signs of bullying, more than 40% of Czech employees between 2007 and 2011 have experienced some form of bullying.

**Keywords:** workforce, research, social relations, organization climate, quality of communication, participation of the goals

## **1. Introduction**

Work relationships, their quality and system of communication influence achieving the company, work and life goals of each worker. Harmonic, tactful and satisfactory work relationships, to which even interpersonal relationships and a quality system of communication are connected, create an overall company climate that is a prerequisite for being a productive one as well. This climate also has a positive influence on individual, collective and overall company performance. It reflects beneficially in the satisfaction of workers and aids in unifying both individual and company goals and interests. Work relationships in a company influence all of personal activities and usually significantly determine their effectivity [1].

Unhealthy, disorganized work and interpersonal relationships create an environment in the company where it is challenging to predict, plan ahead and fulfill work goals. In such environment, conflicts take place very often, mistrust among workers and between workers and management rises. This creates space for more negative and socially undesirable phenomenons. Because of the reasons listed above, work relationships should be at the center of interest of every company. These relationships should be given exceptional attention and managers as well as all of the workers should collectively care about their harmony and improvement [1].

Work relationships are unfair in some companies. The crisis, threat of dismission from work, fast pace of work, atmosphere of fear and stress all contribute to this. These factors are an advantage to people at the workplace who are pushy and can use the situation to their advantage.

Conflicts and various disagreements in the workplace have always occurred. With increasing stress, competition, constant pressure to improve performance and lower costs and the effort to increase productivity at all cost, conflicts are only increasing. The situation is made worse by the supported individualism that also significantly contributes to the formation of unbalanced circumstances in the workplace [2].

Unethical behaviour is becoming the norm in some companies. The fact that an atmosphere of fear, unfair relationships and intrigue is dominant in a company is often overlooked by the management until the best workers, who are sensitive to such practices, leave. A psychological research hinted that an atmosphere which indicates unethical behaviour is present in many companies [2]. The sources of conflicts and communication defects can differ: a misunderstanding in the workplace, the style of managerial leadership, the way of forming work teams and groups, shortcomings in personal work, the personality of managers, work conditions, pressure on productivity and others [1].

A key point for an organisation to reach their goal effectively is for their goals and the goals of their workers to be complementary, if possible. If the organisation want their workers to work effectively they must strive for their satisfaction. This can, among other things, be influenced by open communication which significantly influences loyalty and performance of the workers [2].

A socially undesirable behaviour is generally regarded as one that is mostly characterized by not adhering to or violating social norms, legislation and ethical values. A behaviour that leads to damaging one's health and the environment in which they live and work in in it's consequence also leads to individual, group and societal defects and deformations. Socially undersirable phenomenons are an indicator of crisis in human conduct and in the behaviour of the organisation as a whole [1]. They are especially present when the human factor fails and also when norms and general human principles (for example ethical ones) are violated. These undesirable influences accompany the human conduct during various activities and even during their management and organization [3].

Feter [3] labels socially inappropriate and unethical behaviour as an umbrella term for unhealthy, abnormal and generally undesirable societal phenomenons and methods which society deems undesirable because they disrupt it's social, moral or legal norms. The definitions of an inappropriate behavior tend to differ, however it is a behaviour that is contradicting norms and good manners. Different, mostly sophisticated intrigues that look harmless on the surface, are used. For this reason it is difficult to prove such conduct and that is it's biggest danger.

### **2. Forms of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace and protection against them**

There can certainly be various antipathies and divergences in the workplace. Everyone sometimes experiences an unjust action from a coworker in the

#### *Impacts of Mobbing and Bossing in Human Resource Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97539*

workplace. They don't fulfill a promise they made, spread sensitive information, speak badly of us in front of the boss or intrigue. Such worker feels anxiety, anger and confusion afterwards and experiences disillusion. It is not uncommon for people to jump to generalised, unjustified conclusions based on one negative experience, however we cannot assume that an inappropriate behaviour is taking place in the workplace based on a single negative experience, such behaviour has to be regular [4].

Except for unethical conduct and unfair communication there is also a deepening discrepancy in interpersonal relationships in some companies that can lead to a behaviour that is characterized by attacks and intimidation. In Great Britain, USA or Australia the term bullying is common. Sometimes including specific relationships such as mobbing, bossing and staffing, which are used to describe psychological pressure [5].

The causes of bullying can be seen in the shortcomings in organisation and management of groups, incorrect ideas about fulfilling the roles in a group contradictory to official organisation, defects in social behaviour of individuals and rarely in pathology of a personality. Vašutová [6] divides bullying into different forms: physical, verbal, emotional and psychological – spreading rumors, manipulation with social relationships, social extortion (indirect relationship aggression).

### **2.1 Mobbing**

Represents derogatory conduct from coworkers – either individually or as a group – long-term (at least 6 months) and repeated (at least once a week) towards a specific person. Mobbing is more common in companies than we dare to estimate [5]. It can have a whole palette of forms and vary in intensity – it could be degrading, blaming, irony, underestimating, finger pointing and other disruptive behaviour. The deceit of mobbing lies in its secrecy and length. It is mostly smaller attacks that seem harmless and random on the outside but create a complex, organised and health-threatening phenomenon.

In order for us to speak about mobbing, one important condition has to be met: Mobbing is happening where there exists a system that permanently damages a chosen victim – the worker. It does not have to be a system consciously put in place, it can be created unconsciously. Mobbing is negative communication conduct directed towards a specific subordinate. It is usually happening often and last a long time. These signs clearly point at the relationship of the victim and offender [7].

According to The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic is bullying (mobbing) a purposeful and long-term, especially psychological, harm which is committed by specific people at the workplace [8]. It manifests in the form of slander, ridiculing, degrading, overlooking, embarrassing, intimidating, irony, underestimating etc. It occurs, for example, because of [9]:


Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian ethologist, studying the behaviour of animals used the term "mobbing" in cases where he was describing the so-called territoriality of animals. A wide spectrum of animal species lives in their home territories and if an intruder appears they do not hesitate to attack. A German author Peter-Paul Heinemann, who used the term "mobbing" in 1972 when he was studying aggressive behaviour in kids at school yards who sometimes managed to even drive their classmates to suicide, is also worth mentioning, states [10].

Ziegel [11] clarifies that the credit for the word should be given to a Swedish doctor and psychologist Heinz Leymann (1932-1999) who coined the term "mobbing" in 1993 in Germany which transferred both the word and the phenomenon into psychology. He was the first to apply the analogy of animal behaviour to situations in the workplace. While studying patients with communication and relationship issues he discovered that some workers in companies treat their colleagues as an "attacking pack".

#### *2.1.1 Mobbing as a process*

Mobbing is a type of conflict which quickly escalates and also usually leads to great damage. It is an insufficient ability to communicate, insufficient personality, arrogance, jealousy, bad manners and treating others, inability to solve conflicts and approach them openly [10].

Mobbing has, according to the authors, 4 phases, Svobodová [12] states them as follows:


Various factors influence mobbing. For example the following:


An insufficient qualification for leading people (authoritarian style), poor ability to deal with conflict, constant pressure to increase performance and lower costs and company culture with low level of ethics could also be put in this category.

#### **2.2 Bossing as a specific form of mobbing**

If the initiator of the psychological pressure is a superior, then we are talking about bossing. The term bossing is probably the youngest in this sense of word. It's Norwegian author S. Kile [10] labeled "systematic pressure from a superior" as such in his studies and brought attention to this negative phenomenon. As Čech [13] states, bossing is a specific form of mobbing. It is a process during which a superior attacks their subordinate. Bossing is actually mobbing coming from higher (head) positions often leading to a purposeful "disposal" of inconvenient employees [5].

It is essentially the same scenario which is, considering the significant authority of the superior that they are granted by legal documents and which can be utilized, that much more dangerous. The superior can overwhelm the employee with work or assign task that they are not able to complete. On the other hand, assigning duties that are below the level of the victim's qualifications is also quite common. Everything is accompanied by an often ironic clarification; then, a critical and degrading evaluation of the work follows. Bullying manifests as slander, ridiculing, degrading, overlooking, shaming, financial damage etc.

Making disadvantages for the worker can also have different forms in bossing and manifest as for example in rewards, a part of salary that cannot be demanded, during special rewards, personal surcharges and other tangible rewards which are not in direct legal demand. In praxis, a large room for illegal discrimation or rather for favoritism to specific employees that are "friends" with the managers and for whom a reward is not for their contribution but for servility, adulation and snitching on coworkers. In regards to a considerable authority of the superior, bossing is more dangerous than mobbing.

#### *2.2.1 The role of the head employee*

Atmosphere at the workplace is closely connected to the head employee. A manager has a large amount of authority in his hands. The means of management, setting of the communication, treatment of employees and the manager's behavior has a decisive influence on the pathological relationships at the workplace. Inappropriate communication phenomenons appear in an environment in which the head employee is indifferent to the climate in the team, doesn't want to talk about problems thus doesn't want to solve them either, when the head employee doesn't have a sufficient qualification in managing workers, looks over conflicts, doesn't solve them or poorly and with a bias solves the mistakes and oversights of the workers [12].

The style of managing is very important. A democratic style is the most suitable. Autocratic and authoritative or too liberal styles evoke an atmosphere that is favorable to the development of mobbing. Liberal style and excessive freedom evokes anarchy and chaos. Excessive directivity evokes irritability, dissatisfaction and aggression [12].

The head employee must also have the ability to relate to the problems of others and must also be able to rationally control their own emotions [12].

If the management of human resources overlooks the roots of conflicts and the problems aren't being solved, they can turn into open conflicts. Attacked employees have worse both physical and mental state and their behavior changes. They close in on themselves, lose contact with their coworkers, go into isolation, start to make work related mistakes and lose credit and trust [5].

Coworkers and, regrettably, often even managers would sometimes rather overlook the lapse of others so they don't have to solve them and not get into a conflict themselves. If even the head workers are indifferent towards unethical behavior, that behavior then becomes the norm.

If the necessary moral traits and legal knowledge are absent in the head employee, it's as if they were giving a signal to the spread of mobbing at the workplace. Such head employee often has their own complex and a strong need to control people and manipulate them [9].

Managers responsible for relationships at a workplace should be able to identify emerging problems, diagnose them and push for a change [5].

A problem of course is, when the head employee is the initiator of disagreements and worsening of relationships between people. When a person gets into a head position who's ambitious, fulfills given tasks but doesn't get along with people it's often tolerated. Only when conflicts expand and start to negatively manifest in performance characteristics and business turnovers is when owners or top management starts to get interested, but that can already be too late [5].

From it it's apparent that an inappropriate, unwanted climate which is often a key factor for the development of bullying at a workplace results in decreased work motivation and performance of employees which manifest in both the quality of work and the quality of the workplace relationships which can be seen as a driving force of any firm or company. This, in both cases, brings significant economic losses for the business [14].

Corporate culture should be a collection of written and said rules on how the company should proceed in similar cases and situations and on what the communication, atmosphere, style of work and subordination procedure inside the company is like. Thus corporate culture is more important the larger the business is [15].

Corporate culture significantly affects the satisfaction with work and the degree of identification with the company. If it's well set employees feel comfortable which has a postivite effect on their performance. However when a negative atmosphere prevails at the workplace it supports the development of pathological relationships. It's necessary that the corporate culture is based on a strong moral foundation for the creation of the correct workplace atmosphere [12].

In companies which are certificated under ČSN EN ISO 9001 is a declaration of the vision of the company and its politics a basic standard, from which further more specific in-house norms and guidelines are derived. One of its common points is a paragraph which focuses on employees and highlights their importance to the company. An extension of these basic points can even be a moral codex – rules of norms of behavior binding to all employees.

#### **3. Negative influence on an individual and the whole organization**

The influence of any form of unfair treatment such as mobbing, bossing or staffing (bullying of a superior by the employees) and its impact is very

#### *Impacts of Mobbing and Bossing in Human Resource Management DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97539*

extensive, affects the entire organisation and its consequences affect all members of the work team.

Dishonest and disloyal employees are at the same time a timed threat for the company. However companies themselves are often at fault for the problematic behavior of their employees. Employees start to intrigue and lie, leak discrete information regarding the company and its know-how and abuse their work position. With such behavior they can cause their employer high damages which can, in certain situations, liquidate the company.

Employees who have issues at the workplace have a tendency to leave it to themselves. Despite their effort, alarming symptoms start to appear: tendency to socially isolate themselves, decrease of energy and health issues. All of these issues can later become chronical, such as headaches, stomachaches, digestion issues, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders or problems with the heart. Often as well appear problems with concentration, fear of failing and loss of confidence [7]. Further moral, social, health and economic consequences befall not only affected individuals but even entire collectives. Typical response to an unfair treatment are mental disorders (such as depression, anxiety, memory disorders, problems with concentration, paranoid states, aggression, etc.) and psychosomatic illnesses (stomach and gallbladder problems, heart problems, pain, skin diseases, sight deterioration, asthma, bulemia, high blood pressure, etc.). Mobbing might only happen at work but also significantly affects the private life, adds [16].

Results of mobbing can be, according to Venglářové [17], divided into three categories:


Employees have worse performances, are more often ill, in the worst case they take refuge in resigning or strive to work at a complete different position, team work is disturbed and atmosphere in the company worsens [19]. Productivity of work, quality of products and willingness to innovate decrease and the company image begins to be threated. Created losses are striking [5].

Unfair treatment and stressful situations resulting from it also have context with the question of work safety. Since under its influence, concentration disorders appear in the victim which can have an increased rate of failures, errors or injuries as a result. Morbidity and incapacity increases which serve as an escape from an unsatisfactory environment. Further aspects can also according to Dědičové [20] be an affect on losses which negatively manifest in competition with other companies such as:


To that is also related a bad atmosphere at the workplace, hostile and unfonctional environment is created, team falls apart, performance decreases and so does quality. Creativity of employees is lower, worse productivity, bad attendance and fluctuation. Decrease in morality of the entire company occurs. With all of that the costs increase.

#### **3.1 Selected influences and options of prevention**

As a prevention against the consequences of this behavior, which damages the company, mechanisms are created which try to prevent this behavior – ethical codexes are accepted, a company ombucman is established, box for complaints etc. [21].

A special form of prevention of this issue can also be a collective contract, eventually a warning of an option of a legal course of action. A defense of unfair treatment is in practice very difficult. It requires a high degree of bravery and perserverance.

Above all it's important to resist the pressure and not let individuals control the entire collective, to not be indifferent to what's happening at the workplace and finding quality and honest people in the collective. Bullying needs to be reported to human resources and to superiors as it is a very dangerous matter which can even have fatal consequences. Every employee at the workplace has the responsibility to report acts of bullying. Then the true corporate culture will reveal itself [9].

Very important is also the creation of a beneficial work environment, suitable communication climate and quality work relationships.

Dědina [22] comes with a concept of a communication climate which exists in a business and severely affects the behavior of employees and therefore the entire organisation. The author states extreme cases of open and closed climates, vis. **Table 1**. Communication climates of real organisations lie somewhere between these extremes and it's important to know which climate it inclines towards.

Pauknerová [18] a Svobodová [12] state that participation of managers on the creation of concrete social conditions and social climate at the workplace is critical.

According to [11] the goal of a head employee is to lead a well integrated and motivated group in which socially harmful relationships don't occur, a group, which reacts and acts coherently and in which positive team climate prevails which is essentially important in fulfilling the business' goals.

In order to not support unfair relationships the head employee has to combat tell-tale, conspiracy, machinations, has to not downplay the complaints of employees, has to solve the causes of problems and give employees necessary information.

Svobodová [12] adds, that a head employee must also have the ability to relate to problems of others and must rationally control their own emotions.


#### **Table 1.**

*Open and closed communication climates.*

The way of managing, setting communication, treating subordinates and the behavior of the manager has a decisive influence on bad relationships at the workplace.

The most suitable style of managing – a democratic style. Autocrative, authoritarian or too liberal styles evoke an atmosphere favorable to a development of unsatisfactory relationships. Liberal style and excessive freedom evoke anarchy and chaos. Excessive directivity, on the other hand, evokes irritability, dissatisfaction and aggression [12].

A fundamental communication tool inside of a company should be clear rules, defined rights, duties and responsibility of the participating.

In the case of occurring problems and problematic relationships it's necessary to try to solve the conflict without outside interferences.

Attacked employee should request a talk in private. Strong voice, correct posture, topical arguments and not letting themselves be provoked and naming things without shyness are important. If the talk ends with no positive result or doesn't have sense, they should request a talk with a third person. That third person can be a head employee. If the talk is productive, the head employee or the person responsible for the given problematic has a responsibility to oversee, whether the situation is getting better. In the case that not even a talk with a third person doesn't help legal process remains [7].

From a longterm viewpoint it's necessary to start while hiring managers and paying attention to a balance between the candidates relationship towards people and tasks. It's certainly better to dedicate the needed time, energy and money to a thorough diagnosis of not only professional, but also (and maybe even primarily) to personality and characteristics of managers, than to then solve problems at the workplace [5].
