NSWM Conference June 2018

Challenging toxic workplaces: The role of leadership integrity

Mike Webster, PhD, MBS, RSW

School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, The University of Auckland

Abstract

Workplace bullying can be toxic for its targets and corrosive in the organisation. This

presentation describes three scenarios: one is management collusion with intimidation and its consequences; two are leadership actions

which proactively addressed threatening communications. Actions taken by these two leaders expressed personal and professional integrity contributing to the creation of safe

workplace environments.

The effectiveness of those actions

demonstrate that leadership has an ethical responsibility to address

workplace bullying.

Emile ZolaEngaging with Outrage!

William Wilberforce’s 45 year campaign to abolish

slavery in Britain exemplifies our

profession’s concern for social justice in society.

But if social work leaders fail to implement

organisational social justice, what right do we have to advocate for it in

society?

To intimidate a worker frequently affects their well-being

Michael Preston-ShootProfessor of Social Work

Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, University of Bedfordshire

“Agency indifference to poor and abusive practice”

(Preston-Shoot, 2010, p.473)“Administrative evil-doing”

(Preston-Shoot, 2011, p.177)

Adams, G. & Balfour, D. (1998) Unmasking Administrative Evil. Sage: London.Arendt, H. (1963) Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Viking: New York.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.”“Not to speak is to

speak.”“Not to act is to

act.”

Scenario 1A professional working in an interdisciplinary

context:“One staff member is quite a bully. When I

started [3 years ago] I became aware of this person ignoring me. I thought it was strange

that out of all the staff there was one person who ignored me.”

Scenario 1“I didn’t worry too much about it [be]cause it

[was] a [professional from another discipline] so I didn’t deal with them too much. After about 6 months I started to feel really uncomfortable.”

Scenario 1“There was direct nastiness coming out like

comments about obesity or about my parenting—really mean. If I walked into the room

the conversation would stop.”

Quote from article:

“The emotional impact of the bullying―which at the time of the interviews had occurred over three years―was illustrated in the

participant’s twice repeated comment that ‘it [bullying] is horrible’. In an evocative statement the informant said that because the

bullying was ‘eat[ing] me up inside’ she had thought of leaving and in fact had successfully applied for another position. For compelling organisational reasons, this course of action could not be followed.”

(Webster, 2016, p.10)

The victim confronted agency management and asked:

“Why is this allowed to go on?”

Their response: “Unless you can give us really specific

examples we can’t do anything about it.”’

=Collusion?

"The supervisor-worker relationship is the key encounter where the influence

of organizational authority and professional identity collide, collude or

connect.” (Middleman and Rhodes, 1980, p.52)

Two contrasting scenarios from the

same research:Proactive leadership

Scenario 2Question:

“You used an interesting phrase: She was demonstrating ‘anti-

leadership’ qualities.’ What do you mean by that?”

Participant: “She [our team manager] sat down at my colleague’s desk and her immediate comment was, ‘Well, what have you achieved this week? What have you done

while I’ve been away?’She devastated my colleague.”

“She didn’t pick up on the fact that she had absolutely just slammed this one girl, went to the next one, did the same thing and basically just came in and imposed her expectations on a team which was functioning incredibly well,

had been achieving exactly what we had intended to for that time period” [in the

manager’s absence on a course.]

“By the time she got to the third person I was out … I thought, I am not placing

myself in a position to have that conversation with her right just now. Once she had [left] for the day, [I] checked in with my team

about how everybody was.”

Questions

Why did this participant remove herself at that

point?

Why did she check the state of her colleagues?

What knowledge and skills were demonstrated

in those actions?

“The following week [I] just talked to her about the impact that I had observed … [that] it

was … imposing her own agenda for no good reason other than to probably make her feel as though she had control. And she wanted … to know that she was on top of things because her team were on

top of things.”

Questions

When addressing workplace bullying, what significance do

we place on the “I observed” statement?

What connections if any do we make

between feelings of “control” and “being on

top of things?”

“Had she had a conversation to say how’s your week been, have there been

any problems I can help you with, it is just a different conversation she would

have had such a different response. And I just think stuff like that has to be

considered basic 101 management. It is how to get the best out of people and she couldn’t demonstrate that … she

closes people. She doesn’t open people up. That is bad.”

Question

What is our understanding of appreciative enquiry and is

this an example of it?

Q. Did it actually evoke any response?

Participant:

“I certainly had an acknowledgement that she had not handled that well.

She hadn’t recognised the impact that that had had because of her lack of insight. I would name that as not [being] able to read people’s body

language … probably a lack of empathy, put herself in my colleagues’

shoes.”

“101 Management”

“Thought leadership”“You can be a thought leader in your

day to day world. A front line practitioner will have opportunities

to nam[e] less than appropriate behaviour from somebody else that

could be a form of leadership ... being prepared to put yourself out

there to challenge somebody about their practice. All of those things I

think are part of leadership.”

Lutgen-Sandvik and Tracy (2012).

Pam Lutgen-Sandvik

Sarah J. Tracy

Scenario 3Self-efficacy and a “bully leader”

“Whenever I have difficulties with a person at work I talk to them about the impact of [their

behaviour] on [service recipients.] I don’t say you are doing this wrong, and I need you to do this. I tend to go in with: ‘When you do this, this is the

impact. What do you think might need to happen so that it doesn’t continue?’ ”

“The same can happen with a bully.”

“You can say: ‘Now when you [the bully] come into the meeting and start talking like you did the other

day I could see other people being affected by that.’ ”

“Or it could be [the participant] talking [to the bully] about the impact on others or the service or [the

agency] as a whole. I have used our [agency’s] reputation: what you are creating or what is happening is actually against [our] values.”

A picture emerged of the ability of this participant, a frontline manager, to create a trusting interpersonal culture in her

team characterised by “openness, honesty and

transparency…the ability to talk to each other,

communicate, listen, debrief.”

Question:

“So do you believe that it’s your influence and values that have

facilitated a culture of openness?”

Response

“Yeah I do.”

=Self-efficacy

For your future consideration Brainstorm, discuss, reflect on scenarios presented

and your own experiences Engage in simulations and/or skill practice and

acquisition. Suggestion: How would you address the first scenario?

In these situations, who are the stakeholders? How do we engage with them? How do we achieve a unified response leading to demonstrable actions?

ReferencesBandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.),

Encyclopedia of

human behavior (pp. 71-81). New York, NY: Academic Press.

Cooperrider, D., Whitney, D., & Stavros, J. (2008). Appreciative inquiry handbook for leaders of change (2nd ed.). Brunswick, OH; San Francisco, CA: Crown Custom; Berrett-Koehler.

Golding, W. (1954). Lord of the flies: A novel. London, England: Faber &

Faber.

Lutgen-Sandvik, P., & Tracy, S. J. (2012). Answering five key questions about workplace bullying: How communication scholarship provides thought leadership for transforming abuse at work. Management Communication Quarterly, 26(1), 3-47

ReferencesMetaxas, E. (2010). Bonhoeffer: Pastor, martyr, prophet, spy. Nashville, TN:

Thomas Nelson.

Preston-Shoot, M. (2010). On the evidence for viruses in social work systems: law, ethics and practice. European Journal of Social Work, 13(4), 465-482.

Sewpaul, V., & Jones, D. (2005). Global standards for the education and training of the social work profession. International Journal of Social Welfare, 14(3), 218-230.

Van Heugten, K. (2010). Bullying of social workers: Outcomes of a grounded study into impacts and interventions.” British Journal of Social Work 40(2): 638–655.

ReferencesWebster, M. (2016). Challenging workplace bullying: The role of social work

leadership integrity. Ethics and Social Welfare 10(4), 316-332. 10.1080/17496535.2016.115563

Zimbardo, P. G. (2009). Foreword. In G. B. Adams, & D. L. Balfour (Eds.), Unmasking administrative evil (3rd ed., pp. ix-xvi). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.