We cannot solve a problem that we have not acknowledged South Africa is riddled with prejudice – root of all forms of bullying whether it is racism, sexism, tribalism, homophobia, afro-phobia which is generally referred to as xenophobia. Gordon Allport observed in 1954 that it takes extraordinary levels of self -insight and maturity to prevent one’s prejudices from morphing into overt acts of discrimination against the target of prejudice Throw into this mix leaders who come into leadership positions with individual psychological challenges such as inferiority complex, paranoia, narcissistic tendencies then you have cocktail that creates bullies on steroids in South African workplaces. While there is an enabling Constitutional framework, there is a legislative vacuum as there is no legislation that deals directly with workplace bullying. Workplace bullying sits somewhere between the Employment Equity Act, the Prevention of harassment Act, The Occupational Health and Safety Act and depending on the facts and nuance of each individual case, claims can be located within any one of these blunt instruments. The Occupational Health and Safety Act which should also deal with psychological harm falls short of dealing with workplace bullying and as such workforce training on workplace bullying which is supposed to be provided as part of Skills Development Training is not happening. As such while workplace bullying happens, there is not even a commonly adopted legal definition of it and this makes it extremely difficult to combat it. It takes highly attuned executives to be sensitised of its existence, treat it as an occupational hazard and put in place measures to deal with it. There is a general lack of emphasis on possession of soft skills as a leadership quality required to get results while also being sensitive to the emotional wellbeing of staff. Because of the legislative lacuna, there are very few organisations with anti-workplace bullying policies, and this renders many organisations vulnerable to bullies, who can carry out their despicable act s without violating any company policies. In a policy vacuum, managers who want to deal with bullying are left in limbo, not knowing exactly what to do. Because the topic is missing in workplace discourse observers of episodes of workplace bullying tend to follow the same trend suggested by international research, i.e. playing the role of silent uninvolved bystanders- who while vicariously affected, do nothing to stop it. In this regard, the bystanders become unwitting participants to bullying particularly those bystanders who laugh at jokes made at someone else’s expense or encourage bullies by nodding to their verbal tirades. Employees who are on the receiving end of bullying acts often do not know where to turn and if bullying happens within a manager -subordinate relationship, the subordinate may accept this unbecoming behaviour as normal part of being managed, or accept bully behaviours by their manager as a human flaw that they can do nothing about All these factors combined conspire to make workplace bullies get away with bullying with impunity with no regard for consequences on the target, the bystanders, the organisation as well as the social system of the targets- who bear the brunt of the effects of bullying on the psychological wellbeing of their loved one.
