Case Study 1: Workplace cyberbullies

Case Study for Group D Team building: sociable climbing Outdoor, mud-spattered team-building - the sort involving hiking boots, rain coats and woolen hats - remains an immovable object in the corporate world. When the Financial Management magazine asked 50 companies how they turned their workers into cohesive, tight-knit units, there was a deluge of similar responses. From web design firms to pork pie makers came tales of survival weekends with the Parachute Regiment and assaults on Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. But why? Does trudging through mud do any good? And aren't there any better options that boost morale and togetherness without requiring office workers to trudge, half frozen, up a mountain? Bruce Renny, founder of mobile software group Rok, sums up the thoughts of many grumbling employees: 'I went on a residential team-building course about six years ago with a previous company - what a fiasco. It ended up with the two teams loathing each other. Claims and counter-claims of cheating were made, people stormed off in a huff, there were injuries on the road-run and, eventually, a big fight afterwards.' Outsourced service provider EDS is one company that's searched high and low for something a little more civilized. Its answer? Playing with Lego. No joke. In fact, the name of this team-building exercise is Lego Serious Play and it's endorsed by such strait-laced organizations as Deloitte, IBM and even HM Treasury. Created by two business professors at IMD business school in Lausanne, it's now offered by dozens of consultancies across Europe and the US. The object of the exercise is to create visual representations of abstract concepts using Lego bricks. Team members might be asked to construct a 3D image of the company's divisions or the reporting structure. When they start scratching their heads and wondering how finance relates to marketing, breakthroughs start occurring. The clients seem impressed. James Johns, of EDS's government industry group, says: 'I'm convinced that we covered more in that one day [of Lego Serious Play] than would have been possible in a week of workshops facilitated by more traditional means.' But the more physically challenging teambuilding experiences have not yet been overshadowed. When the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) wanted to introduce different teams to each other, it booked a day with Go Ape!, a provider of assault courses featuring rope ladders, Tarzan swings and zip slides high in the forest canopy. Brett Shepherd, the RNLI manager in charge of training and development, explains: "The "high ropes" course gets the lifeguards to interact with different teams from different beaches in a non-beach environment. Then we set them a challenge: teams of ten lifeguards have to get everyone safely around the course, plus a 70kg manikin. Including the manikin changes the focus of the task. Instead of simply going around as individuals, the lifeguards must become more interactive. The course improves their ability to work in teams and as leaders. We have nothing but positive feedback from our lifeguards about it.' Nestle, Nokia and Unilever are three of the many blue-chip organizations that keep coming back to Go Ape! for more.Case Study for Group D Workplace cyberbullies The emails were 'hostile and constant'. Jane Allen, a sales representative for a medical company, would spend half a day responding to her boss, defending herself from cruel smears. It got to the point that she would dread checking her inbox for fear of the latest humiliation. I would see an email come in [on my phone] and I'd become physically sick.' With children and a mortgage to pay, Ms. Allen, who does not want to use her real name, felt unable to quit her job. So, she stuck it out until she could find a new position. 'I felt like I was in a battlefield. Always on the defense and the bullets were fired at me.' Ultimately, it affected her ability to sleep, hit her confidence hard and led to depression. Ms. Allen, who is now employed elsewhere and is considering taking her previous employer to court, feels that the emails were a form of cyberbullying, and different from conventional workplace bullying Emails are particularly destructive, she says, as they are there to be read and reread. It meant that Ms. Allen - who depended on her phone to keep in touch with head office and colleagues while out on the road - felt her persecutor was always with her. Researchers typically define workplace cyberbullying as a situation where an individual is repeatedly subjected to perceived negative acts conducted through technology - email, websites, social media - that are related to their work context. Samuel Farley of the Institute of Work Psychology at Sheffield University management school in the UK, is researching the issue. In the UK, the conciliation service Acas elaborates on how this might manifest itself in social media: 'Inappropriate photographs, offensive or threatening comments or sensitive personal information might be posted vindictively. A manager or an employee might be targeted. The victim may, or may not, be aware that they are being bullied.' For example, while they are likely to see a threat that is emailed to them, they may not see comments about them on a social networking site. Gary Namie, a social psychologist and director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in the US, says cyberbullies are often aggressive in a way they never would be face to face: 'Technology makes it so much easier to be hateful and cruel from a distance.' Unlike bullying in person, the fact that we carry our smartphones around with us means that cyberbullies can penetrate the safe havens of people's homes. In some case a cyberbully can be anonymous, unlike in Ms Allen's situation where the perpetrator was clearly traceable. Mr Farley says that technology may exacerbate aggressive behaviour. 'When you work remotely there is a problem of de-individuation - you focus on screens and become less empathetic. It can lead you to send something you wouldn't say to their face.' Nancy Willard, who works in the US on anti-bullying campaigns for children, agrees. 'Technology tends to increase the emotional tenor. There's potentially a greater audience - online, more people might see it.' Many victims suffer in silence, says Mr Farley, because they perceive cyberbullying as an issue affecting younger people in school rather than working adults. Consequently, it may be an under-reported issue in the office. 'No one knows what the levels are,' he adds.The testimony that Financial Management magazine has received from rms suggests that the traditional company teambuilding outdoor exercises aren't quite so bad after all. One event organizer, Zibrant, measured the effects of its participation (employees, clients and suppliers of the firm were all involved) in the three-peaks challenge. This involves scaling the highest mountains in Scotland (Ben Nevis), England (Scafell Pike) and Wales (Snowdon) on consecutive days and the firm made the following observations: 0 There was a reduction in staff turnover from 16 per cent to seven per cent (the industry standard is 22 per cent), which could be directly attributed to employee involvement in the challenge. 0 The event helped the company to develop shared values with its stakeholders. o More than 15 per cent of the employees who took part later asked to join the rm's corporate social responsibility committee. The feedback from employees was pretty encouraging, too: 97 per cent enjoyed the event and said they would take part again; 90 per cent thought that the event was very well organized; and 97 per cent were interested in participating in another charity challenge. ' Words cannot properly describe my sheer delight at being involved in the three-peaks ehallenge,' says one of the company's climbers, Cecilia Curry. \"The months oftraining beforehand were demanding and exhausting but, above all, fun. T he event itself gave its excitement, fear; pride, pain and an \"all in this together\" feeling. The atmosphere and sense of bonding with everyone was something that I will never forget.' The slopes of Scafell Pike won't be falling silent just yet