1

L E C T U R E S L I D E S A R E N O T N O T E S

Lecture slides are designed to be visual aids for the live presentation. Reading them cannot substitute for attending the lecture or listening to recordings. Sometimes concepts and ideas presented are then critiqued

and challenged during lectures.

1

2

P R O J E C T : F U T U R E

Dr Helena Liu

2 1 8 8 9

Week 5 — Organisational Violence

2

3

HOW ARE YOU? Four weeks into the session, now is a good time to reflect on how you are feeling in the subject. If you are concerned about your progress,

please come and speak to me or your tutor after class.

3

4

SEEK HELP UTS COUNSELLING SERVICE

Building 1 (the Tower) Level 6

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

student.services@uts.edu.au

Tel: +61 2 9514 1177

http://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/health-and-

wellbeing/counselling-service-and-self-help/contact-us

4

5

Last week in this subject, we explored the

interrelatedness between society, culture

and identity. This provided the first step

towards a sociological understanding of

human resource management on which

the subject is built.

REVIEW

5

6

REVIEW A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE This subject will ask you to see the general in the particular and the

strange in the familiar (Berger, 1963).

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURES Complex, inaccessible, fuzzy, holistic sets of processes that change over

time.

INTERLOCKING SYSTEMS OF POWER Most societies in the ‘West’ are underpinned by four systems of power:

imperialism; white supremacy; capitalism and patriarchy (hooks, 2003,

2009).

IDENTITY Our senses of self are constructed through ongoing processes of

identity work, shaped by sociocultural contexts.

6

7

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ REVIEW

7

11

ORGANISATIONAL VIOLENCE Art includes ‘End of Days’ by Cleon Peterson (2014) and ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ by Artemisia

Gentileschi (c. 1620)

11

12

AGENDA Organisational violence

• What do we mean by ‘violence’?

• How does violence manifest in organisations?

• What are the aspects and forms of workplace

bullying?

• How is human resource management implicated

in violence?

• What are microaggressions?

12

13

TRIGGER WARNING This lecture deals with issues of interpersonal and systemic violence, including bullying, assault and harm towards marginalised groups.

13

14

V I O L E N C E S E C T I O N

14

15

Violence is not just limited to acts of

physical harm, but harm against both body

and psyche, including assaults on others’

dignity, identity and representation (Hearn,

2003; Linstead, 1997; Westwood, 2003).

VIOLENCE

15

16

VIOLENCE A Lasting Impression Violence occurs between and through flesh, and often

manifests through bodily emotions such as shame, guilt,

anxiety and anger and bodily signals such as blushing and

trembling (Bourdieu, 2004). Violence also tends to leave a

persistent mark (Westwood, 2003) and can sometimes see the

victim perpetuate those violent behaviours (Linstead, 1997).

16

17

EVERYDAY AND ORDINARY Violence in organisations can be subtle and insidious as well as dramatic. The severity of violence is not the point. The point is that violence is often

mundane and taken-for-granted in organisations.

(Liu and Pechenkina, 2019; Westwood, 2003)

17

18

Violence can even be sentimentalised

through schemes of domination, when

victims of violence accept the harm done to

them and even unwittingly or unwillingly

become complicit (Bourdieu, 2004).

SENTIMENTAL

18

19

SYSTEMIC When violence is supported by formal organisational

structures, the responsibility for the abuse is placed on the

victim, where the violence is constructed as a necessary and

inevitable part of organisational life (see Harrington, Warren

and Rayner, 2013).

In effect, victims are denied the right to define and therefore

resist the violence (Linstead, 1997).

19

20

W O R K P L A C E B U L LY I N G

S E C T I O N

20

21

BULLYING Incivility refers to low intensity behaviours such as sending demeaning

emails, making unfounded accusations, and ignoring a colleague’s

request, typically with ambiguous intent.

Bullying, more specifically, is “a form of interpersonal aggression intended

to harm another person” (Vickers, 2007, p. 228).

When bullying and incivility become systemic, organisations develop a

‘toxic’ environment, which may be characterised by:

• Frequent invasions of privacy

• A high degree of secrecy

• More demands and less support

• Threats and abusive language

• Lack of consideration of employees’ dignity

(Johnson and Indvik, 1996; Powell, 1998)

In Vickers’ (2007) case, the bullying of her manager contributed to a toxic environment, which in turn allowed the violence to be tolerated, trivialised and dismissed, even becoming accepted and acceptable over time.

21

22

WHY BULLY? For bullies, dominating the target is an accomplishment, a way of demonstrating power to themselves and others (Vickers, 2007).

22

23

SEXUAL HARASSMENT When violence is inflected through patriarchy, sexual

harassment and assault can often manifest in the

workplace. Sexual harassment defined as “any

unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour, which

makes a person feel offended, humiliated or

intimidated” (see Sex Discrimination Act 1984), but

can be ambiguous in practice. Generally involves two

sets of behaviours:

1. Quid pro quo

2. Hostile environment

In the latter, perpetrators often taken advantage of a

culture of fear to silence targets and witnesses of their

abusive behaviour.

While vulnerable women are most frequently the

targets of sexual violence, other groups can also find

themselves as targets (Mclaughlin, Uggen and

Blackstone, 2012).

23

24

TARGETS For the targets, bullying is a traumatic event (Hutchinson et al.,

2005). For Vickers (2007), she experienced both physical and

psychological effects to her bullying.

It can also prompt a shift in identity, for example, from

someone who may consider themselves trusting, confident

and friendly to being secretive, fearful and cautious.

24

25

WITNESSES Being a witness to workplace bullying and violence

can also be distressing and traumatic. Salin and

Notelaers’ (2018) study suggests that bystanders are

prompted to re-evaluate their relationship with the

organisation itself. Specifically, their attitudes to work

change around job satisfaction, organisational

commitment, and turnover intentions. Bullying is

thus not merely an interpersonal phenomenon.

In the case of homophobic exchanges in particular,

Willis (2012) found that young LGBTQ+ bystanders

experienced pain and stress in the workplace. Willis

(2012) reminds us that victims and witnesses cannot

be homogenised as ‘passive victims’.

Bullying, however, can be very subtle. Subtle forms of

bullying can be more readily rationalised and

internalised, especially when the perpetrator is

powerful (Al-Karim, 2013).

25

26

BULLYING AND HRM RESPONSIBILITY

The majority of reports claim managers as the bully.

Organisational policies usually put bullying in the remit of

HRM who play “a critical role in identifying, preventing and

resolving bullying in organisations”, they their responses are

often seen as inconsistent with policy, including “inaction,

denial, target-blaming or management complicity”

(Harrington, Warren and Rayner, 2015, p. 370).

RESPONSES BY HR

Manager-to-employee bullying claims constructed within a

performance management discourse. Interpretive

mechanisms allowed HR staff to rationalise violent

managerial behaviours. Potential bullying is repackaged as

‘inappropriate management’ so that HR staff can construct

their own identities as valued experts and business partners

(Harrington, Warren and Rayner, 2015).

26

27

M I C R O A G G R E S S I O N S S E C T I O N

27

28

Microaggressions are everyday verbal,

nonverbal and environmental slights, snubs,

or insults, whether intentional or

unintentional, which communicate hostile,

derogatory or negative messages to the

target based on their marginalised group

membership (Pierce, 1974).

MICRO- AGGRESSIONS

For Week 5, the pre-tutorial activity requires you to write about microaggressions. To help you better understand this theory and provide some concrete examples of microaggressions, you can read these two articles by Dr Derald Wing Sue: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/microaggressions-in- everyday-life/201010/racial-microaggressions-in-everyday-life and https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/microaggressions-in- everyday-life/201011/microaggressions-more-just-race.

28

29

MICROAGGRESSIONS THEORY ORIGINATED IN RACISM

Psychologist Chester Pierce (1974) defined

microaggressions specifically in the context of racism.

Verbal examples include racial slurs and epithets, as well as

more covert discourses such as linguistic mockery and

appropriation (Hill, 2009). Nonverbal signals include when

people exhibit nervousness around Black people (Feagin,

2013).

Psychologists now accept that other marginalised groups

(e.g., people identifying as LGBTQ+) can also experience

microaggressions.

Microaggressions take a physical and psychological toll on

their targets (Deitch et al., 2003).

REPRESENTATIONS

Verbal descriptions as well as visual imagery of marginalised

people can be microaggressive (Liu and Pechenkina, 2016;

Pérez Huber and Solórzano, 2015).

29

30

WEEK 6 Diversities and their Backlash

Navigating our differences in organisations

and society

Read the required readings, attend the

lecture and tutorial.

NEXT WEEK

30

31

REFERENCES VIOLENCE

Bourdieu, P. (2004), ‘Gender and symbolic violence’, in N. Scheper-Hughes and P. I. Bourgois (eds), Violence In War and Peace: An Anthology, Malden: Blackwell, pp. 339–342.

Hearn, J. (1994), ‘The organization(s) of violence: Men, gender relations, organizations and violences’, Human Relations, 47(6), pp. 731–754.

Hearn, J. (2003), ‘Organization violations in practice: A case study in a university setting’, Culture and Organization, 9(4), pp. 253–273.

Johnson, P.R. and Indvik, J. (1996), ‘Stress and violence in the workplace’, Employee Counselling Today, 8(1), pp. 19– 24.

Linstead, S. (1997), ‘Abjection and organization: Men, violence, and management’, Human Relations, 50(9), pp. 1115– 1145.

Liu, H. and Pechenkina, E. (2019), ‘Innovation-by-numbers: An autoethnography of innovation as violence’, Culture & Organization, 25(3), pp. 178–188.

Powell, G.N. (1998), ‘The abusive organisation’, Academy of Management Executive, 12(2), pp. 95–96.

Westwood, R. (2003), ‘Economies of violence: An autobiographical account’, Culture and Organization, 9(4), pp. 275–293.

31

32

REFERENCES WORKPLACE BULLYING AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Al-Karim, S. (2013), ‘“Is this bullying?” Understanding target and witness reactions’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(3), pp. 290–305.

* Harrington, S., Warren, S. and Rayner, C. (2013), ‘Human Resource Management practitioners’ responses to workplace bullying: Cycles of symbolic violence’, Organization, 22(3), pp. 368–389.

Hunt, C.M., Davidson, M.J., Fielden, S.L. and Hoel, H. (2010), ‘Reviewing sexual harassment in the workplace – an intervention model’, Personnel Review, 39(5), pp. 655–673.

Hutchinson, M., Vickers, M.H., Jackson, D. and Wilkes, L. (2005), ‘“I’m gonna do what I wanna do!”: Organisational change as a vehicle for bullies’, Health Care Management Review, 30(4), pp. 331–338.

Mclaughlin, H., Uggen, C. and Blackstone, A. (2012), ‘Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power’, American Sociological Review, 77(4), pp. 625–647.

Salin, D. and Notelaers. G. (2018), ‘The effects of workplace bullying on witnesses: Violation of the psychological contract as an explanatory mechanism?’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp. 1–21.

* Vickers, M.H. (2007), ‘Autoethnography as sensemaking: A story of bullying’, Culture and Organization, 13(3), pp. 223–237.

* = the required readings of the topic

32

33

REFERENCES MICROAGGRESSION AND RACISM

Deitch, E.A., Barsky, A., Butz, R.M., Chan, S., Brief, A.P. and Bradley, J.C. (2003), ‘Subtle yet significant: The existence and impact of everyday racial discrimination in the workplace’, Human Relations, 56(11), pp. 1299–1324.

Hill, J.H. (2009), The Everyday Language of White Racism, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Liu, H. and Pechenkina, E. (2016), ‘Staying quiet or rocking the boat? An autoethnography of organisational visual white supremacy’, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(3), pp. 186–204.

Pérez Huber, L. and Solórzano, D.G. (2015), ‘Visualizing everyday racism: Critical race theory, visual microaggressions, and the historical image of Mexican banditry’, Qualitative Inquiry, 21(3), pp. 223–238.

Pierce, C. (1974), ‘Psychiatric problems of the black minority’, in S. Arieti (ed), American Handbook of Psychiatry, New York: Basic Books, pp. 512–523.

Willis, P. (2012), ‘Witnesses on the periphery: Young lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer employees witnessing homophobic exchanges in Australian workplaces’, Human Relations, 65(12), pp. 1589–1610.

33

34

COPYRIGHT Please remember that teaching materials and resources

provided to you at UTS are protected by copyright.

You are not permitted to re-use those for commercial purposes

(including in kind benefit or gain) without permission of the

copyright owner.

Improper or illegal use of teaching materials may lead to

prosecution for copyright infringement.

For further information on UTS copyright for students and

researchers see http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/about-us/policies-

guidelines/copyright-and-uts/copyright-students-and-

researchers

34