Team cohesion and workplace bullies

Workspaces survive as difficult places to navigate and thrive even in the best of times. Gathering groups of independent confident adults together to form teams that must work cohesively towards common goals and outcomes does not always result in success.

Unfortunately, as we add in the uncertainty, fear, and strategic planning swirling around the Covid-19 pandemic and economic fallout, then we see greater conflict and clashes now occurring in workgroups throughout Kenya.

Amanuel Tekleab, Narda Quigley and Paul Tesluk studied team cohesion and conflict over four-month periods at different stages.

The presence or absence of task conflicts, like disagreements about what to do or how to do it, or relationship conflicts, such as interpersonal tension and friction, had no relationship with better team cohesion at all.

Meaning, short-term project teams can tolerate various levels and frequencies of conflict. Conflict stands as a natural part of the human experience.

So, the quantity of work team conflict does not matter, but rather the way conflict is handled when it does arise matters greatly. If teams actively address conflicts when they do surface and seek to resolve them quickly and robustly, then there is a dramatically higher relationship to team cohesion.

The boosted team cohesion then has a direct relationship on that team’s performance.

Projects get done on time with deeper results. On the flip side, if teams ignore conflict and do not address it as it happens, then team cohesiveness drops precipitously with corresponding striking drops in team performance, team viability and the satisfaction of team members.

But given this important evidence, do most team members or managers address conflict swiftly?

Too often the resounding answer is no. When conflict gets left unresolved, then it can simmer along for days, weeks, and months as it festers creating deep permanent wounds whereby the only solution might entail one day disbanding the entire team.

The commensurate void can leave a way to workplace bullies exerting selfish behaviours to get what they want amidst the ensuing chaos.

Jian Yeow, Tee Chin, Poh Ng, and Woon Yong detail that work stresses, bad behaviour, and interpersonal unresolved conflict are key drivers of office bullying.

Bullying subsides as either deliberate and intentional by the tormenter or unconsciously negative and oppressive by the bully through repetitive continual actions focused on a coworker or team that can lead to heightened team stress, humiliation, offence, and lower job performance.

Author Aryanne Oade encourages employees dealing with a bullying colleague to literally call upon their “personal power” to retain their sanity and job performance.

She argues that when colleagues or even one’s own boss bullies them, an employee must remain in charge of their workplace values, choices, conduct, decisions, actions, deliverables, and behaviour.

Be polite and courteous, but do not compromise who you are at your core. Decide where your line in the sand is, you are essentially defining your no-go zone where you will not cross and compromise.

Maybe the bully demands you to pitch to an unworthy customer, falsify figures or statements, sign a document that you do not believe in, or join an informal workplace coalition.

The bully may bluster and threaten, but bullies often do not follow through and find it difficult to overcome someone who stands on their principles.

From a supervisory perspective, Aryanne Oade recommends a multi-pronged approach to managing bullies. First, do not fear confronting the aggressor. Most managers do not act proactively and hope instead that situations will resolve themselves.

Sadly, delaying to act on conflict and team bullies destroys team cohesion and team performance. Act early. Do not wait. Otherwise, the bully can even turn the eventual narrative against you as their supervisor.

Second, detail your actual firsthand observations of when that staff member bullied or intimidated other workers. Write these down in a non-emotional factual style.

Third, privately interview those who you suspect have been tormented by the individual. Some will agree and others will be too fearful even for a confidential interview, so approach such workers with tact and sensitivity. Write down specific occurrences from the victim perspective.

Fourth, hold a meeting with the workplace bully reporting to you. Make the meeting factual citing the specific examples you gathered in steps two and three. Reference how such behaviour can lower team performance and is explicitly against your organisational policies.

Fifth, ask the bully for their reactions to the firsthand and secondhand examples. Expect them to create smoke and misdirection accompanied by excuses. Stay firm with an even tone trying to arrive at an agreement for improved future behaviour.

Sixth, you decide when to end the meeting. If it gets too heated, you should end it early. Then record minutes of what transpired in the meeting and document the specific examples. Seventh, do not be afraid to terminate a team intimidator.

The short-term inconvenience of paperwork and complaining by going through the separation process is a lower pain point than letting the bully continue to decimate a team. Be brave.

Both short and long-term team and organisational benefits point to immediately solving team conflict and remediating or terminating bullies.

Dr Scott may be reached on [email protected] or on Twitter: @ScottProfessor