NSU Horizons Fall 2011

8 horizons Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Workplace bullies—people who belittle, humiliate, and threaten their co-workers—cost organizations billions of dollars a year,” she said. “In the workplace, bullying is a form of psycho- logical violence, yet businesses are struggling to recognize and alleviate this problem.” Georgakopoulos remembers four men at a multinational engineering business who sought the expertise of NSU’s Conflict Resolution department. “The men needed help with their man- ager. One of them contacted me and asked if he could meet with me. He said that he and his team were reluctant to expose the bully to their company because she was a pregnant female. They felt like they were going to look like cowards if they reported her,” said Georgakopoulos. To most people, the pregnant man- ager wouldn’t seem to be a bully, but “what people don’t understand is that there are many types of bullies and many ways to bully,” she said. Her research goes a step further, aiming to get to the root causes of workplace bullying. “The research showed that, in some cases, it’s not just one person, it’s larger than that—the organization may be promoting a culture that culti- vates bullying. Are we actually giving managers a license to put fear and bullying in the climate and culture to get the performance and productivity?” As for the engineers mentioned earlier, Georgakopoulous advised them to get a mediator. Six months later, the company’s management finally took the group’s complaint seriously. The manag- er eventually left her job, and the men soon left, too. “Ultimately everyone left because of the disruption of the entire incident,” she said. “And the organiza- tion ultimately paid the price as it lost its highly trained and specialized work- force. The organization pays the cost when bullying is ignored and no formal interventions and policies are in place.” Today, there is little legal recourse regarding workplace bullying, drawing comparisons to the sexual harassment issue prevalent in companies 20 years ago, according to the researcher. “Awareness ultimately can incite change,” said Georgakopoulous. “Whenever you have a problem, you need to find out what the causes are, and what the solutions might be. I think what we are all doing here is to help raise awareness about bullying in all its forms. Our job as researchers is to help those who have the power to do something about it, to find solutions. Bullying is not going to go away. This is a complex, contemporary social problem, and it’s here to stay, until organizations develop formal interventions, policies, and bullying prevention training programs.” n NSU On-Campus Initiatives Last October, NSU’s Criminal Law Society, along with the American Bar Association, presented the Juvenile Violence Sympo- sium, “Blueprint for Change.” The public was invited, and the legal community received continuing legal education credits for attending. For information, call (954) 262-6100 or 800-986-6529. Bullying is one focus of NSU’s Office of Suicide and Violence Prevention, devel- oped to support crisis prevention efforts. The group received the Campus Suicide Prevention Grant Award by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration in 2009. The three-year grant is an annual award of $100,000, which NSU matches each year. For more information, visit www.nova.edu/suicideprevention . The Lambda United Law Society, the Student Coalition for Human Rights, the Undergraduate Student Government Association, the Gay Straight Alliance of the Center for Psychological Studies, the Gay Straight Student Association, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs all work to ensure that no member of the NSU community is subjected to harassment or any other form of bullying. For more information, call (954) 380-2119.