Measure Bullying's Prevalence: Reason #1

Demonstrating that bullying is a problem in your workplace

Internal champions who have argued persuasively for years that bullying is real always work uphill. They are not believed by the people who control budget decisions. Though the demonstrable facts about the costs of bullying are on the champions' side, the one missing set of data relate to how prevalent bullying actually is. Armed with the statistics, doubt about the value of stopping bullying can be overcome. In a "show me the numbers" world, run the survey so you can provide the evidence.

Measure Bullying's Prevalence: Reason #2

Pre-policy implementation

When your organization commits to creating a policy and set of enforcement procedures (some version of The Work Doctor Blueprint), there is an opportunity to take a baseline reading. In order to gauge the success of the program, there must be a pre-test percentage to which you can compare the post-test percentage. Naturally, you would expect a decrease in the percentage. You can compare your internal prevalence percentage to the national averages of 9% currently bullied and 26% previously bullied (the scientific 2010 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey).

The timing is critical. Measurement should be done before scheduling the Policy Writing task. In the beginning, only a handful of individuals know that the Work Doctor engagement to tackle workplace bullying will happen. Once word spreads (and it will travel at lightning speed), the prevalence estimate may be tainted.

Work Doctor Online Survey Services

Dr. Gary Namie is a veteran survey designer and university instructor of research methods and statistics. We create and host a survey customized for your needs at our private third-party Internet website [workdoctorsurveys.com].

We will guide you through a checklist of key characteristics of bullying so you will be able to describe not only how frequently people are bullied, but who are the perpetrators and what are the tactics employed. In addition, you can assess impact on people and the organization. You choose an unlimited number of variables that can inform your organization.

The service includes collaborative development of the survey, statistical analyses, and a short results report.

The service is complimentary when at least one other Work Doctor Blueprint fee-based service is contracted.