Perhaps your organization has some of these cultural dysfunctional signs: lack of teamwork, cultural differences impacting working relationships, poor communication and low productivity. Human resources find themselves embroiled in employee counseling and coaching without making significant impact. The leadership is frustrated that employees don’t just learn to get along and are often ill-equipped or not interested in proactively managing conflict.

What are the options for finding out the extent of the dysfunction and how to fix it? There’s the obvious method of assessing organizational culture with employee surveys. However, to conduct an effective survey, the process can take two to three months. A well designed employee survey will tell you what your employees are thinking if you ask the right questions. Consider using an outside vendor to conduct the employee survey to build trust and maintain employee confidentiality.

There are other methods for assessing the organizational culture. Use an independent consultant that specializes in leadership or organizational development to conduct a series of interviews, discussionS and observations within your organization.

Why should you use an independent consultant for your cultural assessment? There are several reasons this approach is desirable:

1. Human resources and management already have a point of view about the situation. An independent party can help to confirm or shed new light on the cultural dysfunction.
2. Lack of trust is a reason organizations experience cultural dysfunction. It is important to bring someone in who is fair and can build rapport with the management and employees.

How do you select the right leadership or organizational consultant to conduct the assessment? Let’s face it, all consultants are not equal.

Select a consultant with:

• Excellent listening and probing/questioning skills.
• Hands on experience in working with individuals, team and organizations.
• A method that assesses employees and management.
• Grounding in personality, communication and/or behavioral training.
• Experienced in conducting assessments and making recommendations.

With either option – using an employee survey or independent leadership/organizational consultant – expect to hear results that surprise you or you do not agree with. Many employee survey processes provide generic steps you can take to improve your results. A competent consultant is an ongoing resource to help management and employees develop feasible plans.

A technically competent engineer asked if I had seen his promotion announcement to a supervisor on LinkedIn. I had not seen his announcement and congratulated him. He joined the company about eighteen months ago.

In follow-up, I inquired about his pay increase for the promotion. He did not receive a promotional increase because of the company’s ongoing wage freeze – the company told him he would receive an increase later.

He told me he’s been doing the job for a while – there was a need and he stepped up. The company wanted to recognize him so he doesn’t leave and he figures that is why they gave him the promotion.

Now I am going to be blunt with you, just as I was with him. No company should promote an employee and then hold back an increase because of a wage freeze.

Here are the facts:

• When companies hire positions externally, there is no discussion about a wage freeze – candidates are offered the prevailing rate as a new hire. There is no waiting game.
• Promotions deserve all the perks and headaches that go along with it – including pay increases.
• Delayed promotion pay increases become watered down – they are included in yearly increases or the amount is less than would have been offered initially.
• Sometimes companies forget to compensate you.

Regarding wage increases – it is reasonable to apply wage freezes to yearly salary increases or merits, however, that same approach is not appropriate for promotions.

While compensation is not the main reason that an employee will leave an employer, there are two reasons employees do leave their employers:

• A misfit with the company culture
• A poor relationship with their manager

Let’s look at the situation or apply this to your own situation.

How do company or manager’s values impact your view of your workplace?  Do their values shape the culture and work environment?

Why should a company or manager treat outside candidates better than their current employees? Do these actions promote fairness, trust and integrity? How does your company or manager demonstrate these values?

If you have another opinion, let’s hear it.

Before I get a slew of comments about being a Grinch or not caring, hear me out. Gift giving in organizations or among groups is one of those Elephants at Work or in the room and it makes some people uneasy. I will give you an example and give some tips on how to give gifts without making others feel badly.

Many organizations have a no solicitation policy for the same reason – people do not want to be pressured (peer or otherwise) into giving to a charity, cause or side business at work.

I will bet that the same feelings about gift giving extend inside and outside of work. Here’s an example:

Recently someone collected money from a group of people as a going away present to an instructor. One person stepped up to head up the gift idea even though there was not complete agreement on what the group wanted to do.

There was good reason why there was a difference of opinion – each person had a different experience with the person.

Recognize that relationships are different.

Each person in the group had varying degrees of contact with the person leaving. Some of them had family ties, others worked the person more extensively over a year and the third group had less frequent contact.

It is reasonable to think that the people who had more personal or professional contact with the person may want to do something, the group with minimal contact may think differently.

Don’t suggest a dollar amount.

If you are going to ask a group of people to contribute to a gift, don’t suggest a dollar amount. When you do that, there is overt and subtle pressure being exerted to the individuals in the group.

If you are going to collect money, one of the best ways to do it is anonymously. Pass an envelope around (ideally not publically) and let people put in whatever amount of money they want to contribute – even if it is a dollar.

No one will know what amount was submitted and it lets people evaluate if they want to contribute or at what level they want to contribute without any peer pressure. To ensure that everyone has had a chance to participate, each person signs their name on the envelope, regardless if they if they contributed or not.

Be consistent on gift-giving.

One of the biggest complaints is that gift giving is not fairly done. To be blunt, it’s easy to organize something for one of your favorite people or initiatives; it is far more difficult to do the same for someone or something where you relationship is not as strong.

If you do not plan to be consistent (and that does not mean letting someone else take the responsibility next time) then give gifts privately.

Give gifts privately vs. publicly

You can bet you will see the elephant pop up when gifts are given publicly and not everyone has participated in doing it. While it may be more difficult to orchestrate, give your gift privately with the people who participated in giving the gift. There’s no reason to rub your actions in other people’s faces.

Gift giving when done appropriately and with everyone’s best interests feels good and let’s those elephants play somewhere else.

Bullying by bosses in the workplace exists. Today, we’ll discuss how to know if your boss is bullying you or a co-worker in a team or group setting and what you can do about it.

What does Bullying look like?

If you were to ask someone if they know what bullying looks like, you might get a wide number of examples. However, bullying can be difficult to define.

Here are some situations where your boss’s actions may in fact be bullying. Your boss:

• Ignores your suggestions or ideas.
• Ridicules or makes you a butt of their jokes.
• Takes enjoyment in embarrassing you in front other peers or co-workers.
• Puts you on a more aggressive timetable or performance standard than others doing similar work. (Note: there will be occasions when this is acceptable, especially in a performance improvement situation.)

 Open Bullying Example

When bullying is done in the open especially in a group setting, it is often easy to identify by all the team members. It becomes very obvious that someone is being excluded.

For example, if your ideas or suggestions are being ignored and other members of the team are receiving recognition for their ideas you may feel hurt. Before you jump to the conclusion that you are being bullied, here are some questions to ask yourself:

1.  Are there a number of ideas being suggested and only yours is being excluded or did your boss narrow all the choices down to one? If your boss is making an executive decision on what option to go with, that is not bullying.
2. If one idea is being debated or flushed out, are your suggestions being acknowledged or incorporated? While it is not a requirement that your suggestions be incorporated, your boss should be acknowledging your suggestions. If your boss fails to recognize the team and your contributions consistently, you may have a boss who has poor management skills vs. being a bully.
3. During the conversation, is your boss making comments that would imply your suggestions are not welcome? How are the other team members reacting to those comments? Do you see other people cringe when s/he says something to you? Are the comments isolated to you or does your boss make the same comments to other team members?
4. Does anyone independently approach you privately after the meeting to comment on the boss’s behavior toward you? If a team member is embarrassed by the boss’s behavior, s/he wants a way to disengage himself with that bad behavior.

 What can you do about a Bully Boss?

I’ll be upfront. What we are going to talk about is the toughest part. Confronting or talking to a bully boss is not easy to do. Here are some tips that will help you figure out the best approach. Each situation is unique; some of the tips may not be appropriate. If you feel at a loss of what to do, seek out a professional to help you develop a game plan.

Document all conversations and behaviors. When you are ready to approach your boss, Human Resources or management, you will need to have your facts in hand.

1. Bring up the behavior or situation early before your emotions take over or you get hurt too badly. Approach your boss directly with facts about how the situation affected your ability to do your best work for him or her. Ask them if you could do something different to get a better response from them. Avoid personal attacks.
2. Do NOT discuss the situation when you are emotional unless you have no choice. Even if management has seen something or approaches you when you are in a vulnerable or emotional state, ask if the meeting can be postponed so that you can collect yourself. You do not have tell them this is the reason, simply tell them your notes are at home and you want to be ready and would like to discuss it the next day.
3. Determine if your co-workers will verify your facts or share their private conversations with management. Do not be surprised if they decide decline to help you – they may feel vulnerable too.
4. If the boss is targeting more than one person you may find approaching management or Human Resources together works better.
5. If Human Resources or management determines that your boss is not being a bully but has some management style deficiencies, be open to helping your boss improve their style.
6. If you are unable to tolerate your boss’s behavior and the organization doesn’t address the situation to your satisfaction, it’s time to evaluate if you are in the right organization.

For more resources, here are a few other articles for reference:

1. WHAM 1180 Radio Clips: Office bullying, gossiping and social boundaries explored
2. Office bully forces you to leave your organization
3. Cyber Bullying is the new Workplace Harassment

The circle of work harassment continues to get wider each day – cyber-bullying is making its way into organizations and not everyone is prepared to handle it.

Not too long ago, harassment cases that Human Resources or managers dealt with were verbal or physical harassment that occurred during working hours and on work premises. After a while, location became less of a factor and harassment cases included employees dealing with vendors or suppliers offsite or other company sponsored events.

Today the scope of harassment broadens as the world becomes more global and technology pushes our reach to…cyberspace.

That’s right, cyber-bullying falls under the workplace harassment umbrella and it has major implications for employers and employees.

“Cyber-bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others.” -Bill Belsey

Isn’t cyber-bullying limited to children?

Unfortunately no. Once thought limited to children, the same type of behavior is found in adult communication and may be called cyber-stalking or cyber-harassment.

Where do you find cyber-bullying?

Examples of information and communications technologies include e-mail, discussion forums, chat rooms, instant messaging, text messaging, webpages, blogs and other social media venues.

What is cyber-bullying?

A rule of thumb, if the behavior threatens the person’s earnings, employment, reputation or safety, cyber-bullying needs to be addressed.

How do employees limit their risk?

In an ideal world, I would just tell you to be a responsible adult; however, sometimes anger gets the best of us. Before you know it you may have done something stupid to someone else or your company. Let’s be clear, these are actions you should not do:

• Send threatening e-mails or messages
• Orchestrate a campaign to bombard your target with unwanted e-mails or messages
• Engage or encourage others to make negative comments in a public forum or chat room
• Leave negative or abusive comments on blogs
• Impersonating the person or company to set them up for negative feedback
• Setting up a blog or post to defame someone or the company

When in doubt, don’t do it. Figure out a different way to let off your steam in private.

If you are a victim of cyber-bullying, gather your facts and evidence and contact your Human Resources department or the company CEO.

How do employers limit their risk?

Fundamentally, cyber-bullying is an extension of a company’s culture. How companies handle their company reputation and how employees act with one another does extend the normal work day.

Employers basically have two choices. Try to mitigate the risk or react to the threat.

When employers choose to react to the threat, they play the waiting game, hoping that something doesn’t happen. Sometimes the size of the organization gives the employer a sense of control – after all we are a family, what could go wrong?

If you think about it, those are the situations where things can become more volatile because you know each other better and frankly, you know what buttons to push.

Employers who try to mitigate risk have two approaches. The first is to over control the situation by setting rules that prevent employees from engaging in social media or other cyberspace communications. This often backfires because employees feel their personal rights are being violated. For example, I have heard instances of companies telling their employees not to use LinkedIn or Facebook.

The second approach is to be proactive about social media and cyber space communications with your employees. Companies pioneering this approach encourage employees to tweet, Facebook or write comments on blogs that promote the company’s image – with guidance.

Develop a program that teaches employees the – who, what, how, when and why of social media practices. Train every employee on the principles and embed it into your marketing strategy.

When employees feel trusted and engaged, the majority step up and the bad apples will become glaringly clear. That’s when companies step in to deal with the problem and employees know it’s a great place to work.

This is a story of Alice. She is an assistant retail store manager and she has a handicap. Alice has multiple sclerosis (MS). Her disability is not clear even though she has had it for many years. She fights it daily and she tries not to let it show.

If you looked at Alice you would see a fit woman in her late 40′s. Staying healthy by working out – this is one of the ways she has kept the disease from progressing more rapidly. She knows that stress is a trigger and her workout schedule helps to reduce stress in her life.

Some of the symptoms of multiple sclerosis are not always blaring to the casual observer. Because Alice has had this disease for a while, she knows how to cover it up.

If Alice becomes stressed or overtired, the symptoms rear their ugly head – she may lose coordination or stumble, experience cognitive confusion or battle speech problems.

To her boss or co-worker, these symptoms signal a performance issue even though her disability has been documented. It is easy to forget about disabilities especially if they are not clearly evident every day. The easiest disabilities to remember are physical disabilities. It’s hard to ignore what you can see.

The toughest disabilities have symptoms that are subtle, sporadic or manifest themselves cognitively. Sometimes it is not clear if the disability is causing the behavior or if your co-worker is a bad performer. The fact is disabilities create limitations and no matter what you think someone can do, they may not be able to do it or do it as well as you.

So what can you do to help a co-worker that has a disability? As discussed earlier, stress reduction is one of the triggers and there are some things you can do to help reduce stress for someone with a disability.

The natural assumption is that stress is self-imposed. Consider this – stress is also caused by other people and their biases.

People close to Alice cause stress every day and they probably don’t realize it. A majority of workplace stress is initiated by her management and her co-workers in their day-to-day interactions.

Here are some situations that cause workplace stress:

• Weight restrictions are ignored
• Training fails to accommodate cognitive or physical limitations
• Use of the handicapped parking space is challenged despite a state approved disability license plate
• Work schedule fails to give adequate rest time between shifts
• Disability related behaviors are criticized – openly or privately
• Poor performance becomes the main focus of disability related behaviors

Here’s the reality. What her co-workers and management do not see is that she collapses when she gets home. It takes a lot of energy and focus to stay positive and do her best at work. Every day she faces workplace stress because her co-workers do not see her disability and assume she can do what they do naturally.

Alice hears non-supportive comments about her disability through the gossip and workplace grapevine. The comments are hurtful. Instead of her boss and co-workers trying to help her, she feels like she’s fighting a workplace battle every day.

It’s enough to deal with her disability privately and she tries not to call attention to herself. Alice does not complain she simply wants to be treated fairly. Being treated fairly does not mean she expects to be treated equally because she will never be on an equal playing field with the healthy.