The University of South Australia has developed a diagnostic and response solution to workplace bullying, following a study which indicated that Australian workplaces are home to some of the worst workplace bullying in the developed world.
Compared to 31 other European countries Australia ranked sixth highest in the study.
Around 10% of Australian employees admit to being bullied at work, however it is suspected that this number is much higher as workplace bullying often goes unreported.
In response to these findings, the University of South Australia developed a solution to the problem by analysing 342 documented complaints filed with SafeWork SA.
Lead researcher associate professor Michelle Tuckey said that workplace bullying is often the result of the workplace's culture.
"Workplace bullying is often mistaken as a problem between staff members, an interpersonal problem, when evidence shows it’s really a reflection of how the organisation functions.
"It’s a cultural issue, a systems issue – if you have a healthy culture and healthy systems, then you don't get a lot of bullying, but if you don't have that culture and those systems, bullying is more common," she said.
Following the analysis, Professor Tuckey and her team found that to address the issue, it needed to be treated in the same way any other workplace health and safety issue would be.
"We're taking a safety risk management framework and treating bullying as a work health and safety hazard, following the normal risk management approach, which is to identify hazards, assess the level of risk, implement risk controls, and then monitor and evaluate.
"We analysed about 5500 pages of information to learn what's going on in the culture and the work systems when people feel mistreated.
"Then we turned that into a survey-based measurement tool with 10 different domains used to deliver a score predictive of a broad range of work health and safety outcomes, including exposure to bullying.
"The diagnostic tool shows an organisation where they should focus their efforts and prioritise their resources.
"Many organisations already have policies, training and complaint systems in place; our tool complements those structures to prevent bullying behaviour," she said.
Workplace bullying is estimated to cost Australia $36 billion per annum.