AN ASSESSMENT OF WORKPLACE BULLYING PRACTICE AND ITS EFFECTS TO TEACHER PERFORMANCE

AN ASSESSMENT OF WORKPLACE BULLYING PRACTICE AND ITS EFFECTS TO TEACHER PERFORMANCE
 
ABSTRACT
Workplace bullying has become a problem that is too costly to ignore. Many studies indicate that workplace bullying leads to pain, mental distress, physical illness, emotional harm, and career damage. The focus of this study on workplace bullying provides an opportunity to understand workplace bullying practice and its effect to Teacher’s performance in Tanzania.  A case study of selected secondary School at Temeke Municipality. The study sample comprised of 80 respondents.  Closed questionnaire data which were collected through questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS using descriptive analysis. Data which were collected through interview method were analysed by content analysis. The respondents were sampled using simple random and purposive sampling technique. The findings indicate that bullying practice is very common in education system. The findings indicate that teachers are bullied in the form of delaying their payment, promotion, delay of release to study and inappropriate special duty among teachers. The study recommends to reviewing the Human Resources structure and leadership especially at regional and district level. There should be regular training, workshops and seminars to train education officials on the effect of workplace bullying to the development of education. The framework for an external expert panel to investigate serious allegations of bullying and harassment among teachers should be developed. Teachers should be awarded according to their acknowledge and contribution in education development. Teachers should be promoted and paid their arrears on time.
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1       Introduction
This chapter presents background information of the problem, state research problem, state general and specific objectives of the study. Also, the study describes research questions, theoretical framework of the study, significance and scope of the study.
1.2       Background of Research Problem
Workplace bullying is a problem and is an important organizational and social concern. Workplace aggression is not new. The evidence on bullying behavior and its relationship between bullying behavior and employees’ performance needs further investigation. Lutgen-Sandvik (2005) contents that workplace bullying is a pattern of persistent, malicious, insulting, or exclusionary intentional or non-intentional behaviors that a target perceives as intentional efforts to harm, control, or drive a coworker from the workplace. 
Developing rules and legislation against workplace bullying is difficult. A target must prove the bullying occurred and the target’s subsequent problems originated from a bully’s behavior. Several European countries have strong public awareness and government-funded research and have implemented general preventive actions against workplace bullying, including establishing anti-bullying legislation. By 2006, only five states in the United States had pending legislation against workplace bullying, and no state had passed laws against it. Many states have general laws against harassment, although charges of harassment are difficult to prove. In some states workplace bullying could be addressed with existing laws that address behavior leading to a hostile work environment (Oade, 2009).
Needham (2003) argues that workplace bullying is difficult to contain because the harassment usually takes place covertly, many times out of sight of supervisors and coworkers. Bullying and general harassment are far more prevalent than other destructive behaviors covered by legislation, such as sexual harassment and racial discrimination (Namie, 2006). Bullies are costly to employers.