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Abusive Management – Creates Potential Lawsuits

January 23, 2012 By Kari

by Kari Uman

The Supreme Court, in a recent ruling, raised the stakes for organizational liability caused by sexual harassment. Predictably, the talk shows and news shows are buzzing with people giving advice to organizations on how to prevent sexual harassment. However, while sexual harassment definitely needs to be addressed, there is often a seldom-discussed, underlying issue which has the potential for doing even greater damage to organizations: abusive behavior by managers and supervisors.

Having conducted sexual harassment prevention training programs for thousands of people, I am constantly approached during breaks or after the session to discuss other types of abusive behavior employees are being subjected to by their managers and supervisors. Workshop participants want to know whether abusive or bullying behavior such as yelling at employees in private or in front of others, criticizing them in a degrading way, undercutting their work, treating some employees as pets and berating others, etc., is covered under the law.

Unless the behavior is discriminatory based on gender, race, national origin, etc., this type of harassment is not illegal. But illegal or not, employees are ferreting out just enough illegal behavior within these abusive behaviors to make complaints or file lawsuits against their organizations.Often, they do this not to abuse the process, but out of a sense of justice. They want the organization to pay attention to behavior that should be unacceptable in the workplace because it is damaging to the employee’s ability to be productive.

With employees feeling more in demand in this booming economy and the pressures to be more and more productive, employees are less willing to tolerate disrespectful behavior and more willing to make complaints.

Organizations, of course, are required to investigate these complaints, which costs them enormous amounts of time, money and resources. Generally, investigations expose just what is there – little illegal harassment and lots of abusive behavior. It is only at this point ( if at all) that most organizations take action to remedy the behavior. Of course, it is difficult and sometimes frustrating for senior management to pay attention to these issues when it is already stretched thin handling dozens of operational and financial matters. But if it doesn’t, the financial consequences can be enormous and good talent is often lost to better working environments..

To prevent these complaints from occurring in greater and greater numbers, organizations need to be proactive, not reactive. Senior management needs to:

  • create an organizational culture based on respect;
  • model the behavior they want others to follow;
  • monitor the behavior of managers and supervisors, including getting upward feedback from employees; and
  • act quickly to eliminate abusive behavior through coaching, training, mentoring, and/or termination, if necessary.

Your highest producing managers will cost your organization more wealth than they generate if they are abusive.

Aretha Franklin said it best – we all need R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Organizations that don’t follow this guidance and allow abusive behavior by management to continue will suffer the consequences in increased complaints and lawsuits. A little prevention in this case goes a long way.

Filed Under: Articles, Kari Uman, Leader/Follower Relationships Tagged With: abusive, kari uman, lawsuits, management

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Marsha Hughes-Rease - Senior Associate

After fifteen years of coaching and consulting experience and over twenty five years of leadership experience at different organizational levels, Marsha Hughes-Rease partners with senior leaders and managers to address what she calls “swamp issues”, those really messy and complex challenges that can greatly diminish productivity, stakeholder satisfaction, financial performance and personal effectiveness in any organization.

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Ira Chaleff - President

Ira Chaleff is the founder and president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates. He has been named one of the top 100 leadership thinkers by Executive Excellence Magazine. He practices the high-stakes art of helping talented people prepare for and succeed in senior level roles. Whether working in the public sector with Senior Executive Service leaders or in the private sector with CEOs and leadership teams, he brings clarity to core success issues, and provides savvy and supportive guidance in tackling them.

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Beverly Jones - Senior Associate

Beverly Jones helps executives bring new productivity to their organizations, and works with professionals to restructure and re-energize their work lives. Throughout her varied career, Bev has engaged in leadership and change management activities, and today she coaches accomplished professionals and executives who want to become more effective. Bev’s current and recent coaching clients include attorneys, other professionals and small business owners, and also executives with university systems, with a national laboratory, and with a major brokerage firm.

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Mandeep Singh - Senior Associate

Mandeep partners with leaders who want to bring their own vision and passions into service for the world. This necessarily means deep inner work – increasing self-awareness and personal mastery, taking ownership and accountability, and expanding the ability to influence people and networks from within the system. While this may sound like hard work, in practice it tends to be completely natural, energizing, satisfying and fun. “Serious” and “impactful” are not correlated. Mandeep’s natural style is gentle, and his clients and he tend to forge long term, easy, trusted partnerships.

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Rosa Maria Barreiro - Strategic Management & Human Resources Consultant

Rosa María Barreiro is an innovative leader, business strategist and change agent with an extensive background and success in global operating environments throughout the USA and Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Rosa María has repeatedly been recruited to design and execute change management, employee engagement, leadership development and performance improvement initiatives for a wide variety of organizations and companies.

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Kari Uman - Senior Associate

Kari Uman, Senior Associate of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates in Fairfax, VA, has more than twenty-five years’ experience as a coach, consultant, and trainer. Her particular experience and interest in gender issues, and their impact on relationships and performance, enables her to help individuals change behaviors that are undermining their best efforts.

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David Grau - Senior Associate

David Grau is an executive and leadership coach in Bethesda, MD, with an in-depth consulting background in organization development and change management. He has over 17 years of coaching and consulting experience in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors. He has particular abilities in assisting executives in identifying and making maximum and appropriate use of their strengths and identifying their opportunities for increased effectiveness as a leader.

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Emily Barnes - Senior Associate

To organizations and individuals adjusting to recent, current or anticipated change, Emily Barnes brings the strategic focus and competencies gained during fifteen years of diverse experience with various leadership, relationship, performance and communication challenges. A consultant and strategy coach, Ms. Barnes helps clients create and implement new success strategies.

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