Trade Unionism in the United Kingdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Trade Unionism in the United Kingdom - Essay Example This paper looks into the status of trade unionism in the United Kingdom from a cross-section of reports of trade unionists themselves who are also authorities on the subject, with some inputs of a unionist from a neighbouring union. All of them accept trade unionism in UK is declining but each qualifies what he means by "decline." Monks 6, however, is more of being non-committal about declination. Much categorical about UK unionism declination are Hyman7 and Gall,8 with the first at least hopeful for unions reclaiming a positive climb, and the latter more or less seeing a dim future for the unions. Finally, this paper looks into the possible role of UK trade unionism in employee relations. Decline of UK Trade unionism is perceived from many angles. If it were on terminal decline it would mean it is tapering off, concluding, finishing, and ending. Therefore, memberships in unions are expected to fall. As a manifestation of its terminal declination, unions would have no power at all, for example, in collective bargaining. With employers, they would have no political teeth to negotiate for better management practices. As presented from several reports on UK trade unionism, however, the end is not yet for the British unions although decline is more or less accepted as discussed in the following - Richard Hyman (2004).9 Hyman is professor of Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics. His main research interests are trade unions and industrial conflict. The author of many books on trade unionism, Hyman locates decline in the trade unions in strength and militancy. Among the sources mentioned here, it is Hyman who strongly states that the trade unions have indeed declined. Yet, hopeful as he is, he declares that unions can recapture misplaced identification of the worker with new world and new futures back to the union by being knowledgeable in the battle for ideas. He then proposes concepts which he declares are the strength of contemporary personnel managers that trade unions should begin to exploit. Gregor Gall (2005).10 Gall, a member of the Scottish Socialist Party and Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Hertfordshire says the contemporary decline of trade unionism in Britain is in the membership, bargaining power and political influence. Going beyond Hyman11 who sets his statements with a question mark, he is one authority who describes declination quantitatively. According to Gall, trade union density in 2004 was 28.8%, having previously been 55% in 1979. He asks, if social democracy is revived, could it provide a new source of politically inspired union activists Gall puts weight on the role of the activist who's energy has waned and ebbed and refuses to fight. According to him, the activist is the spirit behind unionism. Without the activist, unionism dies. Since the activist today has found his concerns in other things, unionism has weakened. As proof, he said, the Labour Representation Committee was launched a few years ago, but judged by the poor attendance at its annual conferences, and the number of affiliated organizations and local groups, revival does not seem to be making much headway. However,

Role of the Judiciary in Democracy

Role of the Judiciary in Democracy In a liberal democratic state, the judiciary has four main responsibilities including formulating the rule of law through the interpretation and application of law to respond with a verdict, settling disputes, checking legality and being a player in state politics. To accomplish these four duties, the basic principles of a liberal democratic state must be upheld along with the principles of a legal democracy and state. The judiciary also has to interpret and apply the law along with the constitution, and to provide impartial adjudications of disputes between the state and individuals, between individuals, and between different levels of government within the state. The reliance on the courts and on judicial means for addressing core moral dilemmas, political controversies and public policy questions is arguably one of the most consequential phenomena of the late twentieth and early twentieth century government. Equipped with newly attained judicial review, national high courts worldwide have been frequently asked to resolve a range of issues, varying from the scope of expression and religious liberties, reproductive and privacy freedoms, equality rights, to public policies pertaining to criminal justice, education, labour, and environmental protection. The increasing political importance of courts has not only become more globally widespread than ever before but it has also extended its scope to become a manifold, multifaceted phenomenon that distends well beyond the now standard concept of judge made policy-making. The basic law of the Irish State is the Constitution of Ireland adopted by referendum in 1937 replacing the Constitution of the Irish Free State (1922). The Constitution is the canopy under which justice is administered and legal rights enforced in courts established by law. The Constitution delineates a separation of powers among the organs of State, executive, legislative and judicial. It guarantees the judicial protection of fundamental rights and also due process in the administrative and judicial spheres. It may be invoked by individuals to challenge the constitutionality of laws passed by the Oireachtas and to seek redress for breach of constitutional rights. Subject to the Constitution the legal system is based on the common law tradition. (1) The judiciaries role in the community is manifested not only in what judges do but also in the way that they do it. This is called the judicial style. There is an evident difference between the style of judges in civil law jurisdictions and the style of judges in common law traditions. In recent times there has been an insistence upon satisfactory accountability of all the institutions within the government, which needs to be reconciled with the principles of independence, has to be addressed and accepted. A lot of the publics money is invested in courts, and the people are entitled to expect that the work of individual judges is done efficiently, as well as fairly, deliver their judgements in a relatively prompt manner and will manage cases with due regard to consideration of economy. To achieve the characteristics of a judiciary, developed democracies have relied on the culture of the judiciary. When judges enter office they swear to uphold the rights of all citizens and the constitution, self integrity, peer pressure, and public scrutiny combine to make judges, at least at the highest level, to abide by their oath. By setting these standards for promotion, they can help harbour the same behaviour in their future peers and at lower levels. The duty of fairness and the principles of natural justice have been established by the courts through judicial review focus on the vital issue whether, in all circumstances, the procedure followed in a particular case was fair. The transparency and open process of decision-making that have been structured through judicial review are one of the safeguards in achieving an acceptable equilibrium between the countrys need for security and the rights and freedoms of its citizens. A multi-dimensional approach is needed to successful ly deal with this challenge. Judges will continue to rely upon the insights and wisdom of the legal community. The input from a variety of disciplines is however also essential. Community and government workers, academics, social scientists and policy makers can assist the judiciary in attaining more complete perspective. There is a need to strive for the intricate and complex balance which will foster the growth and development of rational and sound principles under the new legislation. Legislature also has to recognize that it cannot exert influence over the workings of the court and selection of its personnel since it is a party to many disputes between citizens and their representatives that the judiciary has to resolve. Legislature, for example, has to acknowledge that its purpose is to represent citizens and operate within the structures based on rules defined by the constitution. Representation does not mean unchallenged power. The judiciary protects the citizens should their duly elected representatives in the legislature choose to undertake such actions that violate constitutional rights of anyone in the society. The involvement of other branches of government in workings of the court should be as limited as is possible. In instances where any rule is deemed unsuitable constitution also delineates the process of amending the constitution. The judiciaries role in formulating or applying policy is a subject that has associations extending well beyond judicial review of administrative decisions. When policy formation is thought of as being part of the judicial function it is important that it is comprehensible as to what is being said to be going on, and how the judicial method is related to it, the judicial role and the judicial capacity. While there is a development in common law, as a response to changing needs as well as appropriate pressure for rationalisation, there is an accountability for such development by judges to follow the wisdom of laws in the constitution and proposed change. They accomplish this within the propensities of their own discipline. Another matter worth weighing might be the changing attitude of the legal profession, and others, towards the use of litigation as a technique for achieving political and social objectives. We have long been accustomed to the use of litigation as a weapon in corporate and commercial rivalry, but we are seeing an upsurge in what might be described as the politically and socially aggressive use of litigation. This has also resulted in a change in the character of the work coming before some courts, and has a significant effect on the way in which courts appear to the public to behave. (2) As a democratic society, we have witnessed momentous changes in the relationship between individuals and the state. The judiciary possesses the knowledge and experience to make tremendous contributions to the maintenance and continuing evolution of our democratic society. The role of the courts as resolver of disputes, interpreter of the law and defender of the Constitution, requires that they be completely separate in authority and function from all other participants in the justice system. Bibliography Ejn.net Jca.asn.au/attachments/Gleeson.html

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt Essay

The beginning of the book starts off with Alex Rogo's plant having major problems and his boss gets on his case about it. His boss, Peach, tells him he has three months to fix these problems or they would be shut down. Rogo has to find a way to improve efficiency in his plant and he is at a loss of how to do that. He thinks that because the plant has new robots that this automatically improves efficiency, right? Peach calls a special meeting at the headquarters for all the plant managers. Rogo does not know what the meeting is about ahead of time, but assumes it will be bad news about how the division's performance is horrible this first quarter. Rogo see Nathan Selwin in the parking garage; he informs Rogo that if performance isn't improved by the end of the year, then the whole division goes up for sale. Rogo ends up leaving the meeting early because he realizes that this meeting is pointless and not helping his plant be more productive. A couple weeks before this meeting, Alex had run into an old friend, Jonah, in an airport lounge. He begins telling Jonah about his plant and the new robots, etc. Jonah does not seem impressed, but asks Alex some important questions such as: „h Have they really increased productivity at your plant? „h Was your plant able to ship even one more product per day as a result of what happened in the department where you installed the robots? „h Did you fire anyone? „h Did your inventories go down? Jonah's point was that if inventories have not gone down, employee expense was mot reduce, the plant is not selling more products, etc. then the robots have not increased the plant's productivity. Jonah tells him that there is only one goal, no matter what the company. Jonah asks Alex what the goal is and Alex does not know. After Alex leaves the meeting, he remembers this conversation with Jonah and it makes him think a lot more about the situation his plant is in. The following enable a company to make money: „h cost-effective purchasing „h employing good people „h high technology „h producing products „h producing quality goods „h selling quality products „h capturing market share Alex finally figures out what The Goal is (I don't know how it took him so long!!) to make money (which is caused by being productive). To accomplish the goal of making money, there are three things that need to be increased simultaneou... ...nning while people are on break; the employees should go on break when it is running. „h The union is causing problems (the reason why it is not possible at the time). „h The machine is available for 585 hours a month, but the demand is greater than that - it will not be resourceful if you loose any of those hours. „h Throughput for entire plant is lower if that time is lost. „h Bottleneck #2 is the heat-treat „h The engineering department is unwilling to change; currently, the plant does not outsource to other vendors „h The plant thinks that it would increase the cost-per-part. For example: Each product shipped is about $1,000. 1,000 units * $1,000 = $1 million if parts get shipped as finished products. They need to use external heat-treat (outsource). Also, quality inspection is currently done prior to final assembly. Defective items are lost time on bottleneck because it went through the machine and now is worthless. They need to do QC before bottleneck - that way, they will not loose time on bottlenecks on any defective parts - won't loose throughput. Also, they need to make sure the process controls on bottleneck parts are very good. The Goal By Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The Base Stock Model

The Base Stock Model 1 Assumptions ? Demand occurs continuously over time ? Times between consecutive orders are stochastic but independent and identically distributed (i. i. d. ) ? Inventory is reviewed continuously ? Supply leadtime is a fixed constant L ? There is no fixed cost associated with placing an order ? Orders that cannot be fulfilled immediately from on-hand inventory are backordered 2 The Base-Stock Policy ? Start with an initial amount of inventory R. Each time a new demand arrives, place a replenishment order with the supplier. An order placed with the supplier is delivered L units of time after it is placed. ? Because demand is stochastic, we can have multiple orders (inventory on-order) that have been placed but not delivered yet. 3 The Base-Stock Policy ? The amount of demand that arrives during the replenishment leadtime L is called the leadtime demand. ? Under a base-stock policy, leadtime demand and inventory on order are the same. ? When leadtime demand (invent ory on-order) exceeds R, we have backorders. 4 Notation I: inventory level, a random variable B: number of backorders, a random variable X: Leadtime demand (inventory on-order), a random variable IP: inventory position E[I]: Expected inventory level E[B]: Expected backorder level E[X]: Expected leadtime demand E[D]: average demand per unit time (demand rate) 5 Inventory Balance Equation ? Inventory position = on-hand inventory + inventory onorder – backorder level 6 Inventory Balance Equation ? Inventory position = on-hand inventory + inventory onorder – backorder level ? Under a base-stock policy with base-stock level R, inventory position is always kept at R (Inventory position = R ) IP = I+X – B = R E[I] + E[X] – E[B] = R 7 Leadtime Demand ? Under a base-stock policy, the leadtime demand X is independent of R and depends only on L and D with E[X]= E[D]L (the textbook refers to this quantity as ? ). ? The distribution of X depends on the distribution of D. 8 I = max[0, I – B]= [I – B]+ B=max[0, B-I] = [ B – I]+ Since R = I + X – B, we also have I–B=R–X I = [R – X]+ B =[X – R]+ 9 ? E[I] = R – E[X] + E[B] = R – E[X] + E[(X – R)+] ? E[B] = E[I] + E[X] – R = E[(R – X)+] + E[X] – R ? Pr(stocking out) = Pr(X ? R) ? Pr(not stocking out) = Pr(X ? R-1) ? Fill rate = E(D) Pr(X ? R-1)/E(D) = Pr(X ? R-1) 10 Objective Choose a value for R that minimizes the sum of expected inventory holding cost and expected backorder cost, Y(R)= hE[I] + bE[B], where h is the unit holding cost per unit time and b is the backorder cost per unit per unit time. 11 The Cost Function Y (R) ? hE[ I ] ? bE[ B] ? h( R ? E[ X ] ? E[B]) ? bE[ B] ? h( R ? E[ X ]) ? (h ? b) E[ B] ? h( R ? E[ D]L) ? (h ? b)E ([ X ? R]? ? h( R ? E[ D]L) ? (h ? b)? x ? R ( x ? R) Pr( X ? x) ? 12 The Optimal Base-Stock Level The optimal value of R is the smallest integer that satisfies Y (R ? 1) ? Y ( R) ? 0. 13 Y ( R ? 1) – Y ( R) ? h ? R ? 1 ? E[ D]L ? ? (h ? b)? x? R? 1 ( x ? R ? 1) Pr( X ? x ) ? h ? R ? E[ D]L ? ? (h ? b)? x ? R ( x ? R) Pr( X ? x) ? h ? (h ? b)? x? R? 1 ? ( x ? R ? 1) ? ( x ? R) ? Pr( X ? x) ? h ? (h ? b)? x ? R? 1 Pr( X ? x) ? h ? (h ? b) Pr( X ? R ? 1) ? h ? (h ? b) ? 1 ? Pr( X ? R) ? ? ? b ? (h ? b) Pr( X ? R) ? ? ? ? 14 Y ( R ? 1) – Y ( R) ? 0 ? ?b ? (h ? ) Pr( X ? R) ? 0 b ? Pr( X ? R) ? b? h Choosing the smallest integer R that satisfies Y(R+1) – Y(R) ? 0 is equivalent to choosing the smallest integer R that satisfies b Pr( X ? R) ? b? h 15 Example 1 ? Demand arrives one unit at a time according to a Poisson process with mean ?. If D(t) denotes the amount of demand that arrives in the interval of time of length t, then (? t) x e t P r( D ( t ) ? x ) ? , x ? 0. x! ? Leadtime demand, X, can be shown in this case to also have the Poisson distribution with (? L ) x e L P r( X ? x ) ? , E [ X ] ? L , and V ar ( X ) ? ? L . x! 16 The Normal Approximation ? If X can be approximated by a normal distribution, then: R * ? E ( D ) L ? z b /( b ? h ) V ar ( X ) Y ( R *) ? ( h ? b ) V ar ( X )? ( z b /( b ? h ) ) ? In the case where X has the Poisson distribution with mean ? L R * ? ? L ? z b /( b ? h ) ? L Y ( R *) ? ( h ? b ) ? L ? ( z b /( b ? h ) ) 17 Example 2 If X has the geometric distribution with parameter ? , 0 ? ? ? 1 P ( X ? x ) ? ? x (1 ? ? ). ? E[X ] ? 1? ? Pr( X ? x ) ? ? x Pr( X ? x ) ? 1 ? ? x ? 1 18 Example 2 (Continued†¦) The optimal base-stock level is the smallest integer R* that satisfies Pr( X ? R * ) ? b b? h ln[ b ] b ? h ? 1 ln[ ? ] ? 1? ? R * ? 1 b ? ? R* ? b? h b ? ? ln[ ]? ? * b? h ? R ? ln[ ? ] ? ? ? ? 19 Computing Expected Backorders ? It is sometimes easier to first compute (for a given R), E[I ] ? ? R x? 0 ( R ? x ) Pr( X ? x ) and then obtain E[B]=E[I] + E[X] – R. ? For the case where leadtime demand has the Poisson distribution (with mean ? = E(D)L), the following relationship (for a fixed R) applies E[B]= ? Pr(X=R)+(? -R)[1-Pr(X? R)] 20

Bullying in the organization sby

When we speak of work-place bullying, we are actually referring to the verbal, physical, social or psychological assault that one’s employer or manager, another individual or group of people carry out on a person. In other words it is the tendency of individuals to use increasingly aggressive attitude towards a co-worker or be very unreasonable towards him. This has become an increasingly important problem that Human resource department at most organisations have to counter.What makes workplace bullying far more difficult to counter than school-yard bullying is that it usually operates within the rules and regulations prescribed by the organisation and the society. Also, according to Ichniowski and Olson (2000), workplace bullies generally use words and actions to intimidate their victims, unlike playground bullies, who often resort to using their fists. Workplace bullying may involve verbal, non-verbal abuse tactics, humiliation, physical and psychological aggression.Workplac e bullying isn’t specific to a certain type of work-environment, as it can happen in any type of work condition, ranging from offices to workshops, from highly bureaucratic work environments, like the military, to highly casual ones. Workplace bullying may take different forms such as being rude or confrontational, damaging property that belongs to the organisation, social isolation, screaming and cursing others, physically assaulting them, etc.According to Ichniowski and Olson (2000), psychological and social bullying usually involves verbal abuse, aimed at making fun of one’s work or the individual himself. This may include making fun of one’s ethnicity, family, sexuality, race, education, etc. Isolation is another means of inflicting psychological aggression upon an individual. Workplace bullies will also try various methods of harassment and intimidation to upset your mind and make sure you aren’t able to focus on what you are supposed to, i. e. work. According to Lewis (2003), incase the bully is your boss or employer or supervisor, he or she might try to assign you pointless tasks that have nothing to do with your area of speciality or your job description. The other extreme end would be assigning you jobs that may be extremely boring, difficult or impossible to perform due to lack of time, or deliberately holding back information you need for getting your work done properly. Similarly, one might be a victim of physical bullying, where one may be attacked or threatened.According to Thomas (2005), acts of physical bullying include spitting, pushing, punching, shoving, kicking, tripping, scratching, grabbing, biting, attacking or threatening with equipment such as knives, club, gun, etc or any other type of direct physical contact. Physical bullying also includes sexual harassment, such as flashing or touching, or when you are made to do humiliating things in order to be accepted as part of a team, as stated byIchniowski and Olso n (2000).Incase of physical bullying, especially, one should immediately report the matter to the police and the employer or someone in the human resource department. One can also revert to the following steps in order to deal with a workplace bully, as explained by Ichniowski and Olson (2000): †¢ Seek advice from a trusted individual or may be a mentor, who might be available in the same organisation or even outside, who may have been through a similar situation †¢ One can also try to confront the bully in a professional manner, but keeping in mind one’s own safety and giving it top priority.One should stay as calm as possible, and no sink to his or her level, and yell or threaten, as more often than not this is what bullies are looking for in the first place. And neither should one show weakness and cry, cause that might again motivate the bully to come back for more †¢ One shouldn’t allow the bully to make one feel low self-esteemed, because only the individual would know his or her true worth or capacity †¢ One should focus on the task in hand and try to do it well, because the bully’s goal is most often to try and fail you in your job †¢ One shouldn't let the bully isolate oneself from friends and colleaguesTo date, the phenomenon of workplace bullying is always associated with managers or colleagues who are the perpetrators, but that may not always be the case. There is something known as ‘upward bullying’ which may exist in organisations. In this case managers are actually the target. But since it is very rare, not much research or attention has been given to it. A recent research conducted on upward bullying by students of Griffith University, shows that work environment, change within organizations and power issues are the major contributing factors to upward bullying.According to Kelly (2000), organisations usually do not take workplace bullying by the neck, their policies are usually flawed which enables bullies to take advantage. In most cases the Human Resource Department is aware of who the aggressor is, but they usually wait for something illegal to happen, i. e. if its not illegal harassment there is no effort made to eradicate it. According to Kelly (2000), a research conducted by the University of Illinois indicates that workplace bullying occurs 4 times as frequently as compared to illegal forms of harassment or discrimination.WORKPLACE BULLYING AND THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT However, ideally speaking, an organisation would be better off taking strict action and notice against workplace bullies themselves rather than allowing individuals to do so. The first and foremost step for them would be to come up with an anti-harassment policy, or try to expand an existing anti-harassment policy if it hasn’t proven to be effective enough. Such a policy would also encourage witnesses to come forward and either second the target’s claim or dismiss them.Als o, the human resource department should try to structure a dispute resolution process. This would encourage the targets to step forward sooner. According to Zapf and Einarsen (2001), the human resource department should also monitor the turnover rates and stress-related compensation claims taken by the workers within every department and every manager, so that even if a manager who is guilty of workplace bullying goes unreported, such an analysis ca bring him into the limelight.Another approach to tackling workplace bullying would be to offer courses and training to the supervisors and teach them to criticise employees without offending them. Also, in the present scenario, where, companies, especially the bigger ones have a well-diversified work force, the Human Resource should take claims of workplace bullying very seriously, because if they fail to treat such claims seriously, it would result in further isolation and mistrust on part of the employee.The leadership along with the H uman resource Department should realise the grave consequences workplace bullying may have on the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation. According to Kelly (2000), in approximately 80% of the cases, the employees productivity is adversely affected. This unreasonable behaviour also affects the mental and physical health of the employees, resulting in a decrease in the job satisfaction and job involvement. According to Vartia (1996), it causes a decrease in the employees’ morale, resulting in higher turnover rates.This also causes long term loses to the organisation as they employees that are bullied may sooner or later quit their jobs, this increases the company’s overall advertising expenditure, as they have to advertise frequent job vacancies, and also train the new employee and explain him the job description and the kind of work he would have to perform. Now, the human resource department may respond to issues related to workplace bullying in 5 di fferent ways. The first one is called the Mafioso, which is perhaps the worst stance HR can take with regards to such a situation.In this case even though the HR is aware of the problem and the aggressors, they are not inclined to take any action. In other words they actively participate in bullying employees and support such activities from every possible angle. The second approach is called the Ostrich, where the HR department come up with muffled and sandy responses to reports of workplace bullying, such as saying that, we do not have such problem at the workplace nor are we gong to have one, etc. The third stance is termed as fire-fighter, where the Human Resource Department is overloaded with work, and they do not have time to focus or concentrate on such matters.WORKPLACE BULLYING AND THE LEADERSHIP Apart from the Human resource department itself, leadership of that particular organisation has a very important role to play in managing and curtailing employee behaviour and prev enting workplace bullying. If the leader can take a stand against any such activity, the chances of occurrence may drastically drop automatically. Leaders need to see all employees equally and avoid any biases when treating employees, as stated by Rayner and Cooper (2003). They should prohibit from doing acts that portray favourism towards a particular employee or a group of employees.EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONGST INDIVIDUALS Also what might be of significant help when managing workplace bullying in organisations is if the individual has a higher degree of emotional intelligence. It helps employees manage their own mood along with the mood of the organization. It instils in them a greater degree of self-awareness and empathy allowing them to read and regulate their emotions while being able to intuitively grasp how others feel and gauge the emotional state of the organisation. According to Goleman (2000), there are five components to emotional intelligence.Self-awareness is the tra it where emotional intelligence actually begins, such individuals are never hesitant to talk about and discuss their weaknesses and it is this attitude that later brings upon a positive change in them as they are able to improve upon their weaknesses with the passage of time. According to Sheehan (1999), this helps them bring about a positive change as one becomes aware of his or her limitations and one knows when and where he or she can actually stand-up and deliver regardless of the obstacles that may come his way.The second trait is self-regulation, and individuals with this trait can control their emotions and impulses better and channel them for good purposes. This brings about an openness to criticism in their attitude and behaviour, and increases their trustworthiness and integrity, and also helps them remain comfortable in ambiguous and unreasonable situations and scenario, as discussed by Sheehan (1999). So, an individual with higher degree of self-regulation is never intim idated or threatened from workplace bullies, and he never reacts to any of their actions, which is what the bullies ideally want.Motivation is perhaps the most important trait and the most obvious one that an individual is judged upon in an environment where workplace bullying is rampant. The individual needs to self-motivate himself to performing his job and the tasks assigned to him without thinking too much about what activities or attitude other employee or employees have towards him. It portrays the optimism of the individual, and his dedication to the organisation, such that he is able to find positives from every negative thing that happens in his life, so it has to do more with the mind than anything else.Understanding the emotional makeup of others is referred to as empathy. In order to tackle workplace bullying, it is important for the individual to understand why the aggressor is trying to bully him, and what is he trying to achieve from such an act. This can greatly help individual in managing himself and his emotions and react the right way and not lose focus, as explained by Sheehan (1999). The last trait that comes under emotional intelligence is the social skills of the individual.It is the proficiency in managing relationships and building networks that can greatly help an individual to overcome the effects of workplace bullying. It is always a good feeling to have some support on your own side. This may also help in finding common grounds between individuals who are aggrieved and the bullies and it also enables one to build rapport. It also improves his persuasiveness and the ability to build and lead teams. THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL CHANGES As described earlier, workplace bullying is a problem that is more common than what people anticipate or realise.It not only impacts the individual himself, but also the organisation and the society itself is affected. And apart from resulting in lost productivity, there are other risks that it bring alon g for the organisation, which include legal expenses and settlement payouts. Many believe that changing the organisation’s culture is the way forward. The challenge for the Human resource department is to picture the prevailing problem of workplace bullying. They also need to identify how much of it is contributed due to the loop holes in the office rules, which describe an employees’ conduct when at work.They also need to identify how much of an impact has training had in shaping their attitude and behaviour. Then comes the most important step, whereby, the human resource department needs to identify practical approaches to nurturing a culture that reduces bullying. Last but not the least, the Human Resource Department needs to identify a long-term approach to tackling such issues, i. e. they need to formulate a long-term strategy to eradicate workplace bullying. References Cooper (eds. ), Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace.International Perspectives in res earch and practice (London, Taylor and Francis) Cooper, L (eds. ), Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace. International Perspectives in research and practice (London, Taylor and Francis) Goleman, Daniel. (1998) â€Å"What Makes a Leader? â€Å", Harvard Business Review. Ichniowski, Casey and Craig Olson. (2000). The American Workplace: Skills, Compensation, and Employee Involvement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, David. (2000). Workplace Bullies Dump Bull on Co-Workers. Available: http://workplacebullying.org/press/hrwire. html. Last accessed 18 September 2008. Lewis, D. (2003), ‘Voices in the social construction of bullying at work’, International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 4, 1. pp. 65-81. Rayner, C. & Cooper, C. L. (2003), ‘The black hole in bullying at work research’, International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 4, 1. Pp. 47-64. Robbins, Stephen P. 2004. Organizational Behavior. New York: Pearsons. Sh eehan, M. (1999), ‘Workplace bullying: responding with some emotional intelligence’, International Journal of Manpower, 20, ?, pp 57-69 Thomas M. (2005), ‘Bullying among support staff in a higher education institution’, Health Education, 105, 4, pp. 273-288. Vartia, M. (1996), ‘The sources of bullying – psychological work environment and organisational climate’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 5, 2. pp 203-214. Zapf, D. & Einarsen, S. (2001), ‘Bullying in the workplace: Recent trends in research and practice – an introduction’, European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, 10 (4), pp. 369-373.