title: Workplace bullying: an emergent issue.
abstract: All companies, including dentists, rely on their staff to represent their firms in the most positive and effective manner. Today's managers face a multitude of issues, and as such, they must walk a fine line of fostering a productive, harmonious and safe working environment for their employees. Over the last several decades it is apparent that on the- job sexual harassment is no longer the leading issue of employee complaints. Rather, the organization issue which was investigated is workplace bullying, also commonly referred to as employee harassment. Risk management is no longer limited to avoiding malpractice issues but also preventing litigation created by poor organizational behavior. The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the background of workplace bullying and how it affects today's managers and their employees, customers and suppliers. In other words, the scope of this paper will feature research on past studies, results and conclusions. Since workplace bullying affects all levels of a corporation, it must be stated that the concern and focus of this paper is for today's manager to understand the background and history of workplace bullying, and what they can do to foster a safe working environment and prevent the bully from creating mental and physical harm to their employees. This paper details the history of workplace bullying and how management, employees and suppliers deal with and address the issue. Lastly, this treatise looks at risk management from a manger/dentist's perspective, the assessment/conclusion summarizes the implications for managers regarding how they must handle the issue or risk harm to the employee and/or serious legal ramifications.
authors.affiliation: 1500 SW Mapp Rd, Palm City, Florida 34990, United States; Tel: 772-287-6717; e-mail: dressen@essendentistry.com.
authors.forename: S Donovan
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Essen
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Esquivel
authors.forename: Pankaj
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jha