9 responses to dealing with bullying behaviour
You might have guessed from recent posts that bullying behaviour is something I have been working on recently. I have been looking at ways you can respond if you see or hear of it occurring. There looks to be nine ways of doing something about it:
- Direct response - saying something when you see it occur
- Strengthening the target - help the target handle the issue
- Mediation - bring the parties together to resolve conflicts
- Restorative justice - have the offender understand the impact and move towards change
- Collaborative problem-solving and resolution - support everyone to understand and move forward
- Group support method - use group influence to change the groups behaviour
- Method of shared concern - use individual meetings to use group influence to change the groups behaviour
- Punishment - provide consequences for actions
- Referral to authorities - refer extreme or serious behaviour to the necessary authorities
There are strengths and weaknesses for each approach. Some work well only in very specific situations. I intend to provide a summary of all the approaches in future posts so you can work out for yourself what is best for different issues.
I have come to the conclusion that you are not going to be able to select just one approach to solve such a complex problem like bullying behaviour. It will take a mix of approaches to do that.
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