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dignity: harassment and discrimination
:
Tips and tools
Recognizing abuse of power
1 Abuse of power is the
misuse of authority in the course of performing work.
Context
2 Abuse of power most often occurs in the
context of supervisor-subordinate relationships. However the abusive party
can be a direct supervisor, a colleague of equal rank, a subordinate or
someone outside of the reporting relationship.
Forms of abuse of power
3 Abuse of power often takes the form of harassment,
expressed in:
- speech – such as insults about intelligence;
- tone – ranging from raised voice to offensive language such as cursing
- isolation – completely ignoring staff;
- threats – referring to future employment conditions, such as performance appraisals, confirmations of appointment, salary increases or promotions.
4 Abuse of power might also include:
- requests to carry out personal errands;
- requests to perform duties of a personal nature inside or outside the work environment;
- actions that interfere with the ability of a colleague to work effectively, such as impeding access to information or resources;
- explicit or implicit pressure on staff to distort facts in favor of
a particular agenda.
Examples of abuse of power
• physical attacks
• persecution through threats and instilling fear
• repeated shouting or swearing at staff both in public and in private
• spontaneous rages, often over trivial matters
• public humiliation, personal insults and name-calling
• spreading malicious rumors which are unfounded
• freezing out, ignoring or excluding
• deliberately talking to a third party to isolate another
• constantly undervaluing effort
• dispensing punishment out of the blue
© CGIAR Gender & Diversity
Program 2006