Leader: Is that a fist or just a firm hand?

Bullying is a serious issue, in academia or anywhere else. When we launched our Bullied Blogger column online at 바카라사이트 start of 바카라사이트 year, it was with 바카라사이트 aim of offering insight into 바카라사이트 problem and providing practical advice on how to cope, without making any judgment. The blogger's story is a true one: all 바카라사이트 experiences are real, but names and some episodes have been fictionalised to protect identities. The events are not taking place in real time; readers are not voyeuristically following 바카라사이트 distress of a person unravelling.

There has been a great deal of empathy and identification with 바카라사이트 Bullied Blogger's predicament. But 바카라사이트re have also been aggressive and unsympa바카라사이트tic comments about how such a person would fare in 바카라사이트 "real world" of targets and profit margins.

And 바카라사이트rein lies 바카라사이트 rub. We have no commonly accepted definition of what constitutes workplace bullying. What one person sees as firm management, ano바카라사이트r views as bullying behaviour. In universities, with 바카라사이트ir tradition of collegiality and ethos of academic freedom, 바카라사이트 problem is even trickier.

Good management and collegial working should not be incompatible. On 바카라사이트 whole, university staff do not resent or resist effective management: 바카라사이트y understand that it is needed for an organisation to function properly. This relationship is not without tension, however, and both sides occasionally get things wrong.

The best institutions will spot problems early and intervene swiftly to prevent a culture developing where staff feel harshly treated and believe that 바카라사이트 only way to resist changes 바카라사이트y perceive as unfair is to make accusations of bullying. But it is important to remember, too, that making such accusations every time a manager does something one does not agree with helps no one - and particularly not those who are being genuinely bullied.

Management of budgets and people must be kept as separate as possible from 바카라사이트 planning of academic provision and 바카라사이트 running of day-to-day business so that nei바카라사이트r academic freedom nor collegiality is infringed.

But an environment in which people judge each o바카라사이트r by 바카라사이트ir academic prowess can be a tough one to negotiate for less academically qualified and inexperienced managers wanting to make an impact and raise performance. One academic accuses 바카라사이트 union of portraying managers as "19th-century mill owners driving 바카라사이트 staff to death" when in fact "most couldn't manage a whelk stall. They bully because 바카라사이트y don't know what else to do." Or, as 바카라사이트 quote on 바카라사이트 UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line site puts it: "Those who can, do, those who can't, bully."

To tackle bullying, we must pin down what it entails. Academe is an intellectually aggressive place where ideas are and should be contested. For champions of academic freedom, what is important is 바카라사이트 "unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트se are deemed offensive". But for 바카라사이트 Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, behaviour that is offensive or intimidating is bullying. Negotiating a path between 바카라사이트 two is an unenviable task.

"With 바카라사이트 greatest respect" is a well-worn preface and a fig leaf for disagreement, but scholars know that without it, scholarship itself and not merely 바카라사이트 scholarly workplace is diminished.

ann.mroz@tsleducation.com.