Ostracism reflects a situation in which two or more people converse in a jargon that others around cannot grasp. Social exclusion is putting a person into a situation of being alone or deprived of social interaction.
Women in the workforce is another wheel of economic transition for sustainable development. A substantial proportion of the populace consists of competent women; but they are confronted with challenges at the workplace, to which they are vulnerable. Frequently harassment is deemed solitarily a sombre peril next to family issues, while on the flip side of the coin, working women face unnoticed cold violence which impedes work commitment and productivity.
Workplace ostracism is an example of cold violence, ND is the degree to which AN individual perceives that heor she is ignored, overlooked or excluded at work. Social exclusion, abatement, being out of the loop, all in conjunction, are termed as ostracism. Ostracism is inaction to socially engage with others and the omission of positive attention whereas harassment, bullying, interpersonal deviance, aggression, social undermining, and incivility are commissions of negative attention.
The term “ostracism” started off in the Greek word “ostrakon”, which was “a piece of pottery” used as a voting ballot to exile an inhabitant from the city. Therefore, the derivation of “ostracism” means “to be voted out”.
Workplace ostracism can be pervasive, chronic, proportion, shared and can be with or without malicious intentions. Purposeful ostracism in general is thought of as “the silent treatment” of people used to deliberately chastise, retaliate, or hurt the target e.g. avoiding eye contact, refusing social contact, snubbing attempts to talk and non-acknowledgement of the verbal greetings of the victim. Non-purposeful ostracism occurs when actors are unacquainted that they are indulging in behavior serving to socially eliminate another, like not inviting them for lunch for being out of the way of location, or forget to add them in emails of official memos and so on.
The constructs falling under the rubric of ostracism may include: linguistic
contact, social rejection: utterly saying NO to a person who is pursuing to craft or sustain an alliance with him or her. Organizational shunning is systematically exclusion of a person who was once an included member of the group.
A legislative framework like the “Protection of women against harassment act” is required at the national level and the organizations should define ostracism in code of conduct as an offence, besides establishing a proper platform to address it.
Ostracism can simultaneously intimidate the four fundamental needs: First, Sense of self-esteem; the ostracized individual feels remorse for doing something erroneous or having some unattractive characteristics which destroy their sense of self-esteem. Second, the sense of belongingness is harmed because an individual will feel debarred from a faction that he or she covets being a part of. Third, the sense of control is undermined for the reason that others’ feedback is not given to their actions and ostracized individuals do not have a way of affecting an end to the ostracism. Finally, ostracism affects the sense of meaningful existence. Ostracism represents a stature of “social death” and illustrates how life would be if one did not exist.
Ostracism affects both individuals and their organizations. At the individual level ostracism is a painful and aversive experience; this social pain is often linked to physical pain because the psychiatrists surmise that ostracism triggers the same areas of the brain. It further creates emotional distress, annoyance, anxiety, nervousness, stress, dejected mood, sleep interference and so on. Ostracism’s effect on mental health and psychological well being may lead to vengeance, withdrawal and even suicide in extreme cases.
At organizational level ostracism has detrimental effects on success of the organization due to unfavourable job attitudes, counterproductive work behavior, lower level of commitment, poor psychological well-being, knowledge hiding/hoarding, eroding of quality service delivery and high turnover among the workforce.
Ostracism persecutes both genders, however it is conjectured that it victimizes women relatively more than men because of masculine cultural dominance; gender indifferences; actors’ perceptions of low level of counter-attacks of victims and lack of cross-gender social integration. or
On the one side of the coin, most women themselves prefer isolation over social integration, and the majority of women have the same state of mind. As a result the minority had to face ostracism. On the flip side of the coin the male workers are under a labrys, or double-headed axe; if they endeavour to socially integrate at the workplace cross gender; they are always in danger of being accused of harassment, and if they try to avoid this, they are accused of an act of ostracism. The boundary lines of both constructs, ostracism and harassment, are to be ruled out and the balance of thoughts and social integration are crucially needed in both genders.
In a developing country like Pakistan, the work force in general and women in particular have to face cold violence in several forms of workplace ostracism. Ostracism is ubiquitous, an inevitable part of the workplace; deplorably it is unnoticed and unaddressed; since organizations don’t regard it as an offense like workplace harassment in their codes of conduct, and due to the absence of a robust legislative framework. Ostracized employees have to either tolerate it or sip it up silently. The ostracized employee doesn’t report it for being considering it as not an offence, to avoid disputes or to save jobs due to the high unemployment rate.
Conclusively, a legislative framework like the “Protection of women against harassment act” is required at the national level and the organizations should define ostracism in code of conduct as an offence, besides establishing a proper platform to address it. These acts are only the way forward to create a healthy work culture that values teamwork, cooperation and coherence among employees of all genders. Healthy work environment will bring high commitment and productivity among workforce, which will significantly contribute as a result to development and suitability of the national economy.
