As suggested above, the same factors that lead to increased incidence of aggression and bullying may often lead to decreases in employee performance or costly acts directed against the organization. This proposition has received support from Wilson (1991) who estimated that $5 billion to $6 billion dollars is lost every year in the United States economy because of real or perceived abuse of employees by employers. Preliminary data from a long-term study being conducted at a large federal agency demonstrates the connection between work-related stress, injustice and such factors as annual leave used, employee terminations, suspensions, discrimination and violence claims, and various conduct and performance problems. But measuring the actual costs to business and society is difficult for the reasons provided below.

Measurement problems

Some forms of aggression are easy to measure. For example, tracking instances of workplace homicide is relatively easy—you just count the bodies. But, as easy (and as gruesome) as this sounds, even this has proven difficult. There is no single reporting agency tracking these data. Consequently, we are left to compile data from various sources and this can result in a less than accurate picture. Also, what do you classify as a workplace homicide? If a husband follows his wife into the workplace and fatally attacks her, is that a case of workplace homicide? It is my position that it is no--it is a case of domestic violence that has spilled over into the workplace. It was not motivated by factors inherent in the working relationship. But how would you classify a situation in which an individual commits suicide at home as a result of years of bullying and torment on the job? Unfortunately, this does occur and we will probably never know the true extent to which it does occur because our data collection procedures do not capture such information.

If we can't even count the bodies, how can we hope to capture the costs associated with spreading damaging gossip, failure to return phone calls or provide needed information? As you can see, these more subtle forms of aggression and bullying are extremely difficult to capture.

There is another problem in trying to capture the costs to business. How do you capture things that might have been but weren't? For example, if a disgruntled employee comes up with an idea that can generate tremendous revenues for his/her company, do you really think that this employee will share this idea with management? Hardly! In this instance, the company stands to lose a considerable amount of revenue but will never be aware of this loss because the organization can only measure things that have happened or were anticipated to happen—not things that might have been but weren't.

How do we track the time spent by employees discussing their unhappiness with others or the impact of this ill will as it spreads through the organization? How do we track intentional instances of aggression and distinguish them from accidents or unintended behavior? If we are to make any progress in establishing the true costs of stress, injustice, aggression, and bullying in both human and financial terms, we must formulate procedures for capturing this kind of information and academic research working together with practitioners must create and validate techniques for measuring such behavior.

In the meantime, there is ample evidence to suggest that injustice, stress, aggression, and bullying are costly to people and organizations. If you doubt this for an instance, just spend a few minutes listening to the victims of bullying and there will be little doubt left in your mind. Maybe it's as simple as that!