Ballet’s policy on bullying unclear
The national ballet company needs to be clearer about who should intervene in cases of workplace bullying, a new report has found.
The review came following claims of verbal abuse and a mass exodus of dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Former deputy state services commissioner Doug Craig conducted the review, which looked specifically at the company’s policies and processes for dealing with employee complaints.
Craig looked at complaints from February 2015 to December 2017 and interviewed dancers, board members and the company’s artistic director, Patricia Barker, among others.
Although he found the company’s policies were broadly appropriate, he made 11 recommendations on ways it could improve, including a clarification of roles in the organisation’s workplace bullying prevention policy.
‘‘The policy could be clearer about who has responsibility for acting where inappropriate behaviour or conduct is observed and what their role is, in responding to a complaint,’’ Craig wrote.
He also noted that the turnover of key staff in the period he observed, which saw the departure of the organisation’s artistic director, executive director and the ballet master and mistress, had ‘‘left a gap in important ‘balances’.’’
Craig noted the company ‘‘exceeded normal practice’’ in its use of external advisers when responding to complaints.
It needed to be careful to manage the perception that it was outsourcing leadership responsibilities.
He compared the ballet to elite sports organisations, and interviewed NZ Rugby Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol as part of his research.
‘‘There are inherent stresses, including competition for roles and a constant striving for peak performance that make it inevitable that from time to time people may feel like they have not been treated fairly nor been given the opportunity to perform at their best,’’ he wrote.
In December 2017 the ballet held a ‘‘crisis’’ meeting in response to the mass departure of dancers and public concern over the fact it was not taking on any graduates from the New Zealand School of Dance.