By: 

Rande W. Matteson, CFE, Ph.D.

Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, FL

Author

Rande W. Matteson, CFE, Ph.D.

Dr. Matteson is the Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice at Saint Leo University. He is a retired 32-year career law enforcement officer having served in progressively responsible leadership and field positions in local, state and federal agencies.  He earned his Doctorate in Corporate Leadership and is a certified fraud examiner, hostage negotiator and in international marine maritime security.

During his career, he was assigned to Domestic, Foreign Attaché and Headquarters Offices as a Supervisory Special Agent, as a field Special Agent, a Pilot, as a Program Special Operations Manager, an Educator and as a Multi-Agency Task Force Manager.

Dr. Matteson began his career serving as a uniformed police officer and was later promoted into various positions including the Criminal Investigation Division.  His breadth of experience includes street crime to complex international and corporate crime. 

During his career, Dr. Matteson has been qualified in federal and state courts as an expert witness and recognized for his investigative contributions in numerous high profile investigations. 

Dr. Matteson served as a new basic agent-training counselor and was permanently assigned to the FBI-DEA Academy serving as a Senior Instructor and Course Developer and Manager in the Leadership-Field Management Training Unit responsible for leadership training of all DEA and outside partner agency managers.

His background includes complex multinational overt and covert investigative operations inclusive of violations of federal and state statutes.  He was selected as the agency representative and served for an extended assignment at the Counter-Terrorism Operations Center coordinating proactive terrorism operations at the U.S. Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 Abstract

Bullying behavior in the workplace is not considered just a phenomenon that occurs in low paid blue collar jobs, it transcends all occupations including criminal justice.  Few criminal justice leaders would admit their organizations are led using bullying tactics, however, upon inspection we find regardless of the job people using bullying tactics are found.  It is this concern that continues to draw the attention of researchers and criminal justice leaders to bullying behavior.  Public awareness, education and advocacy can provide us with the knowledge of physical and emotional injuries as a result of workplace bullying.  Employees who bully are more found in organizations that promote that style of abuse of power and can lead to more severe consequences such as citizen complaints, attrition and recruitment problems, corruption and civil liability.  The potential and real dangers of bullying found in society today, create negative stress for employees and this increases costs for healthcare as well as problems for individual employees and their families. Visionary leaders who are lifelong learners understand the value of building a healthy workplace.  The result of such vigilance is a more confident adult worker who will not bully in the workplace and will not accept the bullying behavior of others.