Workplace Violence
In today's fast paced, stress riddled work environment it is no surprise that the workplace can become a foreground for violence. Employers must be extra careful when hiring and firing employees and stay aware with what is happening in the work environment that surrounds them. Extra precautions must be taken to ensure the safety of all employees in the workplace. Too many times employers do not take the proper steps in preventing workplace violence and the consequences are disastrous. Violence on the job or even after hours can take a very negative toll on an entire business. In order to prevent danger in the workplace, employers must know how to identify potential violence and be familiar with the necessary steps to prevent it from happening.
Violent acts in the workplace come from a diverse population of perpetrators. Employees, former employees, clients, strangers, and even employers are all potential sources of violent behavior. In most cases, the person responsible for workplace slayings fits a certain stereotype. The violent person is either an unhappy employee, a frustrated customer, or in some type of relationship with an employee in the company, and almost always a socially reclusive male (Chavez, Workplace 1).
According to Larry J. Chavez, a hostage negotiator with the Sacramento Police Department, there are many factors that result in violent situations in the workplace. Lack of rules regarding conduct, lack of awareness about violence, and poor violence reporting procedures are all practices that contribute to violence in the workplace (Chavez, Organizational 1). A tyrannical or oppressive management approach is also very likely to cause harmful reactions among employees. Certain ...
... middle of paper ...
..., it can be minimized. Employers, as well as employees, must become increasingly aware of their surroundings in order to ensure safety for themselves and those with which they work. Only then can a business truly begin their journey to creating an environment that effectively promotes the well-being and safety of everyone involved.
Bibliography:
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chavez, Larry J. Organizational Factors Contributing to Workplace Violence. 7 Nov. 2000 .
---. Predictors of Violence by Individuals. 7 Nov. 2000 .
---. What Organizations and Individuals Have Done to Invite Workplace Violence. 6 Nov. 2000 .
---. Workplace Violence: An Overview. 7 Nov. 2000 .
Dessler, Gary. Human Resource Management. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
Lenius, Pat. "Workplace Violence is Growing Concern." Contractor Oct. 1999. 7 Nov. 2000 .
offices utilizing special weapons and tactics to cope with the new level of violence and
The safety and health of people is core to every aspect of business. People return home safe and well at the end of day and enabling them to end their working life fit and healthy are central to everything industry do.
Co-workers can be affected by workplace violence by being put in a situation that makes working difficult or uncomfortable for them. This can affect their attendance to go to work every day, or even getting their tasks done efficiently. If the abuse is coming from a superior such as a boss or manager, it can make the employee fearful, stressed out and even anxious. They could be worried they’ll lose their employment for no reason at all, or even make them feel as though their workplace is unbearable. In the workplace the manager should be the one leading and helping the employees succeed. If the manager is hurtful towards their employees, through words or actions, they are not only harming the employee but also damaging the efficiency and productivity of the office as a whole. They damage their office in such a respect because the harm inflicted upon the employee effects their working progress negatively. As a whole the abuser in most workplace violence situations can be looked at as the ‘manager’. They are the one managing and controlling the situation in a negative
Huan, L. & Yazdanifard, R. (2012). The Differences of Conflict Management Styles and Conflict Resolution in Workplaces. Business & Entrepreneurship Journal. 1(1), 141-155.
Stetser, Merle (2001). The Use of Force in Police Control of Violence: Incidents Resulting in Assaults on Officers. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing L.L.C.
Such conflicts have significant implications on departmental and administrative policy procedures. One of the main police abuse problems is physical brutality. The main goal here should be to get the police departments to adopt and enforce a written policy governing the use of physical force. The policy should restrict physical force to the narrowest possible range of specific situations. For example, their should be limitations on the use of hand-to-hand combat, batons, mace, stun guns, and firearms. However, limiting polices' actions will bring much debate, especially from police officers and administrators themselves.
When it comes to safety most people think they are safe, and they have a true understanding on how to work safe. Human nature prevents us from harming ourselves. Our instincts help protect us from harm. Yet everyday there are injuries and deaths across the world due to being unsafe. What causes people to work unsafe is one of the main challenges that face all Safety Managers across the world.
Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).
The Workplace is considered a second home for many people because a work shift may range 8 to 12 hours daily. Based on that fact alone it is important to feel safe, comfortable and content in the workplace. Despite the differences in the public and private sector the mission, goals and objectives of any organization can be similar. For example, productivity, cost effectiveness, efficiency, profit or goods/services and the safety within the establishment is equally important. Unfortunately, the challenges that face management are increasing rapidly and during the past 2 decades "Violence in the Workplace" has become an increased fear among employers and employees. Violence in the Workplace can be defined as" (1) any problem related to the workplace or away from the workplace if it relates to the job" http://www.state.il.us/isp/viowkplc/vwpp1.htm. Violent incidents that may occur on site and violence that occurs away from the job but is job related. Types of job related violence away from the job may include telephone harassment, stalking and confrontations.
Robinson, S. L., & Bennett, R. J. (1995). “A typology of deviant workplace behaviors: A
Eisenstark, Lam, McDermott, Quanbeck, Scott and Sokolov (2007) reported that twenty five percent of mental health nurses working in public sector hospitals take the major risk in violent attacks from patients resulting a series injury: the prevalence rate being as high as three times that of any vocational group (Del Bel,2003).this number implies that nurses physical as well as emotional health is being compromised largely each day (Lanza, 1992). Another study done from five mental health inpatient units over a period of seven months, indicated that seventy-eight percent of violent incidences came from nurses (Jones, Owen, Tarantello, and Tennant,1998).Nurses are not the only ones being challenged by violence. A study done by Albert Banerjee et.al (2008) in long term care facilities, a shocking number of personal support workers have been a victim of workplace violence. Almost half (43%) of support workers reported they experience violence in everyday work activities. 16.8% of registered nurses and one quarter (24.6%) of licensed practical nurses, registered practical nurses, and registered nursing assistants experience violence on a daily basis. In 2000, social service workers incidence injuries also rose by 9.3 from work related assaults and injuries. As significant as this numbers could be, the numbers could go higher if those underreported cases are reflected that’s comes with the employees belief, “reporting won’t change
The literature agrees upon generalized characteristics of horizontal violence framing the construct in words and phrases, such as interpersonal conflict, nonphysical violence, aggression, hostility, unwanted abuse and harmful behavior in the work environment. However, it does not contain a standardized definition that is precise enough for collective understanding amongst the discipline to occur. Such lexical ambiguity yields the interpretational inconsist...
Introduction Canadian health and safety legislation requires companies and organizations to make a commitment towards occupational health and safety. Maintaining a safe workplace environment has numerous benefits. A safe work environment can boost employee morale, increase productivity, and improve job satisfaction. For companies and organizations, these benefits can lead to less turnover and increased employee retention. They can also reduce absenteeism while improving the culture and image of a company or organization.
When managers are able to communicate effectively to the employees it shows they care and it lets the employees go to them if there is ever a problem. Both leaders and employees need to be able to recognize the triggers that cause people to be bullied at the workplace (Smith, 2012). Leaders should be able to notice behavior that may cause problems in the workplace. The more leaders are involved with the employees the less bullying that will occur. Companies need to have workplace policies that prohibit this type of behavior and need to make sure employees understand the policies (Smith, 2012). Employees should also have an understanding of how to report the incident and how to take action (Smith, 2012). Enforcement is key when an incident occurs because employees will think twice before engaging in this type of
Workplace harassment is unwelcome actions that are based on a person’s race, religion, color, and sex, and gender, country of origin, age, ethnicity or disability. The targets of the harassment are people who are usually perceived as “weaker” or “inferior” by the person who is harassing them. Companies and employers can also be guilty of workplace harassment if they utilize discriminatory practices against persons based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, race, color, age, disability, or sex. These discriminatory practices have been illegal since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964), and have been amended to be more inclusive of other people who experience discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (The Civil Rights Act of 1991), and most recently, President Obama’s signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Stolberg, 2009).