Defining workplace violence has generated considerable discussion, especially among government agencies. When we think of workplace violence, we think of physical actions that result in death or bodily injury inflicted against another individual. But the use of offensive language, threats, making an individual uncomfortable, and even harassment have been added to the definition because of the nature of these terms. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health created a reasonable working definition of workplace violence as; “violent acts, including physical assaults and threats of assault, directed toward persons at work or on duty.” (“Purpose” part 3)
Many people in the workplace today have seen, heard, or maybe have been a victim of workplace violence. Employers need to face the reality of today’s growing and diverse workforce. Employers are faced with even more employee relations issues than they were faced with twenty years ago. The National Center for Disease Control now refers to the workplace violence problem as an epidemic because violent acts are occurring at work in such great proportions. (Rolnick 1). Unsettled domestic situations that only seem to increase every year in this country have only added to the problem of workplace violence.
Every day we read newspapers, watch television or converse with our peers, and these sources are dominated by stories of violence. Typically, there has been one place that people have felt safe, and that is in their place of employment. Violence is all around us, and as we continue to read our newspapers, watch the evening news or converse with our peers, we see a disturbing trend known as workplace violence. With the continued rise in workplace violence, employers who implement workplace violence prevention programs and policies could benefit greatly to help avoid and deal with workplace violence situations.
Employers need to remember that workplace violence situations can create high liability risks. By establishing a properly written workplace violence policy, employers can help protect themselves from various forms of liability. One form of liability is lost workdays. These days are lost due to domestic situations or workplace injuries stemming from violence. Absences from work can add up to substantial costs to employers.
Employers can be sued for not providing a safe work environment for their employees. Employers have higher worker’s compensation costs due to workplace violence situations. An employer can be sued for negligence, especially if the employer knew the violent employee was potentially dangerous and continued to employ them. (Taylor 2). Liability for violating equal employment opportunity laws is a hazard that employers face. An example would be if an employer failed to take appropriate steps to protect employees from racial or sexual harassment, it could subject them to discrimination claims. (Taylor 2).
As the number of workplace violence incidents increases, it has emerged as an important safety and health issue in today’s workplace. The place that we used to feel safe at has now become another fear factor for many individuals. According to the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”), fifteen people are murdered at work each week. (Taylor 1). While most of these murders took place during robberies, there has been an increase in the number of murders occurring in office settings and factories. Murders can result from a conflict with another co-worker, former co-worker, spouse, partner, customer, or client.
According to an article from Braun Consulting Group, a company that consults employers on employment law, “one company was sued for $5 million when an employee and several co-workers were killed by the employee’s ex-partner.” (“Domestic” par 5). Employers who fail to take proactive measures could be defending themselves in court.
As the example above shows, murders occurring in the workplace are from personal conflicts that are being brought into the workplace. Employees are faced with ex-spouses or significant others who refuse to let go until revenge is sought. These individuals walk into the place of employment to seek their revenge by murdering. Just recently, Joseph Ferguson, a twenty-year-old security guard from California, went on a twenty-four-hour shooting spree, allegedly shooting to death five individuals, and four of them were his co-workers. (“New” par 1).
Ferguson was despondent over the recent breakup with his girlfriend, and recently he had also been suspended from his position as a security guard. He sought revenge on his girlfriend, supervisor, and a couple of his co-workers during that twenty-four-hour period. Unfortunately, one of his victims, a Sacramento city employee, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are hearing and seeing these stories far too often, as violence dominates our world.
There must be thousands of employers who say, “Workplace violence will never happen in my facility.” Those who repeat this phrase must remember that prevention is key. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has developed guidelines and recommendations for employers to help reduce the risk of workplace violence incidents. Anyone can be a victim, and employers must understand this. Employers need to take precautions to prevent such acts of violence and remember that workplace violence is not just classified as fatal acts. As we see from the statistics, the majority of workplace violence incidents are nonfatal. Employers cannot ignore the warning signs of potentially fatal acts, such as verbal threatening or fistfights. Precautions must be in place to help avoid and reduce the number of workplace violence incidents.
Though it may not be possible to eliminate all workplace violence incidents, some of these incidents are predictable and preventable. One way employers can avoid potential hazards of violence and costly legal issues is to implement a workplace violence prevention program and policy. By implementing a workplace violence prevention program and policy, employers can reinforce their duty to provide a safe working environment for their employees. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act), the level of an employer’s obligation to address workplace violence is governed by the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a) (1); ” Each employer shall furnish to each of his employee’s employment and a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.” (“Workplace” 2).
Before an employer can implement a workplace violence prevention program, they need to take steps to evaluate high-risk situations. (“Abstract” par 4) An employer can accomplish this task by having an outside contractor evaluate the premises or receive feedback from employees by conducting employee surveys. Employers must also train and educate their employees on ways to protect themselves and their co-workers from security hazards. But the most important aspect of a successful prevention program is to have management commitment. For any program to be successful, it has to have full support from all levels of management. If management supports the program, then the leadership and funding are there to train, educate and implement a successful program.
Once the company has accomplished the steps to evaluate any high-risk situations and has corrected these measures, they need to concentrate on a written workplace violence policy. This policy needs to stress the importance of implementing a workplace violence policy clearly. It is important to point out in the policy that the company is concerned and committed to the safety and health of the employees. The policy should stress the intolerance of violence in the workplace and that the company will make every effort to prevent incidents from occurring. The most important point to a written workplace violence policy is to indicate zero tolerance for any violence, including threats and intimidation. (“Developing” par 2).
There are advantages to developing a written policy statement for workplace violence. It informs all employees that the policy covers intimidation, harassment, and other inappropriate behavior that could be considered threatening. (“Dealing” 13). It can also encourage the employees to report all incidents of violence. But most importantly, it demonstrates senior management’s commitment to dealing with the reported incidents and ensures that proper discipline will be taken.
A workplace violence policy should outline the company, supervisors, and manager’s responsibilities, as well as the employee responsibilities under the policy. If these guidelines are set, the commitment then becomes a dual responsibility between employer and employee. A company can maintain its commitment to provide a safe workplace for employees by taking appropriate measures to ensure safety. A company can take appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including termination, for any employee making threats or committing an act of violence. Another positive action a company can take is to provide counseling to victims, family members, and any affected employee.
A workplace violence policy should also state that supervisors and managers must take every threat seriously and immediately respond to any allegation of violent behavior by reporting it to the appropriate member of management. But the most critical step that supervisors and managers must do is to enforce the workplace violence policy consistently and fairly. All employees must be treated on the same level. (Anderson 2)
There are many more factors that can motivate an individual to generate violent behavior in the workplace. An act of violence could occur if an individual was recently terminated or went through a devastating layoff. An individual could disagree with the disciplinary action that the company placed upon them, and that could cause that individual to seek revenge. A domestic situation could follow an individual into the workplace either from a husband, boyfriend, or former partner and generate a violent scene. Other factors that can motivate violent behavior in the workplace are prejudice, personal problems, or romantic obsessions.
The murder statistics are staggering, considering that most of us look at violence as being drug or gang-related. We must remember that workplace violence can take on many forms, and the number of lesser forms of violence, such as; fighting, threats, and harassment, is drastically increasing each year. If the employee reports the incident and the company has a workplace violence policy in place, appropriate disciplinary action can be taken, and it could possibly prevent a potentially dangerous situation from occurring. “According to a 1993 survey by Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, 2.2 million workers are physically attacked, 6.3 million workers are threatened, and 16.1 million workers are harassed each year.” (Taylor 1).
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (“NIOSH”) has recommended that these figures be used with caution. (“Nonfatal” 3) These numbers are only an estimate because not all of the companies in the survey responded, but we can only imagine the true number of incidents if every act of violence were reported each year.
There are some employees who feel that reporting their personal domestic situations to their manager is wrong. There are employers who feel that employees should keep their personal lives out of the workplace. If employees just came to work, perform their job functions, and went home, there would not be any workplace violence. Employers need to remember that employees are working longer hours, have more personal and job stress, and companies run very leanly, creating a tenser work environment. All these factors can lead to potential workplace violence situations.
An employee’s commitment to the workplace violence policy must be to report any and all violent acts to management. An employee is probably the first one to hear of acts of violence such as threats or acts of intimidation. Critical situations such as domestic problems should be reported to management so a company can take the appropriate steps to protect the employee while they are at work. Employees should also report to management if they applied for a protective restraining order, especially if the company is listed as a protected location. By reporting the protective restraining order, the company can ensure the guidelines of the order are being followed accordingly. (Anderson 2)
A written workplace violence policy should also include a method of documenting all acts of violence, threats, or intimidation. If an employee, supervisor, or manager wants to report an incident of threatening behavior of another employee, a form should be created to document the incident. It is important to keep the information on file to ensure that the employee, supervisor, or manager is part of the solution. Every employee of a company should feel that their statement is taken seriously and that every incident should be investigated.
The unfortunate part is that it would be impossible to eliminate all violence from the workplace. The average number of workers murdered each week in the workplace and the reported and unreported incidents of assaults are unacceptable and should not be considered the cost of doing business in our society. Managers in business all too often possess a myopic view of what constitutes violence in the workplace. By acquiring knowledge and insight on the specific causes of violent acts on the job, management can begin to influence individuals to seek alternative solutions to displaying inappropriate behaviors at work.
It is important to recognize underlying factors that contribute and construct a breeding ground for confrontational behaviors to germinate at work. The genesis of these characteristics may stem from such social ills such as domestic abuse migrating from home to work, lack of communication, long working hours, poor working conditions, negative perceptions, use of profanity, name-calling, finger-pointing, harassment, threats of physical harm and the list goes on.
Managers can become proactive in their defense to prevent violence in the workplace by recognizing the on-set behaviors that are improperly displayed at work and must plan to address the issues as they arise. It’s important to realize that certain conditions, which play a major contributory role, could manifest into episodes of violence at work. For example, consider this hypothetical situation: Sally, usually an expert performer, has made several clerical errors in her reports over the last two weeks – resulting in a sizable financial loss to her employer.
Management noticed Sally was anxious during this time, and for whatever reason, was reluctant to address these mistakes because of her previous good performance and unblemished work record. So Sally’s manager ignored the problem. Now the senior company executives want to know what action has been taken to ensure these deficits do not recur. In this case, management chose to avoid engaging in a conversation with Sally that would have revealed the following: (a) Sally is suffering from anxiety as she is under constant verbal abuse and threatening behavior from her spouse that her life and that of her children is in imminent danger. Sally’s husband moved out two weeks ago, and he has become more violent. He is calling her several times a day and is verbally abusive on the telephone. This is occurring when she is complying and computing data for her final weekly reports. She didn’t realize this situation was affecting her work. Sally’s errors were brought to her supervisor’s attention immediately.
Had management intervened to address the poor work performance issues, as these were sound, measurable work performance indicators, the continuation of this problem could have been alleviated. Sally desperately needed to talk to someone and was a prime candidate who could benefit from the use of her employer’s Employment Assistance Program and the Security Department. The avoidance role, a posture her supervisor assumed, oddly enough is a conflict resolution tool. Managers must exercise care in using it to obtain a positive outcome. For instance, employee safety is jeopardized in the workplace when an employee feels that the arms of violence may penetrate into the business setting.
Whether these perceptions are real or imagined, the employee may not feel safe enough to go to work…resulting in possible chronic absenteeism. When managers have the skill set needed to address or identify issues of conflict, this consequence is preventable.
According to the Thomas-Kilman Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI), the way managers respond to issues of conflict at work has a direct correlation to mastering the ability to resolve situations before they turn into unmanageable problems. “TKI is designed to assess an individual’s behavior in conflict situations-that is, situations in which the concerns of two people appear to be incompatible.” Therefore, a person’s behavior is evaluated along two basic dimensions of behavior utilizing a five-step method of dealing with conflicts.
“Competing-When quick-decisive action is vital. Accommodating-When you realize that you are wrong-to allow a better position to be considered, to learn from others, and to show that you are reasonable. Avoiding-is is unassertive and uncooperative. Avoiding might take the form of diplomatically sidestepping an issue, postponing an issue until a better time, or simply withdrawing from the threatening situation. Collaborating is both assertive and cooperative–the opposite of avoiding. Compromising is intermediate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The objective is to find an expedient, mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies both parties.” Managers can use this model to access their individual styles to sharpen skills to resolve issues of conflict as they occur in the workplace.
Encourage open dialogue on the topic of violence as a deterrent to employees exhibiting violent behaviors to keep the workplace safe. Share all violence prevention policies and procedural strategies to combat conflicting situations that could escalate into violence on the job. Let employees know about reporting hotlines that will allow them to remain anonymous without fearing retaliation when a problem is reported.
When issues of concern are reported, have a conversation to ensure productivity and profitability is maintained at work. By all means, follow up with the employee. To help managers move into a forward conversation and away from avoiding discussing issues of conflict that have a violent overtone, businesses must plan to teach management the skills necessary to achieve effective outcomes-not introduce them to programs that conceptualize the theme on how to develop good communication skills.
In “Difficult Conversations” by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project stresses practicing applied techniques that will help managers successfully develop the tools to engage in conversations leading to conflict resolution. These authors examine the structure of a difficult conversation as three conversations in one. The “What Happened” Conversation: When there is a disagreement, people get stuck thinking their story is “right” and the other person’s story is “wrong.” Actually, there is always some reasonableness for both sides’ stories. Explore each other’s stories instead of attacking theirs and defending yours. The “Feelings” Conversation:
Despite our best efforts to hide our feelings, they tend to “leak” into conversations anyway. This is not necessarily bad as we are all human beings and emotions represent our characteristics and personalities as in who we are. The problem is, they leak in unproductive or even damaging ways. So acknowledge that they exist and begin to channel how you are feeling into the conversation or how you sense an employee is feeling to unravel the problem and get to the heart of the issue. The Identity Conversation: Conversations are difficult because they often threaten some part of a person’s identity. We see ourselves as competent, generous, or fair, so anything that challenges these beliefs knocks us off balance.
Effective managers should begin to recognize what’s at stake for them, their organizations, and the employee and the complexities of these images. Effective conflict resolution skills can be supported by proven conversational techniques that support management’s ability to exercise good purposes, like sharing, understanding learning while engaged in a conversation. Demystify the puzzle to identify the problem. Stay in a state of readiness to identify potential opportunities to calm volatile situations and continuously look for long-term solutions through personal interaction with employees that promote a safe, harmonious, positive, and violence-free work environment.
Although some industries and occupations seem more predisposed to workplace violence, no work environment is immune. Incidents have occurred in three-person businesses as well as those employing thousands of workers. No company can completely prevent or eliminate workplace violence, but with proper planning and effective programs, the chances of such violent occurrences can be dramatically reduced. Eliminating violence in the workplace should be a top priority for every executive, manager, and team leader. Rather than doing nothing or waiting until a serious act of aggression occurs in your organization, get proactive by training your team to eliminate violence before it happens.
In an age of leaner organizations, greater demands are placed upon people at all levels. There is pressure to do more with less. The last thing an organization need is a catastrophic incident of violence in the workplace. Such an occurrence not only destroys lives but also may destroy an organization’s ability to survive. While not all organizations have workplace violence policies and procedures, many organizations do have many of the underlying components of workplace violence policies and procedures, such as grievance procedures, supervisory training, and outplacement services.
While workplace violence is generated from a variety of sources, the effects that employees have on the organization are greater than the effects of other sources of workplace violence. Until those who run organizations familiarize themselves with the threat of domestic violence in the workplace, exposure to such a threat may become a reality.
Violence in the workplace is growing rapidly within the last ten years. It captivated the US during the Oklahoma bombing, Columbine shootings, and US Post Office shootings. Although it was occurring long before this, workplace violence was finally brought to the forefront. We have all seen violence on the news, read it in the newspaper, or heard it on television. Companies have a responsibility to protect their employees while on the job.
Dale Tieman of Tieman Industries stated, “The key to implementing a successful workplace health and safety program is not to see it as a burden, but rather as a responsibility as an employer.” With the economy tight, employers cutting back – layoffs, reducing hours and pay, employees may become irritable, disgruntled, and have felt that the company is taking advantage of them. “Each week, an average of twenty people are murdered, and 18,000 are assaulted while working or on duty in the United States.” (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1996) In difficult times as these employers need to have and enforce a policy and procedure for workplace crime.
Not only does crime happen in the workplace caused by employees, but statistics show that “five percent of women victimized at work were attacked by an intimate whereas only one percent of men were.” (Bachman, 1994) Workplace violence doesn’t stop with physical abuse, but mental distress and verbal harassment may be involved. Employers can have a plan readily available for most of these situations. On-the-job intervention programs could diffuse a volatile situation. Companies can offer programs that help employees overcome drug abuse, stress, death, divorce, and spousal/partner abuse.
When employees come to work, they are coming with all their issues, and the employers may not detect how well the employees handle life events. Companies cannot pretend that employee troubles are left at home and do not affect their working environment. A Gallup Poll was conducted showing family and health as the two most important aspects of life. With workplace violence, family and health are at risk if employers and employees do not work together to resolve this issue.
In order to decrease violence in the workplace, employers and employees must use preventative measures. New hiring procedures can keep potentially dangerous people out of the workforce. Screening procedures like background investigations allow companies access to criminal, employment, financial, and military records that could aid them in identifying a violent individual (Workplace Violence).
In addition to hiring procedures, a violence prevention program is necessary. First, a documenting system for violent incidents must be established. Once the information has been documented, it can be used to develop a necessary prevention program policy (Violence in the Workplace ). One program issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration includes five key elements, which are: management commitment and employee involvement, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, training and education, and evaluation. (Health Letter on the CDC 2).
A staff meeting is essential to having a good and productive company because it gives staff time and a place to vent their frustrations and to discuss problems they may be having on the job. Regular mandatory staff meetings should be held to allow staff to communicate ideas and to voice their opinions about the company’s progress in achieving good customer service and exposing any issues they may have with their co-worker. Staff could brainstorm ideas on how the policies should be re-written or if new rules should apply. By brainstorming with staff, the company can gain an understanding of what needs to be changed, and staff can understand what the company expects of them. Finally, staff meetings could be used for staff to communicate their feeling, especially those staff that may not feel comfortable speaking out or voicing their opinions in meetings.
Probably the ideal way to combat violence is through education. Violence in the Workplace explains that training should emphasize the appropriate use and maintenance of protective equipment, adherence to administrative controls, and increased knowledge and awareness of the risk of workplace violence. (Violence in the Workplace) Richard V. Denenberg, the author of The Violence-Prone Workplace, suggests that good mediation skills are valuable in response to a potential crisis by resolving the matter quickly (189). Stephen Skinner, President of Skinner’s Corner Store, suggests that a “zero-tolerance policy” should be set from day one.
According to this policy, violence will result in termination from a job (Personal interview). Mark Braverman, the author of Preventing Workplace Violence, clearly points out that employees must learn to get more involved with company policies and procedures if violence is to be prevented (127-28). It is important that businesses use preventative measures to reduce the risk of violence because it can only get worse.
References
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