Violence in the Workplace - Report Example

Executive Summary

This is a report to the Chester Enterprise CEO; Dr. Chester on the prevention of violence at the workplace is the business premise that is located in Oklahoma City. The CEO, Dr. Chester is the holder of a manufacturing company that has an estimated workforce of approximately a hundred workers and is involved in a manufacturing process. The CEO has been studying about the dilemma of violence in the workplace for a couple of months and sought for my intervention as a management consultant. He is looking for the right steps to assist him in becoming hands-on in preventing the problem. In this report, I elaborate to the CEO the meaning and forms of the workplace environment, through a systematic literature review. I also discuss the methods that the CEO could use to establish the incidents of workplace violence in the company, and the groups of people predisposed to acts of violence. In the report, I conclude by recommending to the CEO the appropriate ways of preventing violence in the workplace by reviewing the relevant literature on the topic.

Introduction

Workplace violence takes place on a continuum basis in the work environment today and takes many forms such as verbal and physical violence on one extreme end and assault, homicide, and death on the other extreme. There is the increased challenge posed by the fact that the risks of workplace violence vary significantly depending on the type of business. As I discuss in this report, several factors lead to the increasing incidents of workplace violence. If the management does not deal with the incidents of workplace violence adequately, there is an increased possibility of undermining the confidence of the employees and most of them may be forced to seek employment in other firms. It is important to understand coherently the factors surrounding workplace violence before proposing the appropriate measures of dealing with it in Chester Enterprise.

Literature Review

According to Gilmore (2006) and Virkki (2008), workplace violence has continued to become a risk factor, especially among the health care workers. According to the Health and Safety Authority, workplace violence entails threatening behavior such as throwing objects, destroying property, and shaking fists, and written or verbal threats with intent to or expression to cause harm (Violence at Work - Health and Safety Authority, 2016). International Labor Office, Di Martino, and Chappell (2006) corroborate that harassment is another form of workplace violence through the expression of behavior that annoys, humiliates, embarrasses, and demeans or a form of harassment that verbally abuses or alarms and are not welcoming. Such harassment includes inappropriate activities, bullying, intimidation, gestures, and words. Workplace violence can also take the form of condescending language, insults, and swearing. In most cases, the violence may entail physical attacks such as kicking, pushing, shoving, and hitting. Reeves and O'Leary-Kelly (2007) further, cite that intimate partner violence has a significant effect on the operations of any organization.

Gilmore (2006) however, adds that workplace violence extends beyond the traditional workplace and covers the acts of aggression perpetrated in the conferences and other off-site places where business activities are undertaken. The author adds that over 80 percent of the assaults and acts of aggression on nurses are not recorded. The author further mentions that such acts are likely to increase in cases where there is increased workload demands, emotional work environment, insufficient staffing levels, working in shifts, and in places where there is insecurity. According to International Labor Office, Di Martino, and Chappell (2006), and Gilmore (2006), violence in the workplace has become dynamic in the recent past with the diverse perpetrators inflicting aggressive acts on the employees. The commonest of the aggressive acts include bullying, mobbing, threats, assaults, and homicide. Labour Office, Di Martino, and Chappell (2006), and Gilmore (2006), further agree with the report of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that homicide is the most severe form of aggression at the workplace, and this led to 20 workers losing their lives in the United States on a weekly basis in 2001. Papa, Venella, and CEN (2013) corroborate the NIOSH report concerning the elements of violence and mention that physical assaults are part of violent acts in the workplace when directed towards the people on duty or at work.

According to Toscano and Weber (1995), workplace violence is an emerging safety concern in the workplace in the contemporary work setting. The authors record that in 1993, homicide as an extreme form of workplace violence resulted to 1,063 of the total job-related fatal injuries. According to the authors, an estimate of three workers lost their lives under violent incidents per day during this year. Most of the fatalities that were reported involved fast food sellers and taxicab operators through acts of robbery attempts. A similar trend was witnessed in 1992 in which over 22,000 employees suffered from work-related homicides, and the perpetrators of such acts were members of the same places of work. Toscano and Weber (1995) further adds that in the same year, more than 22,000 employees were victims of nonfatal assaults and were allowed to be off-duty for several days. The major forms of nonfatal violence include kicking and hitting leading to five days spent by the victim away from work on average. According to Papa, Venella, and CEN (2013), more than two million American employees suffer from workplace violence annually as reported by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The authors cite that the acts of violence can occur in any workplace, and there is no safe work environment.

According to Papa, Venella, and CEN (2013), there are different types of groups that are at increased risk of violence at the workplace place. The groups commonly affected include coworkers, visitors, and clients. Other categories of people who are at increased risk include retail employees, public works employees, teachers, correctional officers, and health care employees. There are certain interactions, processes, and factors that may lead to workplace violence such as dealing with the public, handling prescription drugs, valuables, and money like pharmacists and cashiers. Another category of interaction that leads to workplace violence includes enforcement duties and carrying out inspection such as government employees. The other category of people who are at increased risk of experiencing workplace violence is those offering education, advice, and those providing service such as teachers, and heath care staff. In addition, the people working with volatile and unstable persons such as criminal justice workers and social services are at increased risk. The risks of violence are higher depending on the time of the year or day such as performance appraisals, holidays, late at night, and overdue bills.

In considering the problem of workplace violence, it is necessary to look at a typical example of a nation that experiences the challenge in its labor force. According to Heiskanen (2007), threats and violence at the workplace have been on the rise in Finland between the period of the 1990s and 2000s. However, the other types of violence have been constant. The author cites that in Finland, women are at increased risk of suffering from the acts of violence in the workplace compared to men. The author, however, mentions that workplace acts of violence are not as severe as the other forms of violence against men sustaining comparably decreased injuries. Further, the male workers mostly commit the acts of violence, and the majority of the victims are women. In Finland, some of the factors that lead to increased violence within the work premises are economic in nature. There is tremendous growth of the workforce, especially in certain sectors such as healthcare, and education. The challenge that comes with this increase in the demand for labor force is that women continue to be in direct contact with the patients and customers, and this predisposes them to the acts of violence.

According to McClure and Werther (1997), one dilemma that most of the management consultants face in dealing with matters of such magnitude is the lack of training and skills relevant this field. The impact of such lack of competence poses difficulty in identifying the potentially violent workers. In cases where the problem is not dealt with professionally, the management is to be held liable for the acts of violence committed by their employees on their coworkers. The worst incidents occur where such acts of violence lead to death and the dependants of the victim or the survivor victim file a lawsuit against the company. Another challenge that leads difficulty in dealing with the problem of workplace violence is the inadequacy of the information published in the existing literature on the topic.

In dealing with the challenge of workplace violence that has been reported in Chester Enterprise, the CEO should review the history of the acts of aggression and threats recorded in the past. The first thing to do while reviewing the history of violence in the workplace is to ask the employees concerning their previous experiences and their general perception. The CEO should also review any of the previous incidences of violence through revisiting of the past reports on similar incidents, safety and health committee records, and first aid records (Toscano & Weber, 1995). The CEO should determine whether the workplace any indicative factors of violence. In addition, the CEO should ensure that the company conducts a visual inspection of the work being done and the general workplace. In conducting the inspection, the focus should be on the layout and design of the workplace and the work practices and administration. The company should review the relevant publications, seek advice from the security experts from the local environment, and collect the magazine or newspaper clippings that are related to the type of violence in the company. In addition, the company should gather information from the related associations and organizations such as the regulation of the occupational health and safety.

According to Wilkinson (2001), a program to prevent workplace violence involves two major elements for most businesses. The first element is an environment that is physically safe for the workers and the second element is an articulate plan to manage the troublemaking workers and clients. The environmental factors such as work with agitated people, intrinsic factors to the work environment, and environmental factors such as premise location in crime-prone regions increases the incidents of workplace violence in certain businesses. According to Wilkinson, 2001), one of the measures of preventing workplace violence is imposing zero tolerance to workplace violence as advocated for by most security personnel. One of such measures is an automatic termination of the contract of the perpetrators of acts of aggression and violence. By zero tolerance, I mean ensuring that physical violence and threats are disallowed within the premises. In the case of Chester Enterprise, one of the most effective ways of minimizing such incidents is setting up an employee-counseling unit that addresses the claims related to workplace violence.

Summary/Conclusion/Recommendations

Workplace violence takes several forms in the work environment in the present times such as verbal utterances and physical acts violence on one end and assault, homicide, and death on the other end. If the situation is not death with in a decisive manner, there are higher chances of losing employees or even being sued in extreme cases such as death. Following the rampant workplace violence in the company, I recommend that the CEO should consider providing safety education for the workers to help them identify the acts of aggression and conducts that are regarded as violent. Such educative sessions will also help the workers to know the steps to follow in case they fall victims of workplace violence or where they witness such elements of aggression being perpetrated. Secondly, the CEO ought to secure the business premises by installing appropriate surveillance devices and extra alarm and lighting systems, minimize the access into the premises through the introduction of security guards, use of electronic keys, and the use of identification badges. Thirdly, the CEO should give the finance department more drop safes to minimize the amount of money at hand, and limit the amount of cash during the nights, and evenings. Fourth, the CEO should instruct the workers to avoid entering into any location where they do not feel safe. Where possible, the company should provide an escort system or police in places that are potentially unsafe. Lastly, the CEO should develop procedures and policies that cover visits, especially to the workers. The policies should also cover the punitive measures attracted by the perpetrators of acts of violence, and define what workplace violence entails.