Harassment And Harassment, Aggress And Violence In The Workplace

In past years, workplace violence has been a growing concern and a frequent headline in the media. In response, the psychopathic stereotype of the “insane postal worker”, among other stigmatizations, has emerged as a specific fear for some and the punch line of jokes for others. Regardless, violence in the workplace, in any form, is a crucial issue that must be addressed within the organization for the safety and productivity of the employee pool, as a whole. Recent estimates, pertaining to workplace violence, purport that 26% of violent incidents occur against males by someone with whom they had a work relationship (BJS, 2011). Similarly, about 33% of females, who were victims of workplace violence, were perpetrated by someone who had a working relationship with them (BJS, 2011). It is this type of event that is of interest within this study: incidents of workplace violence in which the aggressor is a member of the work environment. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011), coworkers were the most likely to attack another individual in the workplace, representing 16% of incidents and 14% of incidents against males and females, respectively.

Therefore, in response to this issue, a substantial body of research exists, addressing harassment, aggression, and all forms of workplace violence, indicating to varying degrees why and how these phenomena occur (via psychological, physiological and environmental factors) and to what extent employers may mitigate deviant behavior. More specifically, within the inventory of literature, two predominant areas of research present, which demand further focus and scrutiny: 1) research exploring the identification of factors that contribute to workplace violence; and 2) research address...

... middle of paper ...

...OSHA (2013), workplace violence includes stabbings, shootings, sexual assaults, psychological trauma, threats or obscene phone calls, harassment of any nature, stalking, sworn at or shouted at, any form of intimidation.

Organization of the Remainder of the Study

While this chapter provided insight into the background of the problem and a concise summary of some of the existing research on the issue of workplace aggression, the following chapters present a more comprehensive assessment of the existing literature in the next segment of this thesis. This is followed by a detailed description of the methodology executed and the subsequent findings that were produced. Finally, the last chapter presents a comprehensive discussion of the implications of these findings and their applicability to the field of Human Resources, organizational studies, and future research.