Violence In The Workplace Essay

An Act of Workplace Violence Leadership carries with itself many benefits. Conversely, leadership also possesses many demands and challenges. According to Clark (1997), ”leadership’s main function is to produce movement and constructive or adaptive change through processes, such as establishing direction through visioning, aligning people, motivating, and inspiring” (p. 1). Unquestionably, this is a monumental task by any standard. Moreover, many expect leaders to perform these functions perfectly. Leaders like all of us, however, make errors. Lapses in good judgment occur.

Negative Leadership Behavior A colleague, Mary Doe, borrowed a glass bowl for office use. After returning from lunch she picked up the bag containing the bowl.

Later that day, Johana’s supervisor, Romea was in the office. I spoke to Romea who was unaware of the event and said it would be discussed at the next staff meeting. I waited one month but it was never discussed at the staff meetings nor did Romea or Johana ever speak with me about this incident.

I then met with my department manager, Beatriz and detailed the incident. Beatriz immediately contacted the Security Division. Security indicated the incident met all the criteria for workplace violence and launched an investigation. The security report indicated that it was their belief that Johana had intentionally broken my bowl but without definitive proof no disciplinary action against Johana was

According to Brenner (2007), “Good communication from the leader helps to increase the working relationship between all members of the team.” (p. 17). The leaders choice to never speak about the incident resulted in tension among the team since members were wondering who was responsible and uninformed about what may or may not be occurring behind the scenes. Had open communication occurred benefits could have been resulted in, as K. Christmas (2007) states, “raising awareness…leads to a safer and more harmonious work environment (p.