Workplace Violence and Harassment: Types, Risk Factors and Statistics

Topic

The research will talk about a broad problem that could be identified which we all known as workplace violence and harassment. This is the act in which an individual is threatened, abused, assaulted or intimidated in his or her very own employment. The factors that are included in the workplace violence or harassment are physical attacks, verbal abuse, verbal or written threats and at the same time any kind of threatening behavior (Kristen, Banuelos & Urban, 2015). It has also been identified that are specific jurisdiction that states harassment as form of violence, whereas on the other hand, there are certain jurisdictions that define separately.

Adding to that, the fact which needs to be highlighted is that the workplace violence or harassment is not only limited to that of the incidents which generally takes place within a given traditional workplace. It has also been identified that the chances of work-related incidents could easily take place during the off-site business-related functions that includes factors like conferences and trade shows (Hanson et al., 2015). This also includes harassment that occurs at social events that are connected to work, in clients' homes, or away from work but resulting from work.

Background

There are multiple studies that shows that workplace abuse that also includes factors of sexual harassment is considered as a significantly experienced worldwide issue that is connected to contrary mental health outcomes and also grievances regarding the same. Workplace harassment is a serios issue that has been a significant issue throughout the world. Thus, in order to propose a proper recommendation relating to the same, it is extremely important to carry proper research regarding the topic that has been selected.

It has also been identified that there are significant number of Americans workers that have reported to once have been the victims of workplace violence every year. The numbers are quite alarming and the impact of the problem is gigantic (W?ziak-Bia?owolska, Bia?owolski & McNeely, 2020). Also, it is important to mention that there are multiple cases of workplace harassment that does not get reported for multiple reasons and also at the same time there are companies that do not want to inform about the cases that have occurred in their workplace.

Questions And Answers Related To The Topic

Questions that will help in getting a better understanding of the concept related to workplace harassment and the different factors related to them are:

1. The Problem of Workplace Violence and Harassment

   What are the factors that increase the risk of violence in workplace?

There are multiple studies that talks about the factors that actually amplifies the hazard that is related to the violence related to certain workforces that are connected to certain worksites. The features are trading money with the public and working together with individual who are unpredictable and not significantly stable. Adding to that, working alone or in the places that are isolated might also add to the chances of violence in the workplace (Ridenour et al., 2015). Enabling care and services relating to the same, and it is also the place where alcohol gets served may also influence the likelihood of violence.

2. What are the different types of workplace violence?

There are significantly five types of workplace violence and they are:

Type 1: The first type would be Criminal Intent.

Type 2: The second type would be Customer/Client.

Type 3: The third type of workplace violence would be Worker to Worker.

Type 4: The fourth type of workplace violence would be Domestic violence.

Type 5: The fifth type of workplace violence would be Ideological violence.

3. What are the statistics on workplace violence?

 Based on the statistics that have been provided, it has been seen that every year, there are millions of American workers that have been reported as being the victim of workplace violence (Phillips, 2016). However, there are multiple cases where the incident gets not reported.

4. What profession has the most workplace violence?

The professions that have the maximum amount of workplace violence highlighted are:

• health professionals such as the nurses
• workers of the public transport
• most of the care workers who are related to the setting

5. How often does work related violence occur?

 Based on the latest studies that could be identified from the Health and Safety Executive shows that 1.3% of working adults have actually been suffering one or more that violent occurrences at the workplace every year (Andersen et al., 2018). There are significant number of factors that may add to the aggressive and/or violent behavior of the individuals.

The recommendations that are related to the management of workplace violence could be highlighted based on the understanding of the issue. The few steps that could be taken formulate an effective workplace violence prevention program are:

1. Increasing employee participation and management commitment (Biçkes et al., 2017).
2. Proper analysis of worksite
3. Control and prevention of hazard
4. Proper training of the employees to fight against workplace violence.

Data and sources are from research articles and journals. The information from these websites are about work-related threats and violence in human service sectors, health care worker’s stress and anxiety levels of work-related violence and the impact of workplace violence in developing countries.