The Pros And Cons Of Workplace Violence

Workplace violence occurs due to an interpersonal conflict between two or more people that results from differences in their needs, ideas, goals, interests, or values (Marquis and Huston, 2015). Workplace violence is not limited to physical violence; it also includes negative activities such as bulling, verbal abuse, pranking, negative insinuations, gossiping, insubordination, and withholding information (Latham, Ringl, & Hogan, 2013). Research suggests that more than 80 % nurses experience workplace violence at some point in their working careers (Frederick, 2014). New graduate nurses are especially susceptible to workplace violence because they are usually unprepared to deal with it, and they are more likely to leave the profession due to workplace violence (Frederick, 2014). Townsend (2012) reported that 70 % of nurses, who experienced bullying at the workplace, leave their jobs, and 60 % of new graduate nurses quit their jobs within first six months of being bullied (as cited in Marquis & Huston, 2015). Workplace violence is an important leadership issue to address because it affects turnover rates, productivity, patient safety, and overall quality of care (Marquis & Huston, 2015).

The acts violence can be overt or covert verbal and or non-verbal aggression. Such act includes behaviors like gossiping, withholding information and ostracism, which are referred to relational aggression or psychological abuse. These behaviors can also extend outside the workplace and can occur in person or in cyberspace (Walrafen, Brewer, & Mulvenon, 2012). According to King-Jones (2011), the origin of lateral violence is related to the oppressed group model that supported that nurses are powerless and oppressed group. Hence, they react by over-powering other Violence in the workplace is a national concern that affects all profession, especially the nursing profession. It is a known fact that violence brings unsafe environment that has detrimental effects to the individual nurses as well and their patients (Chipps, stelmaschuk, Albert, Bernhard, & Holloman,

Workplace violence most often involves aggressive behavior towards peers, subordinates, supervisors, and other members of the workforce. This can range from verbal abuse to physical violence. Aggression may occur as a response to many situations. Common examples are when individuals face the loss of a job, are passed over for promotion, or perceive favoritism toward others in the work environment.

Stopping Lateral Violence of any type in the workplace, specifically in the field of nursing is essential not only for one’s physical and mental wellbeing but for continued success professionally and socially. Lateral or Horizontal violence or abuse in the workplace is violence occurring between workers; it includes both overt and covert acts of aggression (Donley, 2012). This aggression can be verbal and nonverbal, and comes in many forms. “Lateral violence in any form feels bad and creates fear which prevents one from being at his or her best (Donley 2012). According to Donley, you cannot be productive in a fearful environment because you may experience any range of these emotions including but not limited to feeling violated, anxious, stressed, disrespected or angry (2012).

The Xerox shooting and the Sheraton stabbing are good examples of such violent episodes. Both incidences exhibited prior evidence of violence in the workplace; and if proper intervention by management was initiated, these tragedies could have been prevented. Therefore, employers need a good workplace violence program to protect their employees as well as their customers.

In Understand & Report the Signs of Workplace Violence, we discuss the warning signs of workplace violence

Incivility, bullying, and workplace violence are part of a larger complex phenomenon, which includes a “constellation of harmful actions taken and those not taken” in the workplace (Saltzberg, 2011, p. 229). The term “actions taken and not taken” provides an overarching framework that includes using explicit displays of uncivil or threatening acts, as well as failing to take action when action is warranted or required to address incivility, bullying, or violence in the workplace.

According to the FBI, workplace violence is the number one growing homicide in the United States. There are an estimated 225,000 to 300,000 occurrences of violence each year. Despite the aforementioned statistic, some managers have simply failed to address the issue of workplace violence. Such negligence has not necessarily been purposeful. It has been due to a lack of awareness of the problem coupled with a preoccupation of everyday pressures.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) characterizes workplace violence as a demonstration of animosity coordinated toward persons at work or on duty, extending from hostile or debilitating language to homicide. Workplace violence is a major occupational hazard for healthcare providers local and global and needs more media and public attention. A report done by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, an estimated 1.7 million workers are injured each year due to assaults at work. Although homicides rates remain low in the healthcare setting, assaults remain the highest than any other institution (Gacki-Smith, et al., 2009).

The expression of violence takes many forms, ranging from physical assault and verbal abuse to intimidation and low level threatening behavior. The term ‘violence at work’ applies to ‘any incident in which employees and others are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances arising out of, or during work undertaken. This also includes employers, self-employed people and any other person who may be affected by a violent incident in the workplace. A violent incident is usually "sparked" by something that causes the employee in question to erupt. This is especially true if the individual is already feeling vulnerable or has low self-esteem. Behaviors of concern can be the beginning to greater levels of violence. Workplace violence is related

The workplace is not immune to violence. It can happen anywhere, anytime, by anyone and sparked by any reason. What is expected of a typical workday morning is the alarm going off, a quick breakfast, rush hour traffic, and greeting co-workers upon entering the job site. Workers go about their normal workday and leaving for home without incident. What is not expected or typical is the chaos of gunfire, stabbing, bombing, and any other unimaginable, horrific event in the workplace. The events in between a twenty-four hour span from one workday to the next are unpredictable even in the best working conditions or locations. Although the events that bomb shelled the media in the past years are horrific in nature, they represent a small portion of

Workplace violence (WPV) is defined as “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site” (OSHA, n.d., para. 1). For the nursing profession these threats include the following sources: nurse to nurse, patient to nurse, relatives to nurse, other health professionals to nurse. WPV happens in all healthcare settings, however some units are known to have higher incidences than others. One healthcare setting that is well known for having high incidences of patient to nurse violence is the ED. Factors that contribute to the increase of WPV in the ED include: long wait times, patients with mental disorders, patients who have a history of violence, and patients

Workplace violence has been a serious problem in the past years around all location and sitting. It is any act physical or emotional of violence or disruptive behaviors that occur at the work site. It can vary from a simple verbal abuse to the physical act. Careless behaviors that surround the healthcare workers affect the security and comfort of both caregiver and patient. Increasing security and comfort at the workplace in the healthcare sitting is critical for patient centered care.

Violence can be defined as behavior which involves physical force with the intention to hurt, kill, or damage something or someone. It comes by way of emotional, sexual, physical, psychological, etc. Violence can also come in different types and in different venues in which many use to consider being safe such as a school or church. However there is one venue in which violence takes place both intentionally and unintentionally, it is the place many of us must report to daily to make an honest living and provide for ourselves and household(s). This place is none other than our workplace and in this place one could not even realize that it is happening to them due to no physical force is being presented. Workplace violence

To begin, in any business, or corporation it is prudent for the managerial staff to properly educate and train their employees. Specifically, to diminish workplace violence, leaders need have successful violence prevention program in place to educate to their employees. According to the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, “ each year, some of two million American workers are victims of some form of workplace violence such as verbal abuse, yelling at coworkers,