Workplace Violence Essay -- Workplace Health and Safety

Workplace Violence Workplace violence has existed throughout history. However, historical documentation of workplace violence is vague and sometimes non-existent. Documented workplace violence is believed to have existed during the Roman Empire, the Renaissance Era, and it continues today. It seems unfortunate, but as long as a â€Å"society† exists, workplace violence will more than likely exist. Therefore, employers must understand: the history of workplace violence, the effects it has on the organization, the reasons why it occurs, the warning signs, and ways to prevent it from occurring. Most importantly, it is the responsibility of the Manager, to not only understand workplace violence, but to ensure that all employees understand the seriousness of workplace violence and to make sure that they have a safe working environment. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), workplace violence is any physical assault, threatening behavior or verbal abuse occurring in the work setting. It includes, but is not limited to beatings, stabbing, suicides, shootings, rapes, near suicides, psychological traumas such as threats, obscene phone calls, an intimidating presence, and harassment of any nature such as being followed, sworn at or shouted at. Before 1980, the American job-site was relatively safe and there were not many people concerned with violence in the workplace. Unfortunately, this has changed. Workplace violence has become a serious issue, especially since many people spend most of their time at work. Today, television and radio bombard the public with graphic depictions of violent workplace scenes. Violence occurs everywhere and it has even trickled ... ...s.† http://www.all-biz.com/articles/violence.htm U.S. Office of Personnel Management Author: Mary P. Tyler., A Manager’s Guide: Traumatic Incidents at the Workplace., 1993. Workplace Violence Department of Labor, Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Resources on the web. Information on Workplace Violence, guidelines and training materials are available. http://www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence Workplace Violence- a Bibliography Books dealing with workplace violence, prevention, protection, management, containment, liability, etc., are listed here with hyperlinks to Amazon.Com where they can be reviewed and ordered online. http://www.growing.com/accolade/viol/w_place.htm In addition, portions of a group project, in which I participated in, was used as a reference for completing this report.