Organizational Violence - Violation at Work

Organizational Violence

Organizational violence is defined as the repetition of negative behaviour towards people at a workplace. Workplace violence consists of employees being insulted, shouted at, threatened physically, and ridiculed through spread rumours, criticism, and humiliation at the workplace (Rousseau, Eddleston, Patel, Kellermanns, 2014). Unethical workplace environment, psychological strain, and poor emotional well-being can facilitate the condition for violence. According to Merchant and Lundel (2001), organizational violence is classified into four types. Type one violence is that committed by the violent behaviour of a stranger. Type two occurs between employees and customers. Type three occurs between coworkers. Finally, type four is a violent relationship which spreads to the work environment (Kessler, Spector, Chang, Parr, 2008 & Spector, Coulter, Stockwell, Matz, 2007). This essay highlights workplace violence in Canada and gives some solution defined by government and other parties. Followings are some rules and regulations which need to be followed by any firm and business operating in Canada to improve productivity.      

Workplace violence or actions have different outcomes for companies (Dietz, Robinson, Folger, Baron, Schulz, 2003 ) such as employees’ health jeopardized which could be caused by sleep loss, illness, and stress. Moreover, organizational violence decreases employees’ productivity, incentive, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, all of which has costs for organizations and employees. Furthermore, organizational violence can create hostility among employees such as offensive, abusive, intimidating, and insulting behaviour that can lead an organization to corruption and limit peoples’ freedom (Rhodes, Pullen, Vickers,  Clegg, Pitsis, 2010). Therefore, it is vital for businesses to minimize organizational violence and protect employees from these negative acts (Rousseau, Eddleston, Patel, Kellermanns, 2014).

In 2017, the Canadian government tried to identify information about the work environment at companies; therefore, the government provided an online survey to let people share personal work experiences. The online survey was conducted from February 14 to March 9, 2017. The survey provided some information about number and types of violence and harassing behaviours at Canadian workplaces. Close to 10,500 individuals responded to the survey, in which over 50 percent of individuals claimed that violence and harassment took place by an authority over them. Most of the respondents who reported sexual harassment experience were women. Therefore, the Canadian government started to provide some solutions for employees’ safety and health at their workplace and asked people to share their opinion. Over fifty percent of people who reported violence in the work environment requested appropriate education for employees and close to 40 percent of them believed an awareness campaign could be helpful. Moreover, the consultants believed providing education and training is a good solution, because organizations have policies to prevent violence in the workplace, but the problem is people are not always aware of the policies.

The survey identified that 76 percent of companies have policies to prevent violence, but employees are not aware of the policies because there is little training supporting the policies. Only 43 percent of the respondents had training through a website or in a classroom with regard to anti-violence policies. Moreover, stakeholders emphasized training and awareness of employees regarding their rights and obligations about violence and harassment at any workplace. Stakeholders mentioned that prevention of violence at any organization should be the priority, and then human resources should provide training classes for employees. Furthermore, stakeholders expressed managers and leaders should have sufficient training about violence issues, because it is management’s responsibility to prevent violence issues at the workplace. Other solutions suggested by stakeholders were training children beginning at the high school level and also forming committees at individual workplaces as well as hiring health and safety officers at companies (Canada, 2017).

The government suggested some solutions to prevent organizational violence in the workplace. Depending on the number of employees at work, the way the policy is presented differs. If the number of employees is six or more, the rules and regulations should be represented as a written document. Implemented policies should cover many aspects to satisfy both employers and employees. The employer is responsible for protecting the worker against any violence at work. Employees should be able to report any violence. Both parties should be aware of the rules and regulation supporting the policies. The management should sign as commit the outline of those policies (Canada, 2017).

According to the Workplace Violence Policy and Program under the Occupational Health and Safety, every employee has the right to know the details about the violence policy and database at work. Workers should know how to get assistance in the case of any violence. Staff should be aware of the procedures and actions which will be taken by the employer. Administrators should gather enough information on any reported incident and apply the appropriate laws and regulations in order to solve the issue. If any incident happens in the workplace, according to laws defined by the Occupational Health and Safety, the worker is responsible for reporting the occasion directly to the police or emergency responders. In the case of severe injuries or death, instant notification has to be accomplished by telephone to the Ministry of Labour inspectors. The notice should include detailed information about the incident in writing. If the worker is disabled or requires any medical treatment, the health and safety committee should be informed immediately. In these conditions, inspectors require a letter to the Ministry of Labour (Canada, 2017).