Workplace violence has become an occupational hazard in the U.S. workplace. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concludes that nationally homicide is the second highest cause of workplace-related deaths and the leading cause of workplace death for women (Kondrasuk, Moore and Wang, 2002001, 186). The main reason for such grim workplace statistics is the failure of organizations to maintain prevention and security policies, plans and measures that effectively protect employees from workplace violence.
B. Definitions of Workplace Violence
A. Occupations/Employees at Risk for Victimization
B. Warning Signs/Behavioral Red Flags of Perpetrators
F. Engineering & Administrative Controls
A. Executive Mentality: It Can Happen Here!
A majority of Americans are familiar with the workplace violence associated with post office employees, a phenomenon that has provided our culture with a new phrase, going postal. What many Americans may not be familiar with is the fact that few companies seem immune from workplace violence, including homicide. At Chrysler in December, 1994, an auto-worker shot a co-worker to death; at Xerox on December 26, 2000, a copier repairman killed 7 Xerox employees at a plant warehouse in Hawaii; and, last year a former Navistar employee entered the Chicago factor and killed four workers after emptying 30 shots from an AK-47 (France and Arndt, 2001, 100).
Unfortunately, these are just a few examples of workplace violence. Statistically, workplace violence appears epidemic in proportion. While statistics on workplace violence vary from source to source and organization to organization, they all demonstrate the severity of the issue. The Insurance Information Network of California (IINC) reports that annually there are 650 homicides, 2 million assaults and 6 million serious threats that occur in the workplace (Violence, 2001, 18). The Occupational ...