Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that there were 674 homicides in the workplace in 2000 (Workplace, 2002, 1). The journal Security reports that every day 16,400 threats, 723 attacks on workers and 43,800 incidents of harassment occur in the workplace (Work, 2002, 54).
There are a variety of definitions of workplace violence that involve categories of violence from homicide to threats. Providing testimony on workplace violence before the U.S. Congress, Eugene Rugala, Supervisory Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), defined four categories of workplace violence: (1) violent acts committed by criminal who have no connection with the workplace; (2) violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients or any others for whom the organization provides service; (3) violence against co-workers, supervisors or managers by a present or former employee; and, (4) violence committed in the workplace by someone who doesn’t work there, but has a personal relationship with an employee (2002, 2-3).
With respect to definitions of workplace violence, they vary across the literature. Kondrasuk (et al. 2001) reports that Sampson defines workplace violence “as threatened or completed acts of violence by employees against employees or non-employees” (186). Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines workplace violence as “Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work” (Rana, 2002, 10). Rugala (2002) of the FBI contends that workplace violence encompasses “any action that may threaten the safety of an employee, impact the employee’s physical or psychological well-being, or cause damage to company property” (2).
Occupations/Employees at Risk for Victimization
While different definitions and different statistics exist with respect to workplace violence, there is agreement in the literature concerning its primary cause. Accor...