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Preventing Violence in the Workplace

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Violence in the workplace is a growing trend among American businesses that needs the prompt attention of individuals, governments, and corporations alike. In fact it is so serious that “violence in the workplace in recent years has grown to be the second leading cause of death in the workplace” (Baron, Hoffman, & Merrill, 2000). Responding to this epidemic will take a tailored dynamic approach that must be embraced by employees and management alike. First, we must understand exactly what constitutes workplace violence and understand some common triggers from past cases. Second, employees and managers must know and understand what signs they must be aware of that could escalate into workplace violence through effective and recurring …show more content…

Unfortunately, these employees had not been briefed in symptom recognition of potentially violent behavior, nor given instructions on how to report such information” (Mattman, 2001). Several of these key behaviors include, but are not limited to: drug/alcohol abuse, depression, increased absenteeism, threats or verbal abuse, signs of mental illness, paranoia, projecting their problems onto others namely management. If most companies took a proactive stance at mitigating workplace violence there could be a significant reduction in the occurrences of these events.

Preventing workplace violence has to be executed around a dynamic approach in which multiple factors are combined to place workers in a safe working environment. The first and most comprehensive tool that every organization should have is a workplace violence policy. An effective workplace violence policy has two main focal points. “First, good policies provide clear guidelines for expected behavior, definitions of unacceptable behavior, and outline the penalties for violating the policy” (Baron, Hoffman, & Merrill, 2000). This is imperative and must be communicated constantly to all employees. An employee’s initial immersion into the policy should occur before they begin to work for the job they were hired to do. Every organization’s

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