Workplace Violence Research Program Main Page
What is workplace violence?
Many people think of violence as a physical assault, however, workplace violence is a much broader problem.
Heather’s program of research examines two forms of workplace violence:
- Workplace Incivility
- Workplace Bullying
…a low-intensity deviant behaviour with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect… (Laschinger, Leiter, Day, & Gilin, 2009)
Overt forms of workplace incivility:
- losing one’s temper or yelling at someone in public
- withholding important customer/client information
- sabotaging a project or damaging someone’s reputation
Subtle forms of workplace incivility:
- arriving late to a meeting
- checking e-mail or texting during a meeting
- ignoring or interrupting a colleague in the workplace
Incivility is related to:
- Turnover intentions
- Lower job satisfaction
- Reduced work efforts and quality of work
- Occupational stress
‘…a person is bullied or harassed when he or she feels repeatedly subjected to negative acts in the workplace, acts that the victim may find it difficult to defend themselves against…’ (Einarsen et el., 1994, p. 383)
Three components of bullying are:
- Work Related: changing work tasks or making them difficult to perform
- Personal: personal attacks on by ridicule, insulting remarks, gossip, etc.
- Physical: physical violence or threats of such violence
Being classified as bullied is related to:
- Negative perception of organizational climate
- A higher propensity to quit
- Lower job satisfaction
- More sick days
- Burnout
- Decreased psychological well-being
