Employee Perceptions Of Federal Workplace Violence

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management presents the full text of a handbook entitled "Dealing with Workplace Violence: A Guide for Agency Planners," published in 1998. The handbook discusses how to establish workplace violence initiatives. The handbook covers the basic steps of program development, case studies, threat assessment, considerations of employee relations and the employee assistance program, workplace security, and organizational recovery after an incident.

Discusses Federal employees' perceptions of workplace changes, following budget cuts associated with downsizing. Summarizes the responses of 9,710 employees within the framework of a survey conducted in the Spring of 1996.

The Psychology and Law of Workplace Violence examines the causes, risk factors, prevention and legal issues associated with workplace violence. Previous attempts to explain these crimes are often only descriptive and do not identify the basic underlying psychological mechanisms and yet, from the largest violent acts, such as the September 11th "Attack on America," to the smallest violent workplace crime, the psychological mechanisms are the same. This landmark text offers a different perspective to the current concepts of workplace violence and will likely change the way people conceptualize violent crime. Part One of the text identifies eight underlying factors responsible for these crimes, identifies two necessary conditions for their occurrence, and develops several significant, new concepts related to the field. Part Two discusses state and federal legal issues surrounding workplace violence. Workers' compensation, employer liability and employer duties under negligence law, hiring, supervision and firing, the legal aspects surrounding premises security, employee privacy issues, the ADA, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and criminal history inquiries are but a few of the many legal topics discussed. This section is written in a practical, easy-to-understand manner and contains materials that are often available only in law libraries. The final Part Three of the text is a compendium of workplace violence case histories and includes numerous nationally recognizable incidents along with many others that have not been widely publicized. An interesting description of details surrounding each crime and its aftermath is included. What happened to the perpetrator? What happened to the victims? In addition, for many cases, how the case relates to other cases and issues that have arisen from the case are discussed. In this section, which is the largest published compilation of case history material on workplace violence to date, covers over

Workplace Violence: Issues in Threat Management defines what workplace violence is, delves into the myths and realities surrounding the topic and provides readers with the latest statistics, thinking, and strategies in the prevention of workplace violence. The authors, who themselves have implemented successful workplace violence protection programs, guide novice and experienced practitioners alike in the development of their own programs.

“Dealing with Workplace Violence: A Guide for Agency Planners” addresses the issue that preventing workplace violence is a growing concern in the United States. Public interest and media attention have focused primarily on dramatic but very rare types of violence such as shootings by disgruntled employees in office buildings. Planners of workplace violence programs face the dual challenge of reducing employees' anxiety about very rare risk factors while focusing their attention on more likely sources of danger. Undue anxiety about the “office gunman” can stand in the way of identifying more significant, but less dramatic, risk factors such as poorly lighted parking lots or gaps in employee training programs. This anxiety can also make it more difficult to cope with one of the most common workplace violence problems — the employee whose language or behavior frightens coworkers. Federal employees in organizations such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have played a leading role in helping employers recognize and respond appropriately to the actual risks of workplace violence faced by their employees. At the same time, the risk of violence against Federal employees themselves has received increased attention, particularly in response to the tragic loss of life in the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. For many Federal workers, the anti-government sentiment they had handled on the job for years suddenly acquired a new and terrifying context. Even before the Oklahoma City tragedy, Federal managers and specialists, like their private sector counterparts, were becoming aware of the dangers of workplace violence and concerned about developing preventive programs for their employees. This was a challenging endeavor. When they turned to the private sector for expert guidance, they often found advice that was not necessarily compatible with Federal laws and regulations, or that failed to cover issues faced by Federal employees. However, in attempting to develop their own programs, agencies often discovered that they lacked the expertise necessary for a truly comprehensive approach. Depending on its mission, an agency might be rich in law enforcement personnel but without the needed resources in mental health or other disciplines whose input was essential. In the spirit of reinventing government, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management organized the Interagency Working Group on Violence in the Workplace. The purpose was to bring together a multi-disciplinary group of experienced professionals from throughout the Federal Government in order to develop comprehensive approaches to analyzing and responding to threats or incidents of violence in the Federal workplace.~