Blog Assignment #1

MSMC Blog Assignment #1
Organizational Behavior MGT 505.0-D1 Chapter 1:Case2 “Workplace Violence”
Professor Cynthia L. Krom By May Lee
9/29/07

Question #1
How liable should companies be for violent acts that are committed during work by their own employees?
I believe a company that employs a worker is responsible for that worker’s physical, emotional, and mental safety as much as the worker is. Violence falls under deviant workplace behavior, a voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and, in doing so, threatens the well-being of the organization or its members (Robbins & Judge, 2007). It is in the companies’ own self interest to minimize job stress and maximize job satisfaction.

Question #2
Can companies completely prevent workplace violence? If not, what steps can they take to reduce it?
I believe workplace violence can be minimized, but not eliminated entirely. There are too many variables in any environment that cannot be controlled. There can, however, be measures, and counter measures that can be offered. Employee Assistance Programs for the physical and mental health and wellness for employees (www.stlukecornwallhospital.org) can be offered for job stress. But here the onus is still on the individual to take advantage of the programs offered.

Question #3
Why do you think only one percent of companies have a formal antiviolence policy?
The low number of companies with a formal antiviolence policy can only be explained by cost and short sighted management. Defined value, where the value of an expense that is measurable often trumps the undefined value, where the value is unmeasurable. If the amount of reported workplace violence is zero, it cannot be measured against the possibility of the number of workplace violence thwarted.

Question #4
Some companies are considering the installation of metal detector to prevent workplace violence. Do you think these measures infringe too much on individual privacy? In other words, can a company take prevention too far?
I think anyone who has traveled on a commercial airline after 9/11 has experienced firsthand the extreme measures the U.S. has taken toward terrorism and violence. Are these measures a nuisance to us law biding citizens? Absolutely! Are these measures necessary to deter copycat terrorists? Absolutely! When a company violates a worker’s civil rights, then it has gone too far. Although reactionary, and a little too late, companies must prevent copycat violence of any kind.

Question #5
What factors might lead to violent acts in the workplace? Are these acts committed by only a few “sick” individuals, or are many individuals capable of committing acts given certain circumstances?
Everyone has their own individual breaking point. A man, a sole bread winner, who has to support his only daughter, whose on life support, who just lost his job due to a misunderstanding boss, might be pushed to workplace violence just as easily as a single woman, with no family to support, but has been sexually harassed once too many. All of us are capable of violence. If a co-worker ever hurt my child, I might be moved to drive my minivan through his cubicle. Both examples are target specific. We define target specificity as the propensity to aggress against…a person within the organization (Hershcovis, Turner, 2007).

References
1 Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior ,Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall
2 St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital, 2007: htt;://www.slchospital.org
3 Hershcovis, M. S., Turner, N., Barling, J., Arnold, K. A., Dupre, K. E., Inness, M., et al. (2007). Predicting Workplace Aggression: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology Vol 92, No. 1 , 230.