Definition
Hostility within the workplace is an umbrella term encompassing behaviors – including harassment, aggression, bullying, emotional and verbal abuse, anti-social behavior, incivility, or abusive supervision – that cause harm to a target as well as to bystanders. In the United States workplace hostility refers specifically to prohibited discriminatory behaviors as administered by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and set out in civil rights legislation. This is paralleled in the United Kingdom Equality Act 2010. Injurious behaviors and targets not falling within the ambit of the legal protections in the anti-discrimination legislation are included in other national jurisdictions such as the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011 in Australia.
Introduction
The classification of abusive behaviors within the work environment has been debated by academic researchers, organizational behaviorists, regulators, national and state governments, the European Union,...
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Further Reading
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.). (2011). Bullying and harassment in the workplace. New York: CRC Press.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2016). Report of the Co-Chairs of the EEO select task force on the study of harassment in the workplace. US: EEOC.
Jenkins, M. (2013). Preventing and managing workplace bullying and harassment: A risk management approach. Toowong: Australian Academic Press.
Schindeler, E., Ransley, J., & Reynald, D. (2016). Psychological violence in the workplace: New perspectives and shifting frameworks. London: Routledge.
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Schindeler, E. (2019). Workplace: Hostile Environment. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_256-2
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Workplace: Hostile Environment- Published:
- 14 May 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_256-2
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Workplace: Hostile Environment- Published:
- 26 November 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_256-1