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Workplace Violence: Factors Contributing and/or Facilitating

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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management

Definition

Workplace violence is “behaviour that a target wants to avoid, takes place in a work-related situation, and is potentially physically or psychologically damaging to the target” (Schat and Frone 2011).

Introduction

Workplace violence is considered a problem in many countries and among many occupational groups. Workplace violence refers to acts of aggression toward employees in a work-related context. Acts of aggression can, for example, include hitting, kicking, threatening, calling names, and bullying. The context of work can be the work location and during work hours but also outside these locations and hours, as long as there is a connection with work, such as a work relationship between persons. Workplace violence can occur in many variations. Incidents differ broadly in the occupational group it concerns, the type of workplace violence, and the type of relationship between victim and offender. First, workplace violence concerns all occupational groups, such as people at...

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Further Reading

  • Bowling, N. A., & Hershcovis, M. S. (2017). Research and theory on workplace aggression (Current perspectives in social and behavioral sciences). New York: Cambridge University Press.

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  • Van Reemst, L. (forthcoming). Emergency responders at risk: An empirical analysis of the relationship between emergency responders’ characteristics and their exposure to aggression from citizens. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

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Correspondence to Lisa van Reemst .

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van Reemst, L. (2019). Workplace Violence: Factors Contributing and/or Facilitating. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_77-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_77-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

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