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...the application of force, serious abuse or severe threat by members of the
public towards people arising out of tiie course of tiieu work whether or not
they are on duty.. .including severe verbal abuse or threat where this is judged
likely to turn mto actual violence, serious or persistent harassment (including
sexual or racial harassment), threat with a weapon, major or minor injuries,
fatalities... (cited in Howard, 1989:218).
The obvious limitation of the definition cited above is its restriction of
perpetrators to 'members of the pubhc' thereby ignoring other potential aggressors.
At the more inclusive end of the continuum of definitions, a useful one for
nursing was offered by Campbell and Landenburger (1996:732) as "those
nonaccidental acts, interpersonal or infrapersonal, that resuh in physical or
psychological injury to one or more persons".
This operational definition
encapsulates some important aspects of workplace aggression which may be argued as
being different from other experiences of aggression. Firstiy, it takes into account
intentionality in that aggression can injure other workers who were not the intended
victim. An example of an accidental act of aggression would be where a patient threw
a basin at the door which hit a nurse as she was entering the ward and injured her.
The general meaning of aggression required 'intention to cause physical harm' as a
pre-requisite for aggression. Secondly, Campbell and Landenburger's definition
focuses on the relationships between people involved in aggression. This may include
the different roles and power relationships people have within the organisation.
Finally, it considers both physical and psychological outcomes for victims.
In Australia, the Commonwealth Accident Compensation Commission (ACC)
has had the responsibility for maintaining aggregated statistical records of labour
force injury since 1985, therefore it is sourced by Australian researchers as providing
authoritative statistics on the incidence of work-related aggression. The ACC
operational definition, however, belongs within the range of the most narrow
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