Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European Picture

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Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European PictureE u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kIt is difficult to compare statistics or study results about the prevalence or exposure todifferent forms of third-party violence and harassment between different countries.This is due to:OO the use of different definitions and classifications to delimit the concepts;OO different methodologies for collecting and processing information, includingquantitative and qualitative researches, case studies, different ways of reporting acase of violence;OO the accuracy used to measure the nature of the incident, e.g. physical attack/biting,hitting;OO different time limits used;OO different criteria used for assessing harassment/bullying;OO different focus of data collection including national studies, sector specific studies,studies focusing on specific organisations; andOO cultural differences in experiencing violence and harassment.Even the same researchers have used varied methodologies or terms in differenttimes. For example, the European Working Conditions Survey asked about theexperiences of violence in the 1995/96 and 2000 surveys in different ways. The termsused about harassment have also varied in different times.Studies have shown that different ways to measure the prevalence of bullying givedifferent results (54, 55). In studies, two different methods to assess the prevalence ofbullying have mainly been used. The ‘subjective’ method requests the respondent toindicate, on the basis of a given definition, whether or not he or she feels exposed tosuch bullying. The ‘operational’ method measures the frequency with whichrespondents have been subjected to various types of negative acts during thedefined period of time (usually six months). The subjective, self-reporting methodleads to lower prevalence figures than the operational method.The most widely used method to assess the different forms of negative acts inresearch nowadays is the Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ) developed at theUniversity of Bergen (56, 54) and translated into several languages. The LIPT (LeymannInventory of Psychological Terrorisation) is also used but to a lesser degree. It has alsobeen translated into several languages.The Psychosocial Work Inventory by Björkqvist and Österman (57) defines workharassment and divides it into three levels describing the escalating nature of thephenomenon.OO Level I: Typical behaviours appearing at this level are: belittling and degradingcomments; rumours; backbiting; and the beginning of the exposed individual’sisolation.OO Level II: The degrading behaviour gets more severe, and overt, perhaps public,humiliation occurs. The exposed individual becomes more psychologically isolatedfrom others, who do not want to talk to him/her. It is typical at this level that theexposed individual is described — untruthfully — as having ‘difficulty incooperating’.OO Level III: The dehumanising process directed towards the exposed person isbrought to a level when (s)he is not regarded as having the same human value asothers, and it is acceptable to say almost anything about him/her. (S)he is nowtotally isolated, gets suggestions to seek another job, and is often regarded —untruthfully — to be ‘mentally disturbed’.44
Workplace Violence and Harassment: a European PictureIn studying the prevalence of harassment, sometimes third parties, sometimes onlyco-workers, supervisors/managers and subordinates are mentioned as potentialperpetrators.Methods to assess different forms of third-party violence, for example in healthcare(58) and retail (59) have been developed and used. The Violent Incident Form (VIF)(58) is designed for implementation in high-risk workplaces in the healthcare sector. Achecklist summarises key aspects of a violent incident, identifying the circumstances,perpetrator, event, and consequences. The form measures all levels of violentbehaviour, including the events that do not result in any physical harm, and alsoreports the violent incidents by staff members.Despite these difficulties, there is more and more data available from different sources(European Surveys, National Surveys, sector-specific studies) that mark the trends inthis area, increasingly recognising the nature of the phenomenon of work-relatedviolence and its severity.EU-OSHA’s European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER) 6 asksboth managers and workers’ safety and health representatives about the way safetyand health risks are managed in their workplace, with a particular focus onpsychosocial risks, i.e. work-related stress, violence and harassment. In spring 2009, atotal of 28 649 managers and 7 226 health and safety representatives were interviewedin the 31 countries covered: the EU-27 and Croatia, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey(185).E u r o p e a n Ag e n c y f o r Sa f e t y a n d He a l t h a t Wo r kA v a i l a b i l i t y o f s t a t i s t i c a l i n f o r m a t i o n 3.1.According to the Focal Point survey, statistical information on third-party violence isavailable in 10 European countries. Most of the negative answers came from therepresentatives of new EU Member States (Table 6).6 Developed with the support of governments and social partners at European level, ESENER aims toassist workplaces across Europe to deal more effectively with safety and health and to providepolicymakers with cross-nationally comparable information relevant for the design andimplementation of new policies. As well as looking at management practices, ESENER explores indetail how workers are involved in the management of safety and health at work, which is animportant factor in the successful implementation of preventive measures at workplace level.Detailed results are available online (http://www.esener.eu) and the ESENER dataset is accessibleonline via the UK Data Archive (UKDA) of the University of Essex (http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/Introduction.asp). Further analyses will be carried out throughout 2010 and will be published in 2011.45
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