Re-positioning workplace aggression interventions: a violence framework
International Journal of Organizational Analysis
ISSN: 1934-8835
Article publication date: 1 November 2021
Issue publication date: 31 October 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the socio-psychological systems in organizations that structurally support workplace aggression.
Design/methodology/approach
Using both a structural and contextual model of intimate partner violence (IPV), the factors supporting workplace aggression were analyzed. The narratives were provided from the participants’ lived experiences of workplace aggression, producing clear indications of where formal and informal power reside.
Findings
The methods of power and control used by workplace perpetrators parallel those illustrated in IPV. The inaction of management and the lack of social support enabled informal power asymmetries and the organizational norm of silence. The findings have implications for how workplaces view and intervene in relationship-based violence.
Originality/value
Workplace aggression has been studied from a conflict management perspective, without exploring the components that enable and support organizational abuse. As a result, organizational responses to workplace aggression have failed to address the complex relationship-based components and consequences. The primary contribution of this study is the disruption of the conflict-based perspective of workplace aggression into a more appropriate framework of violence, power and control.
Keywords
Citation
Sanderson, K. (2023), "Re-positioning workplace aggression interventions: a violence framework", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 1582-1600. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-06-2021-2827
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited