Case study1- Workplace Violence in US -2005

1. Problem Definition:
Workplace violence is any act of physical violence, intimidation, harassment, or other threatening
disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. The Violence can impact on employees, clients,
customers, and visitors. As per OSHA twenty thousand assaults and seven hundred homicides occurred in
2005 at US, caused legal and serious repercussions on employees, their families. Although most of
companies did not change their workplace violence prevention procedures after the incident.

2. Justification of the Problem

Work-related issues are not always the cause of workplace violence. Most people assume that
disgruntled workers are usually the culprit. However, that is not necessarily the case. As reported by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics, in two-thirds of workplace homicides, the attacker has no known personal
relationship with the victims. Furthermore, most assailants who are employees commit workplace
violence due to something else going on in their lives. Some of the more typical reasons for workplace
violence are mental illness, drug abuse, divorce, or perceived personal failure.
Half of all workplace violence happens in a public environment. It is virtually impossible to work on
preventing violence in the workplace when most companies do not see it as a problem. The estimated
cost of a workplace homicide to the employer is a whopping $800K. It is safe to say that it would be less
expensive to act against workplace violence.

3. List of solutions:

 Be constantly aware of your surroundings.

 Maintain professional relationships and boundaries.
 Maintain a good working familiarity with safety policies and procedures. Make sure to
report and document any workplace violence-related incidents.
 Using devices to detect the dangerous tools
 Take advantage of all safety training and ask for additional training whenever you think you
need it.

4. Evaluate Alternatives:
Be constantly aware from your surrounding can’t be attitude for every minute, especially during
working time. And maintain good relationship is basics in work but sometimes there are group of
people that not your friends, maintain the policy is something good and can support in putting rules
to prevent Violence, also Awareness of employees is critical for understanding how to deal, prevent
and report any worries, but using the devices or tools is an option based on the plant assessment
and decision
5. Recommendations
 a well-written and implemented workplace violence prevention program, combined with
engineering controls, administrative controls and training can reduce the incidence of workplace
violence in both the private sector and federal workplaces.