Common examples of workplace aggression include gossiping, bullying, intimidation, sabotage, sexual harassment, and physical violence.
[13] It is important to identify and address the underlying causes of workplace aggression in order to prevent it from happening again.
[14] Aggression, in general, is any behavior an individual carries out with the intent to harm another person or group of people.
[21] This term refers to the aggressors' subjective evaluation of the relative effects and danger of committing an aggressive act.
This prolonged exposure means the victims of the aggressors' actions likely have more time to retaliate, thus increasing the danger aspect of the ratio.
Perceived interpersonal justice, the degree to which people feel they are treated with fairness and respect, is negatively related to both psychological and physical aggression against supervisors.
Greenberg and Barling found that the greater the perceptions of procedural justice, the less workplace aggression was reported.
[24] The most extreme forms of workplace aggression may result from personnel decisions, such as individual termination and mass layoffs.
[25] In 2009 a man killed one and wounded five others at his former place of employment two years after he was let go from the company due to poor performance.
[26] A similar event occurred in 2012 when a man shot and killed four employees and then himself after losing his job earlier that day.
Perceived job insecurity, or feelings of impending termination, has been found to be a predictor of workplace aggression.
[24] Furthermore, supervisory control over work performance has also been shown positively related to workplace aggression against supervisors.
[29] Baron and Neuman found that certain changes in the work environment can lead to increased aggression that they attribute to heightened anxiety and stress.
LeBlanc and Kelloway found that certain job features, such as handling guns or collecting valuable items, were significantly more related to workplace aggression.
While this trend is seemingly silent and slow growing, its effects are considered equally hurtful as any form of harassment.
These actions are referred to as flaming by Whitty & Carr, or essentially when an individual online writes with hostility towards a particular person or group of people.
[36] The ease of use with instant messaging, is partially to blame, "Employees can see who else is available, and if it's someone they want to talk to, they're able to connect in real time".
Some argue that instant messages are beneficial to the work process because it can easily resolve problems without having to distract the person via phone and you do not have to wait for an email response.
[37][38] Often upset workers send loaded messages and attach the email to a large group of co-workers that are not involved in the issue to bring attention to it.
"[33] The outcomes of workplace aggression addressed here include the health and well-being of targeted employees and job performance.
[40] Bjorkqvist, Osterman, and Hjelt-Back even found that targets exhibited symptoms similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as anxiety and depression.
[20] Sorensen et al. found possible associations between harassment at work and well-being measures of lower back pain and sleep deficiency among a sample of hospital workers.
Lapierre, Spector, and Leck found that those who perceived being targets of workplace aggression reported significantly lower overall job satisfaction.
In one study, results showed that men who experienced work aggression were more likely to report physical, psychosocial, affective, and cognitive problems.
[32] The study attributes these findings to the idea of modern-day masculinity, which stresses achievement and success in the workplace.
Based on a workplace prevention program developed by the United States Postal Service (USPS), Neuman and Baron encourage organizations to use personnel screening and testing to identify potential employees who are likely to behave aggressively before they are even hired.
[14] Neuman and Baron suggest that training for both supervisors and subordinates should focus on teaching employees methods for dealing with aggression.