Workplace Violence, Safety, and Awareness: A Literature Review
This literature review synthesizes scholarly research on workplace violence, safety, and organizational awareness. Drawing on peer-reviewed studies and authoritative sources from 1998 to 2019, the paper examines the prevalence and characteristics of workplace violence, including verbal abuse, physical threats, and domestic violence that spills into the workplace. It explores employees' perceptions of their own safety, the role of supervisors in prevention, and the importance of organizational policies such as zero-tolerance standards and employee assistance programs. The review also addresses awareness strategies — including training, threat assessment, and proactive policy enforcement — as essential tools for reducing workplace violence and fostering healthier, more productive work environments.
- Introduction: Defines workplace violence and review purpose
- Workplace Violence: Prevalence and Characteristics: Statistics, perpetrator traits, and sector-specific findings
- Employee Safety Perceptions and Organizational Policy: Worker perceptions of safety and OSHA policy requirements
- Domestic Violence in the Workplace: CDC data and employer response to domestic violence
- Awareness, Prevention, and Training Strategies: Zero-tolerance policies, training, and threat assessment
- Summary and Conclusions: Key findings and conflicting perspectives reconciled
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates a range of peer-reviewed sources spanning two decades, demonstrating the issue's persistence and evolution over time.
- Organizes evidence both topically and chronologically, allowing the reader to track changes in research focus from prevalence statistics to nuanced prevention strategies.
- Balances quantitative findings (e.g., percentages of nurses experiencing verbal abuse, CDC domestic violence statistics) with qualitative insights about organizational culture and supervisor roles.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective thematic synthesis — grouping sources under three coherent themes (violence, safety, awareness) rather than summarizing each article in isolation. This allows the author to identify convergences across studies, note a meaningful tension between management denial and employee perceptions, and build toward practical, evidence-based recommendations.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with a brief introduction defining workplace violence and justifying the topic's relevance. It then presents the literature in three thematic sections: the nature and prevalence of workplace violence, employee safety perceptions and policy requirements, and awareness and prevention strategies. A summary section draws together the common threads and notes a slight conflict in the literature regarding employee perceptions versus institutional denial. References follow APA format throughout.
Introduction
Workplace violence occurs when threats to the safety of employees exist. It can take various forms, including verbal abuse, physical threats, or job-related intimidation (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2002). It is reported that almost 2 million U.S. workers face some form of workplace violence each year. Certain employees face elevated risk, including those who deliver goods, those who work alone — especially during late-night hours — and those employed in high-crime areas. There is a recognized need for safety education for both workers and employers so that workplaces can be made more secure. Even where the problem persists, remedial procedures and best practices should be in place to ensure accurate investigation and response.
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive literature review on workplace violence, safety, and awareness. Examining existing research provides clear insight into the selected topic. Prior studies indicate that this area has been investigated using well-established methods and measurement scales that yield reliable results. The goal of this literature review is therefore to build knowledge about these issues through a systematic examination of relevant scholarly work.
Sources were primarily identified through a university library database. The articles selected were peer-reviewed and scholarly works addressing workplace violence, safety, and awareness. The keywords used were "workplace violence" and "workplace safety." Additional websites consulted included Google Scholar, SHRM.org, ManagerSkills.org, and OSHA.org. Inclusion criteria required that sources be peer-reviewed or scholarly articles focused specifically on workplace violence and safety, and published no earlier than 1998.
The literature review is organized in both topical and chronological order. The pervasiveness of workplace violence is discussed in relation to the publication dates of the articles reviewed, followed by examinations of safety and awareness. The main issue is explored, and preventive measures are addressed through secondary research of scholarly articles. The significance of awareness about workplace violence is also highlighted as a means of reducing its future occurrence.
Workplace Violence: Prevalence and Characteristics
The workplace is increasingly regarded as a setting for violence, as people from diverse backgrounds converge in shared spaces where conflict is inevitable. Chenier (1998) observed that perpetrators of workplace violence are often unknown to their organizations, since daily exposure to low-level violence has become commonplace. Violence may take the form of harassment and hostility from fellow employees or even from upper management. The issue has become a serious concern for employee safety and health. Among the most common settings for workplace violence that OSHA has identified are healthcare and social services environments, including psychiatric facilities, emergency departments, pharmacies, community care facilities, and drug abuse treatment programs.
Compounding the problem, employers have often denied that such issues exist — a denial that is frequently cited as a primary reason the problem remains unresolved. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 760 on-the-job murders were recorded in 1980 alone (Paul & Townsend, 1998). Workplace violence has frequently been identified as the primary source of work-related stress for many employees. Research has also described common characteristics of perpetrators: typically a male between 25 and 50 years of age, an employee of some tenure, with a history of violence, who exhibits insensitive behavior, tends toward social isolation, and lacks close family ties.
Studies focusing on hospitals have documented that patients in these settings have often experienced workplace aggression over extended periods. The resulting stress and pressure are harmful to employees' cognitive functioning and contribute to unhealthy power imbalances. Nurses, in particular, have faced substantial rates of verbal abuse, with reported figures ranging from 82% to 96% (DelBel, 2003). Survey results indicated that nurses believed this abuse contributed to lower job performance, higher absenteeism, and increased turnover.
A study examining harmful workplace behaviors identified four defining features of workplace hostility: the capacity to inflict harm on others, the target's need to escape the situation, the perpetrator's intent, and the persistent nature of the harm (Selden & Downey, 2012). The investigation used two pilot studies with a convenience sample of 42 participants. Results identified three subscales related to workplace hostility: interference with work, exclusion, and deterioration of conditions. While top management created stress for workers, employees reported an even stronger desire to leave when they experienced social exclusion.
Research has also found that employees' exposure to threats was related to their individual characteristics, coping styles, attitudes, and participation in violence training. A survey conducted among workers in psychiatric wards, elder care settings, and prison services found that participants who scored high on extroversion or introversion scales were particularly susceptible to work-related threats (Andersen et al., 2019). An acceptance-oriented attitude was also statistically significant, though the associations between coping styles and violence exposure were relatively modest. Supervisors were found to play a critical role in preventing workplace violence and reducing the associated stress.
Employee Safety Perceptions and Organizational Policy
Understanding how employees themselves perceive their own workplace safety is essential for developing effective self-protection measures. One study examined employees' perceptions of workplace safety and their experiences of abuse (Jenkins, Fisher & Hartley, 2012). Participants were 16 years of age or older and were recruited for interviews. Results revealed that 7% of respondents were concerned that someone at their workplace wanted to harm them, and 4% had actually experienced violence. Notably, respondents described their neighborhoods and commuting routes as "very safe" or "somewhat safe," while indicating that they felt they needed additional protective measures at their workplaces.
For a workforce to remain productive, it must operate in an environment free of violence. The OSHA Act of 1970 requires workplaces to be free of organizational hazards that may cause physical harm (Tenley, Bergmar & Moore, 2019). Employers should formulate safety policies that apply to all employees and to organizational leadership. Management must understand which behaviors and employee profiles warrant concern, which offenses constitute workplace violence, and which strategies can be employed to address employee misconduct. Employee assistance programs can be valuable in this regard, as can protocols for the safe termination of employees who have been observed engaging in violent behavior.
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