Management Information |
The Permissive Environment is the Suspect
The permissive and participatory conduct which most employees take for granted, eventually escalates into the more serious assaultive behavior commonly referred to as employee on employee workplace violence starts with innuendos, a bad word, or simple jokes taken out of context or used to inflame another. Initiation of a proper and thorough investigation is possible under the auspices of a Threat Assessment Team. Banter between employees if left alone by supervisors becomes tense and often results in a more aggressive response. The truth of the matter is that in most cases this banter is perceived as harmless shop talk. Supervisors often believe that this healthy shop talk builds camaraderie and does not detract from performance. However, such permissive behavior empowers the potential perpetrator who may feel he enjoys the partiality of the supervisor. After all, he does his job, pumps out the numbers and meets the "bosses" demands. Regardless of the relationship and his performance, definite and clear action should be taken initially to curtail the potential of an explosive situation from impacting the workplace. The spontaneous reaction by the victim although surprising could be sufficiently volatile to affect bystanders as well. Remembering that the business owner is ultimately responsible for the actions they fail to take in any situation places the decision in question. The prevention of workplace violence requires a proactive response. Security is everyone's responsibility but ultimately management's duty. The exposure to violent behavior by non employees is yet another issue which will be presented in future articles. In a permissive environment, the uninformed employee has no idea that emotions tied into simple acts of harassment are an explosive combination often leading to a spontaneous counter response by the victim. While the response is unfortunate in terms of who ultimately precipitated the incident, the victim who is now taking the action into his hands becomes the aggressor and must be held accountable. Using a Threat Assessment Team or a trained group of individuals would be the proper approach in this scenario and in future incidents. The conduct of the Threat Assessment Process would involve the total analysis of information and intelligence available about the participants, the incident and the environment in order to render a fair and impartial outcome. Being properly trained is key. Knowledge of how to conduct a fact finding investigation is critical to the successful determination of the type of disciplinary action or criminal prosecution itmight bring. The process should be synchronized and well coordinated and reflective of the organization's leadership team, if possible to insure that the preliminary responsibility of conducting the fact finding investigative process does not fall on the shoulder's of the Security Director long after the fact. The major players of the Threat Assessment Team might include at a minimum: the Immediate Supervisor, Personnel & Human Resource Managers, Employee Assistance, Safety and Security Managers to insure a thorough Threat Assessment (Investigation) is conducted. In Assessing the above scenario the root cause of the confrontation was the unabated name calling, verbal abuse and innuendos, created by a permissive and improperly supervised environment. Supervisors who fail to step in to correct this type of behavior can be held civilly liable and responsible for their failure to act early or appropriately to prevent escalation or confrontations. In cases of death or serious injury between employees or customers, wrongful death law suits are often filed in addition to criminal prosecution. Not knowing is no longer a legitimate excuse. When supervisors fail to act appropriately, management has the burden of investigating the incident, dealing with the issue of the aggressor over the contributory behavior of the instigator and decide on the appropriate progressive disciplinary actions (or if necessary, referral to local police for prosecution). And, so while a Zero Tolerance Policy is necessary and highly recommended, it should not be an absolute standard in administering discipline until the "root cause" of the contributory behavior becomes clear through the Assessment Process. When controlling or addressing the potential fruits of unwelcome behavior or to more appropriately, prevent incidents dealing with a Workplace Security Issue, every situation should not be resolved in the same manner with the same administrative decision. Any broad-brush approach to enforcing the Zero Tolerance Policy sours the innocent bystanders and prejudices the potential witnesses who may fear retaliation or retribution, factors which may further complicate the disciplinary process and/or criminal referral. Felix P. Nater is President of Nater Associates, Ltd. a security management consulting firm specializing in workplace security and workplace violence prevention. He retired as a U. S. Postal Inspector in 2001 with over 30 years of criminal and security experience. The last two years have been spent consulting to small to midsize companies on security related issues affecting the workplace. He has a FREE on-line newsletter entitled "Workplace Violence Crime Prevention and Security Awareness which you can subscribe to through his website at http://www.naterassociates.com.
MORE RESOURCES: Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting |
RELATED ARTICLES
Can Your Corporate Policy Pass the Monkeys, Bananas, and Water-spray Experiment? Five monkeys were placed in a cage. A banana was hung on a string and a ladder was placed below it. Align The Enterprise & Make Beautiful Music Together Q: Why is a great business like a great marching band?A: The players in both organizations are in alignment.Alignment? Yes, Alignment. Leadership Styles - the Ten Top Qualities the Best Leaders Show Top leaders.. Make Change Easy - Get Involved! There are wild variances in how much involvement organisations are brave enough to offer their people in change. From those organisations where they just 'tell' (sometimes by text message even!), to the most enlightened extreme, where they enable wholesale contribution to the change process. Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your confidence and asking for help, is a very powerful tool indeed. The form of words' "I need your help", works best. What Makes a Good Appraisal Interview? WHAT MAKES A GOOD APPRAISAL INTERVIEW?Here is a tip for supervisors that will contribute to a successful appraisal interview. Give advance notice. Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys And Employee Exit Surveys Make Good Sense In a competitive world with the need for businesses to be more streamlined and productive a company can often find itself with a workforce working under pressure resulting in low moral and high staff turnover. The benefits of a company having a highly motivated workforce can be considerable and the two goals of having a workforce that is both motivated and productive should not be regarded as being mutually exclusive to one another. Innovation, Idea Selection, Valuation There is no sure fire route to commercial success, but one can maximize the chances of selecting those ideas that are most likely to succeed. Organizations short of R & D resources must implement such processes. Integrity... Should It Matter? In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy generation in a globally competitive environment, quality and productivity became the battle cry of corporations to stay in business. Though this is not necessarily bad, an equally important ingredient to succeed is seemingly taking the back seat. Top 5 Services Your Company's Accounting Department Should Outsource Accounting is one area which every company has to maintain but mostly not part of their core business. It is also one of the areas that keep changing every year and the company has to aggressively keep up with the changes in the tax code. The Most Important Thing Youll Ever Do The wellspring of confidence is belief. When you believe in something, you accept and have conviction about the truth, actuality, or validity of that thing. Create Your Methodology Based on a Standard Framework - Part One OK. So you have decided that your organization has to improve the way in which it works. 10 Ways To Maintain Profits In A Slow Economy 1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base. Don't Forget Where You Came from - Why the Past is Important in Implementing Business Change Much of the literature and advice on implementing business change focuses on knowing where you are going and making sure that you understand and communicate a consistent vision of the future. Indeed, I have looked at the importance of this in an earlier article in this series. Five Steps to Successful Business Succession The great majority of family businesses in North America are still owned and operated by descendants of the founder. The business acumen that these first, second, third, and sometimes fourth generation managers possess largely determines how much longer the business will remain under family control. Group Decision Making : Are the Decisions Really Made by the Group? GROUP DECISION-MAKING: Many managers feel they are well-versed in areas of group effort, such as problem-solving, goal-setting, and action planning. Frequently, however, the implementation of such techniques never seem to get beyond the initial stage. How to Get Your Procedures Project Done Wouldn't it be nice for business owners and executives to be finished with their policies and procedures project already? They know they need to get it done, but maybe it's taking too long. Or perhaps their people are staring at a blank piece of paper, and they don't know where to begin. Managing After Downsizing So, you survived the downsizing. Your company did something that will probably show minimal, if any, return -- and will make your job as a manager a living hell. Improving Patient Sensitivity in Doctors and Hospital Staff COMPANY/ORGANIZATIONA South Florida hospital. The CEO of the hospital saw the need to provide exceptional customer service to differentiate itself from the competition and avoid being acquired. Succession Planning? ... Not on My Watch! At first blush, it would appear there is no shortage of Succession Planning Advocates convinced in theory, the importance and benefits of corporate Succession Planning. In practice, however, real succession planning - or the overt lack thereof - runs juxtaposed to principle. |
home | site map | contact us |