Fewer Americans are going postal
Frances Williams reports in the Financial Times about some interesting trends in workplace violence in the developed world: Physical and psychological violence in the workplace is on the rise worldwide and has reached ?epidemic levels? in many industrialised countries, according to a study published on Wednesday by the International Labour Organisation. The study says violence ...
Frances Williams reports in the Financial Times about some interesting trends in workplace violence in the developed world: Physical and psychological violence in the workplace is on the rise worldwide and has reached ?epidemic levels? in many industrialised countries, according to a study published on Wednesday by the International Labour Organisation. The study says violence at work, including bullying, sexual harassment and physical assault, may be costing anywhere between 0.5 and 3.5 per cent of countries? gross national products in absenteeism, sick leave and lower productivity.... The study says available data, though patchy, show a clear upward trend in bullying, harassment and intimidation of workers, affecting more than 10 per cent of the European workforce, for example. In developing countries, women, migrants and children are most vulnerable, with sexual harassment and abuse reported as a big problem in places as varied as South Africa, Malaysia and Kuwait. At the same time, the study notes that physical violence declined in the US and UK in recent years. In the US, the number of workplace homicides has fallen from more than 1,000 a year a decade ago to about 630 in 2003. In England and Wales, incidents of workplace violence dropped from 1.3m in 1995 to about 850,000 in 2002-03, according to the British Crime Survey. Here's a link to the ILO press release, as well as the introductory chapter. I wouldn't describe the data cited in the report as "patchy" so much as "completely incommensurate between countries." Putting that caveat aside for a moment, would any readers like to posit why workplace violence appears to be on the decline in the Anglosphere but on the rise elsewhere?
Frances Williams reports in the Financial Times about some interesting trends in workplace violence in the developed world:
Physical and psychological violence in the workplace is on the rise worldwide and has reached ?epidemic levels? in many industrialised countries, according to a study published on Wednesday by the International Labour Organisation. The study says violence at work, including bullying, sexual harassment and physical assault, may be costing anywhere between 0.5 and 3.5 per cent of countries? gross national products in absenteeism, sick leave and lower productivity…. The study says available data, though patchy, show a clear upward trend in bullying, harassment and intimidation of workers, affecting more than 10 per cent of the European workforce, for example. In developing countries, women, migrants and children are most vulnerable, with sexual harassment and abuse reported as a big problem in places as varied as South Africa, Malaysia and Kuwait. At the same time, the study notes that physical violence declined in the US and UK in recent years. In the US, the number of workplace homicides has fallen from more than 1,000 a year a decade ago to about 630 in 2003. In England and Wales, incidents of workplace violence dropped from 1.3m in 1995 to about 850,000 in 2002-03, according to the British Crime Survey.
Here’s a link to the ILO press release, as well as the introductory chapter. I wouldn’t describe the data cited in the report as “patchy” so much as “completely incommensurate between countries.” Putting that caveat aside for a moment, would any readers like to posit why workplace violence appears to be on the decline in the Anglosphere but on the rise elsewhere?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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