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Violence In The Workplace

“Workload, Workplace Violence and Harassment, and Well-being of Personal Support Workers in Home and Community Care.”

We examined the experiences of personal support workers (PSWs) and the role they played in workplace violence and harassment. Heavy workload was associated with decreased job satisfaction, and this relationship was mediated by violence and stress. Our findings contribute to the theory and knowledge of policy makers, employers, and unions about PSWs' well-being. The aging-in-place approach to elderly care and shorter patient stays in hospitals have led to an increase in demand for home and community care. Budgets for home care services, however, have not increased commensurately. The workload has become heavier for those employed in the care sector.

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Stress and job dissatisfaction are consequences of violence and harassment among workers in the healthcare sector. In the home and community care sector, there have been reports of similar experiences of heavy workloads leading to violence at work. The demand for care, coupled with insufficient staffing, has increased the workload, and increased the ability of workers to pro-vide adequate care. In this article we focus on the relationship between workload and workplace violence and harassment and on the consequences for the well-being of personal support workers (PSWs). Our aim is to provide insight into this relationship with respect to PSWs and the mediating role PSWs play in preventing such abuse.

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Violence is defined as threatened, attempted or actual use of physical force against a worker, and harassment as behavior that demeans, humiliates, alarms, or verbally abuses a worker. Violence can manifest itself directly or indirectly - indirect violence may not have a clear target but is embedded in society (Galtung, 2013). Job satisfaction can be described as a person's response to what happens at work (Lawler III, 2005). Theoretical work on job satisfaction has shown that the work environment is an important factor in job satisfaction.

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In this study, we differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of job satisfaction to develop a refined understanding of PSWs' well-being. Extrinsic job satisfaction is significant and negatively correlated with three variables: workplace violence, harassment, strain, and workload. The variable of workplace violence and harassment is positively associated with strain and workload, and the variable of tenure has a positive association with workload. Immigrant status is significantly and negatively associated with intrinsic job satisfaction, and high school or less has a significant negative association with it. Our study examines the potential impact of structural violence (i.e., indirect violence) on workplace violence and harassment, which in turn can affect the well-being of PSWs.

 

 

Works Cited Page

Sayin, Firat K., et al. “Workload, Workplace Violence and Harassment, and Well-Being of Personal Support Workers in Home and Community Care.” Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations, vol. 76, no. 2, Spring 2021, pp. 312–335. EBSCOhost, doi:10.7202/1078509ar.

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