In the introduction to the Handbook of Workplace Violence, editors Kelloway, Barling and Hurrell remark that in the last 10 to 15 years research on workplace violence has proliferated. Yet as the editors acknowledge, much of this research, along with intensive media reporting of extreme acts of workplace homicide and a growing body of “specialist” consultants, has rendered workplace violence synonymous with the disgruntled employee. Indeed, popularised in such Hollywood movies as Clueless, television shows such as King of the Hill and Six Feet Under, the image of a co‐worker “going postal” has become the leitmotif in discussions of workplace violence. The chapters in the Handbook of Workplace Violence demolish such stereotypical understandings of workplace violence.
The publisher's description on the back cover promotes the book as “the most up‐to‐date resource available providing a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge regarding all aspects of workplace violence and aggression.” The editors have interpreted their task in less grandiose terms, describing their intent as bringing together “leading researchers to summarise the current state of knowledge and to begin to chart the course for future research” (p. 4). The result is a book comprised of 26 chapters divided into three parts. Each of the three parts is prefaced by a brief introduction from the editors.
In running to almost 700 pages, the book makes a weighty contribution consistent with my expectations of Sage's Handbook series. According to the publisher's description, the editors of the Handbook of Workplace Violence have brought together “leading researchers to provide summaries and unique perspectives on current theory, research and practice relating to workplace violence.” However, as the profiles of the 37 contributing authors reveals, these leading researchers are almost exclusively attached to North American institutions with only two authors belonging to institutions outside North America. Thus, one might consider this book to be offering a mostly North American perspective on workplace violence.
Part One of the Handbook consists of three chapters the editors describe chapters as providing an appropriate foundation to achieve the aims of the book. The first chapter, written by Robert Felson, argues for a rational choice understanding of workplace violence and aggression, in which violent and aggressive behaviour is designed to achieve a purpose or goal related to basic human desires. Spector, Fox and Domagalski use the frustration‐aggression approach as a departure point for understanding workplace violence and aggression. In this chapter the authors locate workplace violence and aggression within a framework of counterproductive work behaviours – intentional acts by employees that harm organisations or their stakeholders. In the final chapter, Schat, Frone, and Kelloway discuss the findings from a national probability sample drawn from the US workforce to generate insights into the prevalence of workplace violence and aggression.
The first three chapters make an important contribution to furthering understandings of workplace violence; however, I am not convinced that they provide a foundation for a comprehensive understanding. The first paragraph of Studs Terkel's (1972) classic book Working which the editors quote to frame their introduction, exemplifies that violence in organisations is not limited to the interpersonal. Drawing on a sociological and philosophical lineage, a number of writers (e.g. Bryant and Wolfram Cox, 2003; Catley and Jones, 2002; Hearn and Parkin, 2001; Oakes et al., 1998; Pelzer, 2003; Westwood, 2003) have drawn attention to the systematic and patterned violence embedded in the organisational relationships of our everyday working lives – perspectives that seem to be missing from the foundation presented here. Thus, while violence is located in confrontations between individuals it is also meaningful to consider the structural aspects of violence in relation to organising and organisation (Catley and Jones, 2002).
Consequently, my concern is that the foundation for this book, and for understanding the problem of workplace violence generally, rests on a familiar concept of violence. Familiar in the sense of understanding violence in terms of a directly observable, deterministic relationship between the behaviours of one person and the suffering of another (Jackman, 2002). A failure to critically assess the assumptions that underpin our understanding of workplace violence risks erasing other understandings of violence with respect to organisations and the management of work. As Jackman (2002) writes, where violence is incidental, tolerated, celebrated or motivated by positive intentions it risks escaping our attention.
Part Two of the Handbook shifts to the sources and forms of workplace violence. These 14 chapters explicitly redress the stereotype of the violent employee through discussion of a wide range of topics and contexts related to workplace violence and aggression. Some of these chapter topics will be familiar to readers: workplace bullying, workplace emotional abuse, sexual harassment, violence on the picket line, and school violence. Other chapter topics perhaps less so: violence in nursing, violence in the police, public initiated violence, violence in war, violence in peacekeeping, community sources of workplace violence, partner violence at work, workplace violence and younger workers, and cyberdeviancy.
This section is undoubtedly the main strength of the book, with its range of chapter topics and insights they provide. In this sense, the editors have done much to achieve their goal of bringing together theory and research relating to the varied contexts of workplace violence. While the range of chapter topics provided in this section would seem to ease the editor's concerns about balkanisation (p. 4), it is not always apparent how such varied topics as emotional abuse, bullying, cyberdeviancy, etc. are connected to workplace violence at a theoretical level. Indeed, this would perhaps have been a useful task of Part One; to further explore the assumptions about violence that shape our understanding of what ‘counts’ as workplace violence.
My other concern is that these chapters tend to emphasise the hostile and deviant aspects of interpersonal violence. In addition, there is little emphasis on the structural nature of violence beyond consideration as an explanatory factor for why an individual may commit acts of violence. Thus, in reading the chapters in this section of the book I am left with the impression that organisations are only affected by violence. Questions relating to the potential harm done by organisational practices and workplace management, or the extent to which they involve violence are not fully explored. As Hearn and Parkin (2001) write, organisations are not simply affected by violence but can be thought of as contributing to, constructing or reproducing violence.
The final part of the book turns attention to the issues of prevention and intervention. Whilst Part Three is designed to give the Handbook a practical feel to the many issues raised, these chapters continue the formal and scholarly presentation of the book. Recognising the complex interactions involved in workplace violence, the six chapters in this section address the issue of prevention and intervention from both an individual and an environmental perspective. These chapters are also framed using a public health perspective, which categorises prevention and intervention efforts as primary, secondary or tertiary.
As in Part Two, the final six chapters cover a broad range of topics and issues. Beginning with a discussion of the individual and organisational factors that may contribute to workplace violence, the chapters go on to examine: the experiences of victims to understand the outcomes of workplace violence; the role of both pre‐employment screening and training as prevention and intervention strategies; and the efficacy of critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) as a strategy for lessening the consequences of violence incidents. While some of the discussion of prevention and intervention in these chapters can be seen to directly respond to the issues raised in the previous section (e.g. pre‐employment screening), others might be seen as more generic responses (e.g. CISD). Consequently, this section offers far more useful insights than the “10 tips to make your workplace safer” or “how to avoid being sued” approach common in the workplace violence literature.
In summary, the Handbook of Workplace Violence is a well‐written and organised work where each chapter integrates the academic literature to present very readable accounts of the issues. Many of these chapters will come to be seen as important sources for anyone interested in researching aspects related to workplace violence. Thus, academic researchers and doctoral students will find this book well suited to their needs, while the range of topics and practitioner focus will also make this book suited to those outside academia. The Handbook of Workplace Violence is set to become an authoritative and important reference book but it also highlights that much work still needs to be done, especially in terms of exploring our assumptions about what counts as violence.
