Editor's Message
We are on a mission to help reshape and rethink approaches to workplace violence prevention. To aid in moving this mission forward we are adding a column on Safety because
ultimately we believe workplace violence is about the safety of people either working in or with our organization. Let’s be clear we are not talking about a Safety Department, but more so, the overall business focus on providing a safe work environment.
Taken from this vantage point, if you are focused on workplace violence prevention, you are focused on creating a safe work environment. Given this reality we believe it is imperative to significantly embrace the advances that are occurring in understanding how to create and maintain safe workplaces.
With this thought in mind, think about the title and focus of our lead article ‘Does Poor Safety Equal Poor Management? Hopefully, this will cause some soul searching in your organization.
We are also recalibrating the Workplace Violence Today column to be a place for ‘ thought leadership’ articles. We are pleased to kick off this new direction with an article by Dr. Michael Corcoran who offers some keen insights on the threat assessment process.
We have added a column called StreetSense which will focus on key issues to address violence prevention.
With a heavy heart and deep sadness I am reporting the death of Dr. Lynn Jenkins, a senior advisor for program integration in the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC). Prior to joining NCIPC, Dr. Jenkins worked for 20 years at NIOSH where she held a number of leadership and management positions, including 5 years as a senior scientist in the NIOSH Office of the Director and 5 years as the chief of the Analysis and Field Evaluations Branch within the Division of Safety Research. Her primary area of research while at NIOSH was workplace violence prevention. She was also a key contributor to the ASIS International Workplace Violence Prevention Guidelines.
Thanks for your continued patronage and I hope 2014 is a fantastic year for you.
Brry a
Does Poor Safety Equal Poor Management?
Many high-ranking leaders in various organizations have been quoted as saying that poor safety results are an indicator of other poor management practices. But is safety necessarily linked to other performance areas? Regardless of which specific reason or reasons caused poor safety performance, it is inevitable that these reasons also will affect quality. Business processes are designed to produce products or services. When these processes produce accidental injuries, they have failed. Failures can be caused by human or machine elements or the interface between them. Whatever the cause, management either has failed to properly design or execute the process. When a process produces a product or service of inadequate quality, the process has failed. Process failures are management failures whether they manifest as safety or quality issues. The two are hopelessly intertwined. It does not mean that an organization does not do anything else well; but it certainly raises a red flag. Almost any organization can have a temporary flare-up of accidents, and such events should be viewed in context with a longer record of performance. But an organization that consistently produces high levels of worker injuries does so for a reason, or multiple reasons. Anyone wanting to utilize such an organization as a supplier or contractor should investigate other indicators of performance and see if the safety results are isolated or a harbinger of bad performance to come.
Read more DE CIS IONPOINT
This column is designed to help sharpen your judgment in providing valuable advice regarding how to handle incidents of aggression.
Did the company discriminate against an employee based on her sex when she was fired after making a threat to shoot a co-worker?
The Situation: Twila Gaff was working as a nurse at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Oklahoma when she told a fellow coworker she had a mind to shoot him with her .357 revolver. After her supervisors found out, they conducted an investigation regarding the threat. Ms. Gaff then complained that she was the real victim because the person she was accused of threatening had been sexually harassing her.
Continued on page 24 2
The Situation: Twila Gaff was working as a nurse at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Oklahoma when she told a fellow coworker she had a mind to shoot him with her .357 revolver. After her supervisors found out, they conducted an investigation regarding the threat. Ms. Gaff then complained that she was the real victim because the person she was accused of th
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27