2 Barriers and Gaps that Impede WPV Prevention and Strategies to Overcome Them

Conference participants identified and discussed numerous barriers and gaps facing those working to implement existing strategies and programs addressing WPV prevention or those seeking to study and fill knowledge gaps related to WPV risks and prevention. In many cases, strategies for addressing and overcoming these barriers and gaps were proposed and discussed. Employers, managers and supervisors, safety practitioners, workers, members of the public safety and legal professions, researchers, designers and manufacturers of protective technologies and products, educators and communicators, and others—all face difficulties in the process of identifying, documenting, assessing, preventing, and communicating about violent workplace events.

This report essentially addresses two key audiences—those who are responsible for implementing WPV prevention programs in communities, companies, or workplaces (policy makers, employers, managers, safety and health practitioners, members of teams who come from multiple disciplines and perspectives, workers, etc.) and those who face challenges related to exploring and filling the gaps in our knowledge of WPV and WPV prevention (researchers).

The most important barriers and gaps that impede the implementation of effective WPV prevention programs, strategies, and interventions usually depend on the particular organization in question, and sometimes the type of WPV. These issues are also discussed in Chapter 3.

Barriers impeding research efforts include lack of access to company and workplace information, and inadequate data to define the scope of WPV. Knowledge of intervention effectiveness is sparse, and information about the costs of both WPV incidents and prevention efforts versus benefits of specific prevention strategies and programs is lacking. Too little is known regarding specific characteristics of perpetrators, victims, companies, and circumstances surrounding violent events. These issues are discussed in Chapter 4.

2.1 Barriers to WPV Prevention Practice

2.1.1 Corporate Attitude, Denial

For some companies, a prevailing corporate attitude or denial of the potential for WPV, may be strong enough that employers and managers remain unconvinced that they need to address it. In some, violence is not recognized as a high priority among competing threats until a tragic, violent event occurs. In many organizations, the value of WPV prevention in reducing liability and turnover and increasing productivity is not well understood. Employers may also hesitate to explore WPV risks and issues because they are wary about negative company image, legal liability, assuming responsibility for workers' private lives, and worker enlightenment and empowerment. One line of thinking is that workers who become aware of these issues will certainly file complaints and

claims. All of these factors are barriers to developing policies, providing training, recognizing and reporting violence, and developing and implementing WPV prevention programs. Workers readily perceive the lack of management acknowledgment of WPV and support for WPV prevention. On the other hand, corporate leaders who set out to raise awareness of WPV and improve workplace communication, demonstrate their acknowledgement of WPV and provide a foundation for improved reporting and risk assessment and program development and implementation.

2.1.2 The Culture of Violence; De-humanization of Workplaces

A profound barrier to WPV prevention is related to the culture of violence that permeates U.S. society, including workplaces.

2.1.3 Lack of Worker Empowerment

Violent events (especially Type 1 violence) are prevalent in small businesses where workers may lack a voice. Workers without a voice—that is, without a personal opportunity to provide their concerns or participate in leadership decisions—or without an advocate to speak for them, have great difficulty influencing the adoption or even the consideration of prevention programs. In many businesses, large and small, disconnects exist between management and workers that impede communication of concerns and collaboration.

2.1.4 Lack of Incentives, Disincentives

Conference participants believe that there are too few incentives for companies to implement WPV prevention programs. Few regulatory requirements address violence, many guidelines addressing violence are outdated, and the many legal issues prompted by Federal, State and local statutes, ordinances, and regulations present challenges to WPV prevention and can seem an impenetrable thicket. Current laws are often ineffective, unenforced, and inconsistent from State to State. Employers who might consider WPV prevention programs may feel at a competitive disadvantage if no mandatory, enforced regulations exist that cover the entire industry sector. If more compelling data on costs of violence and costs/benefits of prevention programs and strategies were available, companies would likely have more incentive to invest resources in WPV prevention programs. In addition, the positive effects of knowledgeable workers empowered to provide input and participate in planning and decision making, which can include improved safety and health, morale, efficiency, and productivity, provide an important incentive to management.

2.1.5 Lack of Awareness

For some, the most substantial barrier is simply a lack of awareness of the scope and importance of the problem on the part of employers and workers alike. This lack of awareness extends beyond company walls to all levels of the public and private sector and the general public.

2.1.6 Lack of Information, Access to Available Information

For other knowledgeable employers, a lack of access to risk information or evidence-based prevention programs or strategies may form a difficult barrier to action. Those programs and interventions that have been evaluated and shown effective in specific settings—for instance the interventions addressing violence resulting from convenience store robberies—have not been adopted in all workplaces where similar risks and circumstances are present. Further, they have not been evaluated for other workplaces and industry sectors facing similar risks. Many other programs and interventions that have been adopted or suggested for different types of WPV and different workplace settings and circumstances have not been rigorously evaluated, if evaluated at all. If evidence-based prevention programs and strategies are available, the information mostly resides in academia or government agencies. Researchers in academia and government are often satisfied with publication of their findings in the peer-reviewed literature, or lack the knowledge and means to further disseminate or translate their results for use in at-risk companies. As a result, employers may not be fully cognizant of the risks they and their workers face. Or, an employer or practitioner who is aware of the risks and who has the desire to establish and implement a prevention program may not be able to find or access evidence-based programs and interventions to use or choose from.

Among companies with WPV programs, some are reluctant to share WPV information (e.g., statistics, program information, effectiveness data), even among other departments in the same company. Privacy issues and proprietary and competitive attitudes may influence companies and agencies to guard their data, thus hindering data sharing. Compounding the effect of this barrier, researchers may fall short of the efforts needed to engage and partner with employers. This in turn limits the ability of researchers to determine characteristics of violent events, characteristics of those who are involved in and affected by them, and potential preventive approaches and their effectiveness. OSHA has guidelines for late night retail [OSHA 2004], but companies not under OSHA jurisdiction may not be aware of this information. Potential sources of information useful to businesses include police department crime prevention units, Web-based violence prevention and security sites, and insurance companies.

2.1.7 Lack of Communication/Training

A major barrier to awareness and prevention of WPV is an overall lack of adequate and effective communication and training about what constitutes violence (definition); when violence has occurred (incident reporting); what the company does about violence (policy, procedures, disposition); and what peers and partners have learned and are doing (research, prevention, collaboration). In the pursuit of individual responsibilities and tasks, the importance of communication may be overlooked entirely or given a low priority among competing demands.

2.1.8 Lack of Resources

Many of the companies facing high risks of WPV are small companies with limited resources for research, prevention, and evaluation. In an increasingly pressurized economy and in the absence of sufficient cost-benefit data, prevention may be seen as an unwarranted expenditure rather than an investment with a return. Employers may address competing demands first unless a tragic violent event has already occurred to gain their attention and prompt action. Small companies often have neither the resources nor the staffs to address problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

2.1.9 Lack of Reporting

Violent events, wherever they occur, may not be reported for various reasons. When WPV occurs in companies that lack an enlightened, prevention-oriented culture, victimized workers may be inhibited from reporting single incidents or patterns of abusive behavior that would be reported and addressed in other companies. In such companies, victims or witnesses of violence may feel that nothing will be done if they do report. Otherwise well meaning employers or managers in companies that do not communicate to workers the behaviors that are considered to be violent, the mechanisms for reporting them, and assurances of security, confidentiality, and prompt response, may be unwittingly fostering a violent work environment that could ultimately experience a tragic, violent event. Too often, in the aftermath of such a tragedy, people remember precursor events or behaviors that should have prompted reporting, response, and intervention at the time they occurred. Sadly, failures to report verbal or physical abuse represent lost opportunities for prevention. Lack of reporting is also a fundamental barrier to effective surveillance, a critical component of WPV prevention at all levels, from company-level to national-level prevention.

2.1.10 Lack of Effective Followup to Reported WPV Events

Victims and recipients of threats or harassment expect a firm response. When management fails to respond promptly and firmly to
reported WPV incidents, or does not follow through according to company policies and procedures, workers will perceive the lack of management commitment. Workers will then be hesitant to report future violent events and behaviors.

2.1.11 Lack of Written WPV Policy, Definitions, and Consequences (See Chapter 3)

A company or corporation without a written WPV prevention program or policy may fail to provide critical information necessary to protect workers. Prevention efforts may not succeed without written documentation that includes company policy on WPV, definitions that clearly indicate what specific behaviors constitute WPV and are therefore prohibited actions, the specific consequences of those actions, who is accountable for the program and specific elements, and the roles and responsibilities of all workers.

2.1.12 Lack of Teamwork, Partnerships

Interdisciplinary and interdepartmental work is very difficult to initiate and maintain, even within the walls of one company. Effective programs require the combined efforts of employers, workers, law enforcement, and, for larger companies, the multiple departments with a stake in violence prevention and worker safety and health.

2.2 Gaps in WPV Prevention Research

2.2.1 Lack of WPV Intervention Evaluation Research

The ideal situation is for employers and practitioners planning and implementing WPV prevention programs to have credible, evidence-based interventions, strategies, curricula, and programs available. A primary research need in WPV prevention is to obtain evaluation data on strategies and interventions for a variety of workplace applications.

2.2.2 Lack of Best Practices for Implementation

The need for practical and proven guidance for program implementation goes hand-in-hand with the need for evidence-based prevention programs and strategies. Critical information about best practices for WPV programs is needed by employers and practitioners.

2.2.3 Lack of (or Inadequacy of) Data

Currently available data—based largely on police responses, emergency room admissions, workers’ compensation claims, insurance payments to victims, and death certificates—do not reflect the scope of WPV, especially considering the incidence of noninjury and nonphysical events (e.g., threats, bullying, harassment, stalking). Reluctance on the part of corporations and companies to release data and to admit researchers into their environments for the purpose of collecting incidence data or evaluating interventions and programs impedes description of the WPV experience, as well as further investigations of causation and prevention. In addition, the victims and witnesses of WPV may be reluctant to report incidents for a variety of reasons. (See Section 2.1.9.) Aside from cultural and behavioral impediments to the acquisition of better data, technical issues exist that must be overcome. For example, a commonly accepted, operational definition of what constitutes WPV, while not perfectly fitting every scenario imaginable, will be necessary to the uniform collection of data. Standardized data collection using common definitions is essential to draw reasonable conclusions on effective prevention.

Standardization may require the following:

• Better categorization of data
  
  
• Addition of key pieces of data to existing data sets
  
  
• Researcher access to data from companies and insurers, as well as workplaces

2.2.4 Lack of Information about the Costs of WPV; the Cost-Effectiveness of Prevention

The economics of WPV represents a substantial gap in knowledge. Understandably, employers desire and respond to solid, empirical cost data on actual and potential losses from WPV and benefits of prevention programs and interventions. They are interested in understanding costs relative to benefits and return on investment when it comes to development and implementation of programs. Employers may not expect each and every intervention to pay for itself, but they do seek a general idea of what to expect as a result of investing in prevention. A difficult concept to calculate and convey is the cost of a non-event—that is, one that is prevented through programmatic investment. Other important cost considerations include the loss of experienced workers and the resultant new personnel hiring and training costs.

2.2.5 Research and Communication Needs Specific to Type I (Criminal Intent) Prevention

Research is needed to provide evidence about effectiveness of specific environmental, behavioral, and administrative interventions in non-convenience-store settings. Also uncertainties about effectiveness of other suggested interventions require additional research to enable the attainment of consensus in controversial topics such as effectiveness of on-site guards, bullet-resistant barriers, certain training elements, and multiple clerks.

2.2.6 Research and Communication Needs Specific to Type II (Client on Worker Violence) Prevention

Currently, not enough is known about what produces violence in social service, health care, and other settings for worker-client interaction. What is known has not always been widely reported in the scientific literature or by the national media. Risk estimates are not available that clarify the influence of various situational and environmental factors.

2.2.7 Research and Communication Needs Specific to Type III (Worker on Worker) Prevention

Type III WPV is somewhat unique among the types in that most of the losses incurred as a result of a violent incident (e.g., losses related to the victim, the perpetrator, the damages, the productivity, etc.) are usually borne solely by one employer. More solid information about the direct relationship between the availability of reliable data and the opportunity for prevention, and the resultant potential for controlling costs through intervention, may be effective in persuading employers to share information and provide access needed by researchers.

2.2.8 Research and Communication Needs Specific to Type IV (Interpersonal Violence) Prevention

More rigorous, science-based efforts are needed in characterizing risk factors, costs, and effectiveness of WPV prevention programs and strategies addressing Type IV violence.

2.2.9 Other General Research Needs

Conference participants also offered a substantial list of research gaps, most of which were not discussed in detail.

According to Conference participants, research is needed to better understand the following:

• Variations in what is being done in individual businesses, industry sectors, law enforcement, and State and local governments
  
  
• What motivates businesses to take action in addressing WPV
  
  
• What types of regulation are effective
  
  
• Work organization and how it affects WPV prevention program implementation and impact
  
  
• Characteristics of both perpetrators and victims of each type of WPV
  
  
• Successful management systems for tracking WPV and followup activities
  
  
• What makes training effective—that is, what content, teaching methods, intervals, etc.
  
  
• How to disseminate information about effective violence prevention strategies and programs more widely and/or more appropriately
  
  
• How to effectively communicate
  
  
  • What WPV is
    
    
  • Protection and prevention as positive issues
    
    
  • The importance of scientific research in addressing WP