A new book written by an ASU professor and his wife details how workplace violence, including murder, doesn’t happen because somebody just “snaps.”
“It’s like a volcano. It builds up and then eventually erupts,” said Ella Van Fleet, co-author of “The Violence Volcano: Reducing the Threat of Workplace Violence.” She wrote the book with her husband David Van Fleet.
The book was released in early 2010 and identifies and discusses the nature and complexity of violence in a variety of workplaces.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workplace violence has attracted more attention this year and murder is now among the top five causes of work-related deaths.
Although statistics show murder in the workplace is on the rise, David Van Fleet said smaller outbreaks of workplace violence get overlooked when they could be stopped before progressing to physical violence.
“Workplace violence doesn’t start with murder — it can start as disrespectful eye contact or snide comments,” David Van Fleet said. “People need to recognize these actions as possible steps toward workplace violence.”
David Van Fleet said part of the problem is that workplace violence isn’t talked about enough and is rarely labeled violence until things get physical.
“If we want to stop workplace violence we need to make more people aware of the signs and prevention techniques,” he said. “If a manager or fellow employee sees progression toward workplace violence they need to do something about it right away.”
David and Ella Van Fleet said the intent of their book is to tell future and current managers about bad business management practices and how to avoid them.
“The book helps arm managers so they can be proactive in stopping workplace violence,” Ella Van Fleet said.
Another problem the two authors voiced is that most managers don’t want to hear about workplace violence from their employees because they aren’t trained to deal with it.
Clinical professor John Millikan, a former vice president of human resources at Motorola, Inc., agreed with the Van Fleets that managers need to be trained to handle workplace violence.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of bad managers, but rather it is ill-informed managers that are the problem,” Millikan said. “It’s a matter of getting people to train the managers to recognize when employees or fellow managers need help.”
After coming up with the idea for a book, David Van Fleet said he decided he would start to address the issue of ill-informed managers himself.
Daivd Van Fleet teaches an agribusiness class at ASU to train many managers how to prevent, recognize and deal with workplace violence.
Professional Golf Management senior Vincent Clayton is currently in the class and said he has learned many valuable lessons for his future career.
“Responding to situations [of workplace violence] may seem out of the ordinary, but this is something that happens in the workplace,” Clayton said. “As managers we can come to an understanding about how we can prevent these events from happening.”
Clayton said he would recommend the class to students from any major because people in any profession are susceptible to workplace violence.
David Van Fleet said workplace violence can be a danger in any type of workplace and needs to be addressed before violent incidents in the workplace increase further.
“Workplace violence can happen in any type of company and can be committed by any type of person,” David said. “We want to focus on prevention.”
Reach the reporter at Beth.Easterbrook@asu.edu
