There is no fear of the word violence, but of the actions that derive from it.
Organizations are essential forms of human grouping to achieve personal goals and the satisfaction of the most vital needs of people. These organizations are made up of individuals with great cultural, social, family, educational and economic diversity.
It should be noted that the differences that this diversity brings make them unique, but at the same time they generate situations of prejudice and fear, causing environments of social, family and work violence.
In the workplace, we understand that companies are the organizations that constitute one of the nuclei of development of the person and of society, at the same time that they are inserted in the events of the time.
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, it brings us, companies undergoing financial crises, with great cultural, social, technological and economic changes that require their members new knowledge, skills and abilities for their permanence or employability. Situation that influences the emotional states and behaviors of many workers, affecting human relationships within the organization.
We can say that interpersonal relationships and more in the areas of work, have always been crossed by conflicts. Conflicts that often led to violence, which led to the alerting of this phenomenon in books and articles and even in many countries to the enactment of laws sanctioning the different forms, physical or psychological, of exerting violence on one / or many / the workers / es.
Violence is a multidimensional problem and can be detected in all social and labor sectors. Therefore, it must be a concern, not only of society, but also of organizations that are affected by violent behavior, detrimental to business culture and values.
Our intention to bring to the organizations the proposal to carry out training to generate non-violent behavior, is based on studies by the International Labor Organization (ILO) where it warns, first of all, about the economic costs that in many cases can cause millionaire losses to the company, due to absenteeism and medical licenses, to which must be added the corporate reputation for allowing practices of this nature.
Organizational literature focused on analyzes of behaviors that affected the workplace, such as absenteeism, theft, and sexual harassment.
But in the 90s, of the last century, personal behaviors that caused psychological abuse with harmful effects for organizations began to be observed and analyzed. We must say that the organizations did not consider these abusive behaviors to be violent, they were simply defined as violations of the rules of urbanity, which consisted of not complying with the formal or informal rules of mutual respect.
Examples: Employees or bosses who, due to their own mistakes, defined responsibilities by blaming another or other colleagues or spreading negative rumors about other collaborators or the same company. Also, the manager who requires a collaborator to perform tasks beyond her responsibility or the position she occupies; favoring or abusing their power to frighten and in some cases appropriate the work of another.
It is important to note that the empirical evidence says that 60 percent of those who behave in this way are those who have power in the organization. So much so that power acts as a protective barrier for bosses who abuse it.
We can say, in the face of the growth of this kind of behavior, the companies, for the most part, build various excuses; that globalization and the increase in interactions mediated by technological development, provide a high-speed exchange due to tools such as e-mail or cell phones, generating new modes of contact where exchange and simplification of the word do not require of the rules called courtesy.
We see that companies are becoming more informal in their structures, they are flattening out. This situation generates an informal climate, added to a much more relaxed social environment, we could consider that this situation is a factor in promoting less respectful behavior.
From the knowledge of this problem, when establishing interpersonal relationships in the workplace, without accepting and respecting the diversity and the rights of the partner or collaborator, we are facing violent behavior. As these are harmful to the staff because they do not feel job satisfaction, causing a loss of loyalty and commitment, and for the organization, it is a problem since it sees the postulates of its values altered and eroded.
Let's see the term violence and what is its meaning. In the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy we read:
- Quality of violent; action and effect of violence or violence. Violent action or against the natural way of proceeding. Action of raping a woman.
We find it of interest to add that the connotative specification of Webster's dictionary of the New World, expresses that violence is:
- Physical force used to harm, injure, or destroy, extremely rough action. Powerful, intense, generally devastating or explosive force or energy.
In these definitions reference is made to the marks, sequelae or physical or psychological damage that violence leaves behind. It is important for a better understanding to separate the word violence from the term aggressiveness, which is often confused. Aggression is a natural tendency (humans and animals are naturally aggressive) and it serves for self-defense and survival.
On the other hand, violence is essentially human and depends on social and cultural guidelines, it is linked to power, it protects absurd justifications for its exercise, such as protecting, disciplining, educating, giving violent behavior an entity as a natural fact.
Of course, nothing justifies violent behavior, therefore, it must be eradicated from all areas and especially from companies.
If companies invest in training their employees to acquire more knowledge, develop their skills to be more efficient and effective in their jobs, they should also do so in the eradication of violent behavior.
The proposal we make is to start from the analysis and reflection of the members of the company. The same is done in a transversal way, diagnosing in a participatory way, agreeing on what they are, what we call violent behaviors and whether they are naturalized and invisible in the organization.
We cannot deny that beyond the size of the organization or its national, multinational or global status, companies are subject to violent behavior by many of their employees and, what is more serious, managers and executives also have this type of attitude.
There is in every company a primary responsibility towards its workers. No one can imagine that the Labor Laws of the place where they carry out their activities are not complied with, but there are not a few that naturalize violent behavior and that in turn generate organizational models that are repeated throughout the business life.
By assuming the need to train in “non-violent behaviors”, the company contributes to building positive interpersonal relationships. To develop substantial skills in the majority of the members, building equity between different points of view and providing from communication, foundations leading to the creation of consensual solutions.
The training leads us to reflect on each one of us and the others, as well as our society, which is structured under a strongly negative attitude. This causes us to spend more time on negative reviews than on positive feedback. We live so accustomed to being marked negative things, as to pointing them out in others, therefore, we disbelieve if someone says something positive.
Now, when we participate in a training day for the eradication of violence, we begin to reflect on the strength of words, gestures and personal attitudes in our labor relations and their link with violent behavior.
By training the members in instrumental techniques, it allows the understanding of labor relations without violence and helps in positive management with the organization. It provides information to instruct in behaviors without violence and thus we manage to produce modifications that optimize interpersonal relationships and strengthen the socio-organizational aspect.
To conclude, conflicts are part of daily work, but not violent behavior, therefore they must be eradicated from the company.
