Workplace Violence in Hong Kong, China Nature, Impact, and Preparedness

• Published in: International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology Vol. 56; no. 6; pp. 955 - 975
• Main Authors: Lo, T. Wing, Chappell, Duncan, Kwok, Sharon Ingrid, Wu, Joseph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-09-2012; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: China; Consumers; Correlation analysis; Cross-Sectional Studies; Hong Kong; Humans; Occupational Health; Occupational safety; Peoples Republic of China; Private Sector; Public Sector; Subcultures; Surveys and Questionnaires; Violence; Violence - statistics & numerical data; Workplace; Workplace violence; Workplaces; China; Hong Kong China; workplace violence; occupational violence; Hong Kong; occupational safety
• ISSN: 0306-624X; 1552-6933
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X11414545

This article reports a survey of workplace violence in Hong Kong. A sizable number of the 1,198 organizations that were questioned reported that they had experienced such violence over the 2 years preceding the study, but the problem was not prevalent. In both the private and government sectors, nonphysical violence happened more frequently than physical violence, and there was a reported lack of preparedness of many organizations to deal with the violence. Compared with private organizations, government organizations experienced more coworker and customer violence, but more private than government organizations believed that workplace violence caused the loss of key employees and clients. Correlation analysis found that a subculture of workplace violence appears to emerge over time, such that the more customer violence is experienced, the more is coworker violence, and the more the nonphysical violence, the more the physical violence. These findings are discussed with reference to international findings.