Risky Business: Managing Employee Violence in the Workplace [Paperback]

William Winston (Author), Lynne F Mcclure (Author)

Book Description

Series: Haworth Marketing Resources | Publication Date: September 6, 1996

Risky Business tells in plain language the specific behaviors that indicate an employee has the potential to become violent, and it tells managers what to do--and what not to do--to prevent workplace violence. Author Lynne Falkin McClure describes in clear detail the eight major categories of behavioral clues to violence and includes anecdotes from work settings to help managers and others identify potentially violent employees. Most importantly, she emphasizes the precautions and steps managers must take when they see these “clues” in an employee’s behavior and how to create and maintain a work environment that is likely to protect everyone.

Including the hiring--appraisal--training process, Risky Business focuses on system-wide, ongoing prevention steps organizations can take to protect everyone in the workplace. The book points out for readers informal organizational ‘policies’that unwittingly encourage potentially dangerous behaviors in employees and then offers alternative ‘policies’that create and maintain a safer environment. Managers, members of personnel, and public relations representatives learn how to deal effectively with the fears of workers and customers should a violent event occur that affects the company’s morale and image. However, readers are certain to gain the skills and foresight necessary to avert disaster before it strikes.

Lynne Falkin McClure, PhD, is a management consultant, workshop designer/facilitator, and public speaker in Tempe, Arizona. President of McClure Associates Management Consultants, Inc., since 1980, she specializes in work relationships and conducts inhouse workshops for corporations and government agencies. Through The McClure Institute in Tempe, she offers intensive 5--day courses for executives, directors, and managers, as well as for EAP specialists and mental health professionals, on how to identify and prevent potential workplace violence. Dr. McClure has been a guest on several national shows, including appearances on “Maury Povich,” “Between the Lines” (Associated Press Broadcast News), “Good Day Atlanta,” “Market Talk” (KWHY-TV, America’s first all-financial station), and “Wireless Flash” (San Diego).

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Almost one million violent crimes occur in the U.S. workplace every year, according to McClure. Murder in the workplace is the fastest-growing type of homocide in the nation, with 15 murders reported each week. Yet only one in four businesses provides formal training in dealing with workplace violence. The author has attempted to translate the existing, overly technical information regarding employee psychopathology into terms more easily understood by managers. Eight chapters describe patterns of high-risk behavior that, the author purports, are warning signs. Subsequent chapters cover, in too little detail, the procedures managers should follow or avoid to prevent or react to potentially dangerous employee behavior. Nonmanagerial readers may resent the emphasis on employee psychopathology while, with rare exceptions, employers are depicted as bastions of integrity and mental health. Others may see little connection between many of the rather commonplace employee behaviors cited and the potential for danger. Nevertheless, this book will provide managers with some insights into the prevention (not "managing," as stated in the subtitle) of workplace violence. Recommended for larger business collections.?Alan J. Farber, Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The growing number of violent workplace incidents and their attendant media glare guarantee that this topic will remain a hot button for some time to come. Coverage has focused on the post office, where an inordinate number of the incidents seem to have taken place, prompting suggestions that working conditions have created a climate where these tragedies might occur. To date, though, little has been said about how such incidents might be prevented or avoided. McClure describes in detail eight patterns of high-risk behavior to watch for and identifies what steps to take and what actions to avoid to help prevent a crisis from arising. McClure's suggestions raise troubling moral and legal concerns about psychological screening and employee rights, but clearly lives are at stake. She also notes that survivors of workplace violence have successfully sued employers, a dilemma putting managers literally and figuratively in the line of fire! David Rouse --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (September 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789001004
• ISBN-13: 978-0789001009
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is singularly the most powerful book on violence at work!, June 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Risky Business: Managing Employee Violence in the Workplace (Paperback)

In my work I have read about and worked on several projects dealing with the topic of Workplace Violence. This book by Lynne McClure is clearly the best book available on the topic. Lynne is both insightful and available, she offers strong content on the organizational side of the workplace violence issue as well as the employee side of the issue - it is simply the most balanced look at the escalating issue of workplace violence available in the market today. I feel that the book provided a strong benefit to my work and outlook on the topic and the video based on the book (available through Excellence in Training Corporation), served as an equally strong tool for setting workplace violence policy issues within my organization. This is a "must buy" for anyone responsible for monitoring or setting policy on the liability limitation issues surrounding workplace violence.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have book for anyone in business!, December 8, 1999

By 

Gary F. Bonalumi (Harrisburg, PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Risky Business: Managing Employee Violence in the Workplace (Paperback)

Dr. McClure has written a brief, yet profoundly practical and helpful, book that covers violence prevention through intervention in a way that supervisors, managers, and others can use immediately. I have attended Dr. McClure's Risky Business seminar and can say that this book is a seminar in itself. It is readable and chock-full of practical examples and illustrations. She blends her knowledge of management and human behavior to provide those who work in the real world with information they can use. Several features are unique to Dr. McClure's approach. I particularly appreciate her information on how organizations can help to create a culture that does not unwittingly encourage violence. Her eight high-risk behaviors will help managers and others in early identification, and will give them guidance in addressing those exhibiting risky behaviors thereby countering our tendency to want to deny, ignore, rationalize, or avoid. Also, she advocates a team approach, which she details nicely. The information in this book has become the centerpiece of several organizations' workplace violence initiatives and management training programs that I am aware of, including my own. Combined with her video presentation, it will go a long way towards making your place of employment safer. I'm looking forward to what will be coming next from Dr. McClure!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is scary wrong, September 23, 2005

By 

Skip (SC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Risky Business: Managing Employee Violence in the Workplace (Hardcover)

This book has to be the most crap I've ever read. I could easily see hundreds of thousands of dollars is discrimination lawsuits from "managers" deciding people are high risk based on the determinations and descriptions in this book. It is a complete farce at best. There is no discussion of what management is doing that is leading quite a few of these "personality types" to be causing the extremes she describes.

There is a reason violence in the workplace has escalated in the past decade. Stress levels brought on by the garbage taught in business school on how to "manage" employees is a very large portion of it. Most college grads with an MBA come out brainwashed these days with the notion that you can just simply "control" people and treat them as numbers and that's OK. Stress is completely glossed over in this book and how to reduce and deal with it effectively, this is especially important since it seems to be the underlying cause of many if not all of the behaviors she mentions.

Maybe I'm ranting a little but I just finished reading it and I simply can't get over how moronic it is. Then too see such shining reviews here, I had to give my input. It would be wrong not to.

I'm waiting on the book that gives me information on the stress management and fellow employees cause and how to stop or deal with it realistically. Until then I view Lynne Faulkin McClure, as Ph DUMB!