Safety of Employees in Public Administrative Units in Slovenia
Purpose:
This paper aims to show how much violence, aggressive behaviour, and harassment and similar behaviour, collectively referred to in this paper as problematic behaviour are experienced by employees in public administrative units. Based on these findings, the paper provides a framework strategy for reducing the incidence of such behaviour.
Design/Methods/Approach:
A combined research design was used, namely a systematic review of Slovenian literature and an online questionnaire for employees in Slovenian administrative units. The sampling was non-random. In addition to descriptive statistics, data analysis included a one-sample t-test, ANOVA, chi-square test, to identify groups of staff members according to their experience of problematic behaviour.
Results:
The results of the online survey show that employees are most frequently exposed to shouting and insults; however, even in this case, the perceived intensity of such behaviour measured on a 5-point Likert scale is statistically significantly below 3.5. The three groups of public servants were identified based on their experience of problematic behavior. When encountering such behavior, employees most often turn to their superiors, and frequently also to security personnel and the police.
Findings:
The level of problematic behaviour towards employees in public administrative units in Slovenia is not alarming, but it does show differences between employees. The findings highlight the importance of staff education and additional training on dealing with problematic clients. Solutions to curb this type of behaviour seem to be left too much to the discretion of the head of the administrative unit, which is proving ineffective in some places. Basic approaches (e.g. security staff, proper design of premises, staff training) seem to be measures that could be implemented with minimal effort and would significantly improve the situation.
Research Limitations / Implications:
Our study sample is relatively small and includes perceptions of the experience and perception of problem behaviour.
Practical Implications:
Study findings are useful for those tasked with providing public administrative units with employee safety policies and organisations where similar problems related to problem behaviour are encountered.
Originality/Value:
Based on the literature review, we found only one thesis that addresses problematic behaviour among employees in administrative units in a similar way. This highlights a significant research gap that our contribution aims to address.
UDC: 351.78:352.075(497.4)
Keywords: public administrative units, aggressive behaviour, prevention, strategy