ALL RED FEATHER MATERIALS ARE ALWAYS FREE TO STUDENTS AND TO THOSE WHO TEACH THEM....T R Young

VOLUME 8

 Re-Mapping American Criminology

Workplace Catastrophe: A Postmodern Approach to Workplace Violence
(paper presented at American Society of Criminology Symposium, Washington, DC, November,1998)

MZalus1@uic.edu

INTRODUCTION

A new wave of violence is facing the United States in the late 20th century. Highly publicized by the media, it is not yet extensively considered by the criminologists as a category of crime. Little research is being done in the field, and limited information is available as to helping understand the dynamics of these violent events (Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, 1995). The only accounts that are available to general audiences are those presented by the media, and the media is frequently biased and not always the most reliable in preserving facts. The incidents that do get reported nationally, are mostly the ones involving the postal workers, thus the term ‘‘postal’’ is now used to describe disgruntled employees who may pose a threat. The Post Office is a nation wide-institution, and any incidents occurring there will receive national attention, from a wide audience of viewers, readers and listeners; however, small companies will not be in the center of public attention, therefore not much about incidents happening there will get reported on a national scale. Contradictory to a stereotype, it is not only postal employees who are prone to these kinds of violent acts, there are known cases of construction workers, office workers and even a car wash attendant, murdering their work associates or managers in a violent fashion.

Most of the violent incidents at work occur during armed robberies or in progress of other violent crimes (Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, 1995); however in 1993 homicides inflicted by work associates, coworkers and ex employees accounted for 16% of work related homicides (Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, 1995) or 165 incidents. In 1995 these figures rose to 20% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995) or 201 events, and in 1996 they peaked at 24% or 204 incidents (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1996). Even for being a small fraction of the total amount of homicides at workplace, those figures have shown a continuing growth over the last 3 years and pose a realistic threat to American workers.

Another category falling under this workplace violence tag, is harms inflicted by significant others at the place of employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that these individuals were responsible for 88 homicides at work in 1993 and same number in 1995, making it roughly 8%, in 1996 the figures went up to 114 cases or 14%. However, the percentage was not proportional due to a general decrease of work related homicides in that year, but the decrease affected mostly robberies, and violence at workplace incidents remained on the rise. These statistics show how personal relationship and escalating differences may often affect ones workplace and ultimately may lead to their death. Homicides were reported to be the leading cause of fatalities at work for women (Illinois Department of Public Health, 1994), making it a significant issue for study of gender relations and the abrupt rise in 1996 (Bureau of Labor Statistics) should make it a priority for those dealing with prevention of women abuse.

Data presented may be problematic, due to the fact the violence at workplace is still a gray area, and most studies talk about general deaths which once again mostly involve armed robberies. Homicide at workplace moved up from the third leading cause of death for employees in the 1980’s (Center of Disease Control, 1993) to the second one in the 1990’s (Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, 1995). As a result most attention has been focused on preventing robberies (Garrett, Ruttenber, Marine & Vassallo, 1997), and while most retail establishments were equipped with surveillance cameras, night safes and bullet proof glass, nothing has been done on a larger scale to prevent attacks in establishments when no threat existed of a robbery but where a worker or a acquaintance could possibly pose a threat to others.

So how does traditional behavioral science, which is finally accepting violence at the workplace as an issue and is publishing in this extremely narrow field, describe these events? The first term that comes to mind: ''disgruntled postal worker.'' That is the image that the researchers seemed to have borrowed from the media (De Pue, 1995). Roger L. De Pue has authored Violence in the Workplace: Assessment and Response, guide on how to handle incidents of violence at workplace, how to prevent them and how to recognize a employee that may possible pose a threat (De Pue, 1995). De Pue (1995) has prepared a description of a possible ''disgruntled'' employee. Such ''avenger'', as he calls him or her, is said to be most likely white, male, 30 to 55 years of age. De Pue characterizes it as a mid life transition; often s/he is a loner, isolated, has no support system, meaning friends and family, displays an interest in weapons, and seeing them as symbols of power and authority. Disciplinary action or termination from the job is said to put him or her in the ''vengeance'' mode (De Pue, 1995). Then the firearms become the weapons of choice (De Pue, 1995). The subject plans the attack. S/he traditionally has no previous criminal record.

De Pue points to the mental status of the offender as sane but paranoid (De Pue, 1995), which I will critique. One can be either sane or not, the terms are contradictory to each other. De Pue (1995) describes the individual to be chronically disgruntled on the job, and the individual is said to have a tendency to blame others for the problems he or she is facing. Such individuals see conspiracies around them, thinking that someone is trying to keep them in place, and they often refuse help (De Pue, 1995). Substance abuse is also reported here as a promoter of the events. Outside events of violence at workplace is also used by an individual to spread terror among employees and supervisors.

This traditional model shows linear dynamic. De Pue (1995) warns us that it is only a product of statistical data. He does not present an alternative, or make any kind of disclaimer on how the forces interact. In my re-creation of De Pue's description (see Fig.1), I have used the arrows pointing towards the circle as promoters of aggression and ultimately as factors leading to violence at workplace. The arrows pointing outwards describe characteristics leading away from likeliness of aggression. In the model the disciplinary problems are the warning sign, and often termination initiates violent attack. The subject is more prone to attack if s/he, has a gun obsession, talks about guns, carries them in vehicles. Possession or even engaging in target shooting is seen as warning sign as well. Next negative influence on the individual is lowered self-esteem. Here De Pue (1995) talks about the inability to acknowledge ones’ weaknesses and mistakes, and lack of culpability and the attempt to blame others. Missing support system i.e. family and friends is also associated with violent outbursts. People with close circles of friends and family members are supposed to be, according to this model, less prone to violence.

De Pue (1995) also puts an emphasis on mental health. He makes a distinction that a psychotic disorder is not necessary for violent behavior, but certain elements associated with paranoia may serve as a warning sign. His ‘’avenger’’ is said to be often paranoid, seeing conspiracies and thinking in terms of ‘’them vs. me’’. The last item that I used in recreation of De Pue’s model would be substance abuse problems, particularly alcohol or illegal drugs, such have been always seen as aggression promoters.

This model does reflect basic ideas of modern thinking, simple causation (Milovanovic, 1997), and a lack of interest in the context of complex behaviors; however the individual character and randomness of the violence at the workplace makes it a good candidate for a postmodern approach of examination. This is an approach that would allow us to create a maybe better, or at least more contextual approach, accounting for individual difference of human personalities in the complex society such as our, thus the term postmodern society will be introduced.

The scientific literature has seen other theories as to the workplace violence (Baxter & Margavio, 1996; Klein, Leong & Silva, 1995), yet this rigid ‘’disgruntled postal worker’’ model is still the stereotype and is used as a basis for training purposes and prevailing in the literature (De Pue, 1995; Dow, Moriarty & Schlesinger, 1994; Paul & Townsend, 1998; Mossman, 1995).

The model, that I would like to use here, is the Zeeman and Thom’s catastrophe, developed in the late 60’s, early 70’s (Zeeman, 1976) and re-born again by Milovanovic (1996) in the 90’s. Milovanovic (1996) presents his ‘’cusp’’ catastrophe as a behavioral tool. He makes use of two control parameters: effects of postmodern society and assault on moral self worth (see Fig.2).

The simplest comparison to explain the basic notion of the generic catastrophe is to look a situation quite familiar to many people, a mad dog (Zeeman, 1976). When the dog is aggravated it is ready to attack, but yet it is possible to scare the dog off, with maybe an umbrella. It is possible because besides dog’s aggravation there is also a factor of fear present, thus to lower the fear factor the animal displays hostility towards a possible enemy. The value representing aggravation rises and the fear value drops. The dog is ready to attack, but if a new stimulus is introduced, such as opening of an umbrella, the dog might get scared; thus the value for fear will increase and act as a splitting factor. If we are lucky the aggravation factor will drop causing the dog to retreat. Also the action of opening the umbrella may aggravate the dog further and cause it to attack, therefore the term splitting factor is used when describing fear, it may push behavior towards two opposite outcomes which are unpredictable and vary from case to case. As many of us may have experienced certain dogs may be easier to scare than others may. In the catastrophe model, the dependent variable is controlled by two, not one independent variables. In the simplistic model it is fear and aggravation. If the fact of having more than one factor controlling the outcome is considered, then we are on the way to understand the generic catastrophe. More complex catastrophe models take advantage of even more controls, creating a complex multi-dimensional dynamic systems, in this paper only the two control parameter model will be used in a three dimensional dynamic.

The catastrophe was developed as a mathematical model, yet it’s innovation caused it to be applied in a variety of fields (Zeeman, 1977) including biology, business and social sciences. The most relevant example to the workplace violence fitting was one of the prison disturbances (Hall, Harrison, Marriage, Shapland, & Zeeman, 1976). In that model the authors showed controls of alienation and tension interacting in the three dimensional space of the cusp catastrophe. They stressed the randomness of riots and the chaotic course of events occurring as result of interrelation of the controls, where one control becomes a splitting factor and pushes the outcome either towards rest or riot, but once aging in the catastrophe the two outcomes are unpredictable and can occur out of the sudden once the model has entered the fold area in which the splitting factor increases.

Returning to the catastrophe in the workplace violence setting, a connection can be made between Milovanovic’s assault moral self worth and De Pue’s low self esteem characterized by unacknowledged responsibility. This moral self worth does not by it self cause violence, but acts as a splitting factor, eventually contributes to the unpredictability of the behavior. Milovanovic makes use of an additional control parameter, the effects of postmodern society. It is the interaction of these two working in the lower portion of the model, the two dimensional c-space, that create the split in the linear behavior pathways and produce the multiple outcomes. The outcomes of these interactions are represented in the m-space, where the four modes are present. The m-space is an extension of the c-space into the third dimension. Here we see some of the possible the modes: violent attack, agitation, endure and escape. Violent attack occurs when assault on moral self-worth is high and effects of postmodern society are negative. Agitation happens with low assault on moral self worth and negative effects of postmodern society. Positive effects of postmodern society and low assault on moral self-worth characterize endurance. Escape happens when high assault on moral self-worth is present and positive effects of postmodern society are present.

To further elaborate and make this theoretical approach more real, let me translate these modes into real life setting by hypothetical personality descriptions. The escape mode, I would describe in people who have low self-esteem. Such people I see as usually shy, always stepping away and afraid to come forward. People of these sorts do not interact with other members of society; thus we can not elaborate on what to expect from effect of postmodern society, by default we will assume no significant effect. Endurance is a preferred mode, and here I see those are people who are ready for life. They have high self-esteems and are not experiencing negative effects of postmodern society in a significant way. Agitated people are those who are up and going, yet are experiencing negative societal reinforcements. Such people are often upset about their situation, but yet they strive forward supported on their moral self-worthiness. The last type can be easily seen as De Pue's ''avenger'', it is an individual that has low self esteem and experiences negative societal effects. Such a person is likely to be so called ''anti-social'', excuse my use of a modernist term, and display hostile behavior. Those four types are strictly hypothetical, but it is easy to portray them in out minds because we see similar people in our daily lives.

The interrelation of the control parameters accounts for the linear changes. Simple moves occur between the escape-endure, endure-agitation and agitation-violent attack; however that is only part of the model. The next part accounts for non-linear, abrupt changes in behavior, so called ''jumps'' from state to state that often become unpredictable. Such changes occur in the ''fold'' area of the model. As we see in Fig. 2, the fold does not exist in the low ''attack on moral self worth'' band. It starts when the assault changes to a higher value and the fold spreads with its increase. A linear change moves an individual from endurance to agitation. An actual change in either self-esteem or societal effect has to take place, and the change has to be significant. However, if the attack on moral self worth increases, the individual starts moving into the wider and wider area of the fold, where less significant event will lead to ''jumps'' from mode to mode. When the individual is close to a maximum value for ''assault on moral self worth'', the fold becomes very wide, thus the possibility of an abrupt change is higher. The particular of the catastrophe model is that it allows to show multiple outcomes in the third dimension for one given point on the c-space. If we concentrate on the fold area of the model as shown in Fig. 2, we see that in fact the fold area has two layers of m-space. It is in that particular alignment of controls, that the behavior may occur in either of the parts of the fold, upper or lower thus either cause a violent attack or escape. The fold also allows for a return to the other modes. The change that will occur in the fold does not necessarily have to be towards the violent attack. Depending on which controls change the mode may shift towards endurance and or escape, once again fortifying the catastrophes usefulness in showing the more than one behavioral outcome.

The general point is that in the ‘’fold’’ area the changes are abrupt and non-linear and the predictability is low. Thus the propped solution is to avoid attacks on moral self worth of an individual, or in De Pue’s model, to support one’s self esteem. To use this model in a workplace violence setting, some changes must be made, but the model does fit, as we will see by examining known cases in which the actual statements of participants were available to place the suspect in the three dimensional model and observe what controls have changed, and what caused the push of his or hers mode in to the violent attack.

The generic ‘’cusp’’ catastrophe reflects violence at workplace. But I want to present a slightly modified version of the model, one sensitive to today’s violent incidents on the job. My model I would like to call ‘’Violence at Workplace Catastrophe’’, hereafter will be referred to as catastrophe. For the purposes of this model I would rename the parts of the ‘’cusp’’ catastrophe. In the m-space I would use following terminology: escape, docile employee, escalation – agitation, and workplace aggression/violence.

The reason behind using the idea of the docile body is that it reflects the basic fundamentals of bureaucracy, a good worker is in a way controlled by the system. I still consider this state to be preferred one, and do not mean to give it a negative meaning by talking about the worker being controlled. However, for the needs of a large institution a worker must be knowledgeable of the corporate procedures and accept them without a doubt (Johnson,1994). Improvements are a good, but have to done in a proper manner. Here comes the true meaning of the term "reinventing the wheel", when someone tries to better a custom and accepted method. The docile employee, is a model employee. S/he comes to work on time, works within norms, obeys all the rules and does not add problems to a most likely already chaotic system. The agitated/escalating employee is something that De Pue would most likely describe as an ''avenger'', but, as we will see later, the linearity of entering such a mode does not necessarily occur in this model, but rather the process of mode change may take very dynamic and non linear form. The ‘’cusp’s’’ violent attack for practical purpose is renamed to what it eventually becomes, an act of workplace violence or aggression. The change of terms I use is to make the model easier to fit in to the events that will be later described. What is innovative in this description of workplace violence is that the "fold" allows for explanation of mood shift in the perpetrator. Baron and Neuman (1996) suggested that workplace violence is an extension of workplace aggression, thus in the catastrophe model we can picture the elevation from aggressive behavior which could possibly be displayed in the agitated mode and eventually under a set of circumstances slip to workplace violence mode and result in a tragedy. The catastrophe also allows explaining the theory why not all individuals involved in workplace aggression commit acts of workplace violence (Baron and Neuman, 1996), by suggesting the individualistic character of the crime and the complex set of circumstance that leads to it.

Next changes upon the generic catastrophe have to do with the c-space naming. One of Milovanovic’ control parameters is the ‘’effects of postmodern society.’’ This is one I have the most problems with. As long as I can agree that we are living in a postmodern world (Anderson,1990), I would argue that very often we have problems with other members of the society because of their rigid modern thinking, or our own. I will however leave that argument out for another paper. For the purposes of my catastrophe model I will use the term ‘’effects of workplace environment’’ to better accent the stress itself associated with work, which may be the force behind these escalating events.

Baxter and Margavio (1996) offered a similar explanation after evaluation of few post office cases of workplace violence. Authors concluded that link existed between degrading work condition at the Post Office and the killings. Also suggestion was made that rapid changes in the person's sense of self-control and assault on identity could lead to assaultive behavior, this idea closely resembles the "fold" of the catastrophe.

The "catastrophe" accounts for far more variables than the traditional conceptualization of workplace violence. The one variable that it lacks as opposed to the other models is the control for gender, race and class. The evidence has been shown that people of different races and classes can commit these acts (Dow et al., 1994), but I have found no known cases of women suspect. Gender, race and class are important in any filed of social science; the reason I am excluding them from this particular model is lack of research that would suggest possible influence of these variables. As more research about relation of gender, race and class to aggression and violence at workplace becomes available, it will become a part of the "catastrophe", for the time being I will avoid it, but acknowledge it’s presence and importance.

Let us now examine some cases of workplace violence for deeper understanding of the dynamics underlying these violent events and next attempt to fit the known schematics into a modified version of the catastrophe model.

To look at select workplace violence cases I decided to use a 48hours program from May of 1994 (Dow et al., 1994). For my purposes it gives adequate information not about the act itself but about some circumstances surrounding them. Due to very personal nature of the events journalistic descriptions seem to the only ones available, and have been previously used in scientific literature (Baxter & Margavio,1996). The program involved statements from victims, prosecutors and witness, and this helped me to place the subject in my model.

On April 13th in a Sumimoto plant an allegedly disgruntled former employee has shot two workers at a assembly line (Dow et al., 1994). The suspect was a 38 year old Ladislav Antalik. From the report it has been shown that Antalik has been in a feud with some of his coworkers, including his manager. He had repeatedly asked to be taken of the shift but was denied. Finally, Antalik decided to quit, a thoughtless decision as described by his at the time, girlfriend, but realized that he could not survive without the income, just as the phrase in the introduction of the program ‘’ this job was his life.’’ Coming to realize that he needs the job Antalik went back to the Sumimoto plant asking to be reinstated. He was denied. And eventually was thrown out of the facility by police and security. After this he returned on the infamous shooting spree.

In this case we can pinpoint the flaws in the traditional model of violence at the workplace. The individual involved in Sumimoto incident did not have disciplinary issues except for the feud with the coworkers. He was noted by his friends as a hard worker, not a usual ‘’blame others’’ type. His friends spoke of his improvements to the production line. Obviously this does not fit the De Pue’s ‘’avenger.’’ But let us look at some of the other factors described by ‘’48 hours. ’’ (Dow et al., 1994). Antalik was under the impression that American people do not like foreigners. Antalik was an immigrant from former Czechoslovakia. In his statements to friends he made that perception clear. This could have been an indicator of a low self-esteem. Antalik was feeling hated because of his nationality, he was thinking that he does not fit in. The self-esteem was part of De Pue’s model but it fits the catastrophe model as well, particularly if we add the factor that Antalik was unhappy with his coworkers and his manager, people who eventually became his victims. The aggravation caused him by the coworkers may be read as the negative effects of workplace environment. And completing the model, we get low self-esteem and negative effects of workplace environment leading to violent attack. As we get deeper into the Antalik’s past it is discovered that for a year he had been requesting a shift change in order for him to be separated from the employees that he had issues with. The management had declined his request. In the program (Dow et al., 1994) one of Sumimoto’s Human Resource managers clearly expressed that differences between employees are considered normal and are not a basis for a change of shift. The official could not also explain why was Antalik refused his old job back when he came back the day after he resigned.

This is clearly a case of a ‘’catastrophe’’ killing that could have been avoided. A total of three people lost their lives, two employees and Antalik when he turned his gun on himself. If the corporate management offered any kind of counseling service to obviously disturbed Antalik this might have been avoided. Antalik was forced to work in a hostile environment for at least a year. He did not get along with his coworkers. The program did not specify specific reasons, yet pointed to already mentioned Antalik’s feeling of being (Dow et al., 1994) treated differently on the basis of his ethnicity. By plotting these events on the three-dimensional catastrophe model we can theorize that Antalik during the year of his dissatisfaction with coworkers was experiencing the negative effects of work environment but yet his self-esteem was staying intact. He was rationally attempting to avoid the situation by requesting a shift change. Thus the mode we see is the endure/agitation, on Fig. 2 it would be in the upper-left corner. As Antalik is refused the transfer and the situation between him and the coworkers is escalating more and more, it not only increases the negative effects of work environment but also lowers his self esteem, shifting his mode to agitation on the border of violent attack, right in the fold area. During the time of his lowering self-esteem he was changing. In the last months he used guns as a tool of power, or did he see his new right to bear arms exciting because of the limited freedoms he enjoyed in his old country. He photographed him self with his gun. He read Nitzche and collected quotes from famous people. One of his noted ones was John F. Kennedy’s saying ‘’A man does what he must in spite of personal consequences.’’ To complete the catastrophe, Antalik’s position starts shifting to the right and lower in the model, placing him in the fold of the catastrophe. In the fold it is that behavior changes become unpredictable, since as it can be seen on Fig.2 the fold area has two possible behavioral outputs in the m-space to one point on the c-space. Antalik came back to the plant to get his job back, we could hypothesize he was either in agitated or endure mode, that is one possible outcome of the fold, next day he comes back on a shooting spree, this time his mode can be said to be in the upper parts of the fold.

Another workplace violence case that seems fit to the cusp model is the Alamo Rent-a-Car shootings at the Miami Airport (Dow et al., 1994). On March 1st, 1991, a terminated employee came back to the office and gunned down two managers. Three years later, the killer, Lazaros Martinez was found guilty of murder in a Florida courtroom.

In this particular case it was available for the reporters to get the statements of two individuals directly involved in these tragic events. One was a son of one of the victims, filled with rage and hatred towards the assailant, yet acknowledging the bad management style imposed on the employees. While giving the interview he was still employed with Alamo and said nothing had changed, since the tragic incident, in the style of management. It was still said to be intense and pressure was the tool used to obtain desirable performance out of workers.

Next person interviewed was a manager who witnessed the murders take place, and on the next day was assigned the job previously done by on of the deceased managers. This person points to the management style of Alamo as very stressful one. He admits that management often threatened employees with termination if the job was not completed to the specification. This particular manager remembers being humiliated by another manager in front of everyone. He was told that he is a manager and he better start acting like one. He would be replaced otherwise. The day he came back to take over for the killed manager, he resigned. What also frightened him was that other employees felt the pressure of the job too, and identified with Martinez. He heard some people say ‘’What Martinez has not finished I will." That was the final push to quit.

If we examine the events that took place and compare it to Martinez’es personality we may find some connections to the already described workplace violence catastrophe. The family members of Martinez stated that he was an stable from the beginning. He was seeing a psychiatrist since he was six years old. He was also indicating to his family his low self-esteem. He did not believe that he was attractive and could not find a soulmate. Lazaros was 33 and single.

From this we may start drawing Mr. Lazaros position in the workplace violence catastrophe model, his self esteem value would be negative and very unstable, next we add the negative effects of workplace environment he was experiencing. Inability to find a soul mate was probably a part of the societal effect. At the workplace Lazaros was put under a lot of stress, and abuse that was pushing him over towards the fold area. The final part of his career was mentioned in the report altercation with a co-worker that finally led to his termination. These effects combine to place him in the violent attack mode, the highest possible point of the fold on Fig.2. Thus resulted in the tragedy of two deaths.

This example from Alamo is illustrative of bad management style adding to workers aggravation which will be discussed later on when prevention mechanism are suggested. Also Martinez mental health state will be referenced again when discussing psychiatric links to workplace.

The final case of violence at workplace I want to examine is unique. It gives us the perspective of the killer himself. On May 4th, 1982 Tom Cartwright went after his former boss and wife (Dow et al., 1994). The result, Hugh Riddell died of a shotgun wound and his wife, Charma, was wounded and barely survived having to wear a prosthetic leg for the rest of her life. The reasons for such crime - the surviving suspect indicates that the treatment by his boss pushed him. Most people would disagree but examination of his statements gives a different picture.

Cartwright indicated to have had a very good relation with his deceased boss. They worked well together and often partied after work. The suspect thought they were acting like friends. What changed is that Cartwright claims to have been laid off without a warning. That, he said, seemed to have violated his trust in the employer whom he thought was a friend. Cartwright went back and ambushed Hugh Riddell and then attempted to murder his wife. The drastic and violent nature of the crime has convinced the prosecutor that the suspect could not have acted out on the termination in a spur of a moment, but rather in cold blood performed the act. Cartwright, on the other hand, claims that the rage overcame him, and he lost control. He admitted that he would have killed any one else in the house, if any were there. Could he have been driven to a state of such madness to perform the act he did? The workplace violence catastrophe says yes. Cartwright was a recovering alcoholic and was having financial problems with his family. This would automatically push him into the fold area of Fig. 2, by increasing the negative effects of workplace environment factor and lowering the self-esteem. When the termination came, and he felt betrayed furthering the negative self-esteem value, his mode jumped to violent attack, and he became uncontrollable, just a the fold is the place where the unpredictable l behavior occurs. Thus the violent nature of the killings.

Job security in America became a very important issue in recent days (Steinhauer,1995). People tend to value good jobs they have, and also financial security is important. That monthly or weekly paycheck is important to people for their basic survival. Recent reports (Cocheo,1997) indicate that Americans are more and more in debt, thus loosing a job may lead to serious dire straits (Rheem,1995). In these three described incidents, all suspects described needed the jobs for survival, once taken away from them it could have been perceive as a threat. The Santa Monica Police Department patch has a Latin saying on it "Populus felix in urbe felici," happy people in a happy town. I would extend that further, happy people in a happy workplace.

Let us examine now three methods I would suggest on how not only to prevent these violent events from taking place but also how to increase productivity and promote good relationship within the company. The three will be taken from the stories cited and I will attempt to show how it could have happened differently.

Returning to the case of Mr.Antalik. In this scenario, the subjects has hard time getting along with his coworker, so he does what any sensible individual would do, request a transfer. But the transfer was denied, and in the ‘’48 Hours’’ program we have seen a Sumimoto HR executive tell us that is not policy for employees just to change shifts. I say it is a wrong policy, and here is why. People who do not get a long should not be forced to interact on long term basis (Barrett, Riggar & Flowers,1997). When they are forced to do so, more negative feelings emerge. Next thing, if two hostile employees are placed in vicinity, it can be that some production time will be lost to either arguing, giving looks, talking behind each others back or even sabotage, to ‘’get’’ the other guy (Baron and Neuman,1996). It would be a good policy to allow employees to change areas, if, of course, it is possible. Another issue would be to regulate such procedures with a written set of regulations, so the request would not be just granted in any case but rather in predefined scenarios. Also a thing to remember is that many times family circumstance may influence employees ability to work certain hours, I once again believe in making reasonable and regulated accommodations for the people, just to make sure that people are productive. A stereotypical case here, a single mother may work hours that are not convenient for her, but her productivity may be down, she maybe worried about her child, upset at the company and slacking off or just even using the phone constantly to monitor her child.

These ideas were introduced in the 1930’s by a British sociologist Geoffrey Vickers (Johnson,1994) who specialized in the filed of institutions and human relations, and critiqued institutions for downplaying the importance of human relations in performance.

To summarize, my first prevention suggestion is to say that Human Resource department must realize that the world in the dawn of the century in not the same as in the 70’s or 60’s. It is more dynamic and complex (Beyer & Trice,1984). Different forces interact and thus in order to create a respectable workplace, certain provisions must be taken to assure that employees are in an environment that is a right one for them, otherwise loss of production will result as an effect of stress (Reynolds,1997) and particularly stress caused buy human relations has the most negative influence of job performance (Krishna and Srivastava,1980).

Next suggestion that may be used to reduce chances of workplace violence from occurring, and promoting better employee relations will be taken from the second example cited earlier. The Miami Airport Alamo instance shows the negative effects of rough management style and failure to recognize a mental state of an employee under stress. Even given that Lazaros Martinez could have possibly suffered from a psychological disorder (Dow et. al,1994), it does not mean that his mental state was solely responsible for his actions. In the current age major psychotic disorders are treatable and those suffering from them may fully function in the society (National Institute on Mental Health,1998). It has been repeatedly shown by various studies that the introduction of anti-psychotic medications in late 50’s has declined the population of psychiatric wards across the nation (National Institute on Mental Health,1998,Breedlove, Leiman & Rosenzweig,1996). In the 90’s it is wildly accepted that psychological disorders are nothing else than chemical disorders, just like other medical diseases (Breedlove et al.,1996). Ones suffering from these can be treated and allowed function normally (National Institute on Mental Health,1998).

Various reports show that at one given time between 20% to 33% of society can be suffering from a psychological disorders (National Institute on Mental Health,1998,Breedlove et al.,1996) . Does it make all of them prone to acts of violence? Of course not. If it did, we would experience workplace violence as a daily event. People with mental disorders should not be looked down upon, but rather given a chance to exist in our society. Such chance is already given to them by use of anitpsychotic medication, but also the people around have to change their perception of individual differences. After all, we do make accommodations for people with physical handicaps at a great cost, by making ramps, elevators and other accessibility gadgets, why are not such accommodations be granted to those who are depressed or slightly paranoid?

In the Alamo case the overly visible issue was that of poor quality of human relations between management and employees. The constant put downs and fast paced environments are an aggravation for already hard working employees. When I have first read about the case, one thing came to my mind, Stanley’s Kubrick "Full Metal Jacket." In the movie a young Marine cadet, who is obviously experiencing some internal problems, is pushed to the limit and finally kills the tough Drill Instructor and turns the rifle on himself. And that is what happened in Alamo, a disturbed worker got pushed over the edge or in the catastrophe model language, entered fold. Suggestion for avoidance of such problems would be an atmosphere in which employees are clearly informed of what the expectations are, but yet the management does not try to run a boot camp, after all boot camp at the most takes 3 months, not years on the job. Just like I previously described that employee-employee relations should be kept smooth (Baxter & Margavio,1996), it applies even more to management. Supervisors and managers should not act out like wardens or watch dogs, but rather serve as the support and overview for the employees (Steinment,1968; Barrett, Riggar & Flowers,1997), limiting friction between the two groups to a minimum. A thing to remember is that most employees may already be looking differently at management from the myths that management does not do anything. Additional aggravation caused by managers in a form of harassing and put downs may be just counter productive.

To summarize, not only relationships between employees are crucial in preventing workplace violence from occurring but also management-employee relations are important in productivity and lowering the negative effects of workplace environment (Steinmentz, 1968; Baxter & Margavio,1996; Barrett, Riggar & Flowers,1997). Krishna and Srivastava (1980) showed that people who reported lower job anxiety showed better work performance, thus though management is not the only way of increasing productivity.

The final mechanism that I was able to identify from the given example as promoting workplace violence, which has possible prevention solution is based on the final case. In Tom Cartwright incident it was not rough management style, but too close relationship of the manager to employee, which in the end resulted in feelings of betrayal.

When management is too close to the employees often an idea of friendship surfaces; however, it is a false one. On a anecdotal note, I have seen this my self, where managers befriend their employees and often hang out with them on breaks, do lunches together and go out after work. On the surface it may look harmless and even helpful in promoting a better work environment. In a perfect world, yes, but in ours, no. And here is why. No matter how perfect the relationship is between the employees, a time comes when the manager has to step in and act against employees’ wishes, i.e.. Then not only resentment appears, but also an employee may feel that a friend betrayed him/her, then the issue escalates from business to personal, just like it did in the Cartwright case.

Previously I said before that management should not be rough on employees, but yet they a should maintain a proper boundary so no false friendship pretense emerges (Steinmentz,1968), because it may interfere with productivity or even result in tragedy like in Cartwright case. It is harder to reprimand people we are close too, and it is possible for employees to disregard bosses request when he or she is thought to be a friend, after all a common thinking tells that friend will not get a friend in trouble.

In short, the key to good management that will provide a smooth work environment is to keep in mind that a manager is not just another employee, that he or she has a different role to do. That role is not to be friend with employees, nor to be their Drill Instructor (Steinmentz, 1968; Barrett, Riggar & Flowers,1997). Good management skills require from an individual to walk that thin line in order to serve their employees the best and to serve those on higher levels with the best possible productivity without aggravating the workers (Carmicheal & Swierczek, 1985).

To finish my prevention mechanism I wanted to suggest some other basic hints on how to create a better work environment, that are not necessarily based on the facts describe before, but rather come from experience. The process of hiring an employee starts with the Human Resource department or another individual performing that role. It is my belief that it is such person’s responsibility to fully inform employee of what the job expectations are, what the hours will be and how is the job to be performed (Forrest,1984). I have seen people come to work for a period of few weeks and then quit because they were misinformed of the job itself. When an informed employee comes in, s/he will more or less know what to expect, so less anxieties will appear with work conditions (Barrett, Riggar & Flowers,1997). It may be hard to create a full job description, but with help of the people working the job already it is possible to come with a one closely related to the actual job.

Many people come in without the full knowledge of the company policy, and often find themselves violating it and getting upset over silly rules. It is important to inform the employees of what the rules are. Is access and issue? Can the shifts be changed? How many days off are allowed? Answers to these hypothetical questions are crucial from employees to fit in the company atmosphere, and lack of the knowledge may lead to unintentional policy violations and eventual disciplinary action which may be viewed as unfair.

To clear up a rather long point, the employee must be fully aware of what it is that the company expects, how it is to be performed, and what kind of rules are enforced on the job (Forrest, 1984). Of course this varies from institution to institution, but clearly written employee handbooks must be given to all employees and their contents explained during the initial process. In the long run this will increase productivity, limit false hopes and expectations as well as promote a smother work environment, thus limiting the possibility of work place violence.

The workplace catastrophe is a model, and as such is not perfect. The data available is limited. Businesses will not release all the information due to confidentially as well as to avoid negative publicity. The statements of the ones involved give some clue, but are not scientific. Admission to rough management style by companies will not occur without major scandals; thus the field is limited to access. In order for me to have some empirical evidence to support my model, I would need to conduct an experiment. But how would I go about one without violating ethical codes. Of course an alternative is to perform a survey, but such are relatively due to the fact that regular people rather than trained psychologist would make assertions about their self-esteem and effects of their work on it. It would take careful design to prepare a good survey and it would be hard to find a significantly sized sample willing to participate. These ideas are still up in the design stages and I am currently thinking of designing a valid study to either conclude my theory or find it invalid and pursue other models. For now I will rest on this purely theoretical model.

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