Workplace violence and employees: A case study of Uganda Telecom Ltd

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of workplace violence on employees of Uganda Telecom Ltd. The objectives of the study were; to establish the causes and motives of workplace violence in Uganda Telecom, to examine the policies and practices in place to deal with workplace violence in Uganda Telecom and to establish the relationship between department size and its influence on the way employees are affected by workplace violence in Uganda Telecom. The literature review on each objective was analyzed to provide more knowledge to the future researchers about the topic under study.

The study was carried out using cross-sectional survey design. The population under study comprised of the staff of Uganda Telecom. This covered the human resource department (head office) and other management and non-managerial staff of Uganda Telecom Ltd. The samples used in the study were selected using purposive sampling which is a function of non-probability sampling. Primary data was obtained using questionnaires. Secondary data was sourced from reading literature largely related to human resource policies and procedures, recruitment and selection, reward, talent and performance management.

Most research focused on the incidence rates of workplace violence in Uganda Telecom, and impact on staff. There was a significant lack of intervention studies to provide a framework for guiding evidence-based practice. Themes of under-reporting violence, barriers and attitudes towards reporting, description and characterization of incidents of violence, predisposing factors and the concept of safety or lack of fear were all major content areas addressed in the literature. Incidence of workplace violence in organizations has been well documented in numerous published studies. Uganda Telecom Ltd workers are exposed to significant rates of physical and verbal abuse. Under-reporting of workplace violence in the telecom industry is common and contributes to the difficulty in accurately tracking violence.

The researcher recommended that indirect or direct threats of violence, incidents of actual violence and suspicious individuals or activities should be reported as soon as possible to a manager/supervisor, security personnel, human resources before the situation escalates; and the employee should be as specific and detailed as possible and not place themselves in peril, nor should they attempt to intercede during an incident.