WORKPLACE VICTIMIZATION AND VIOLENCE Chair: Judy Bendalak

0178 - FACTORS AFFECTING SELF-PERCEPTION OF VICTIMIZATION TO VIOLENCE: ANALYZING THE CASE OF EMERGENCY WARD PERSONNEL BY APPLYING THE PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING METHOD

145 This study analyzes the perception of personal victimization among emergency wards (EW) personnel of all 25 general hospitals in Israel, using a self-report questionnaire (N=2,074).

Informed by an inclusive theoretical and conceptual victimological framework, the study analyzed victim's professional and personal related variables, as well as structural and regional features of hospitals. Based on the participants' reports, both their actual and their self-perception of victimization (SPV) to violence during the preceding year were measured. In the current study, the factors affecting the level of self-perception of victimization among EW staff were examined by the use of a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique. This method is designed to minimize the bias in the sampling process so that both groups will be as similar as possible, except for the fact that (in this case) they have a different level of self-perception of victimization (High or Low SPV). In this process, every subject in the treatment group is matched to an "identical twin" in the control group with respect to the distributions of variables included. The result of this process was a sample (N=660) of respondents (staff members) with high SPV and a sample (N=660) with low SPV. As indicated, members of the two groups in the PSM model were very similar with respect to the other observed characteristics analyzed, such as: age, gender, position, tenure in department, the extent of actual victimization to violent events in the EW, etc. High SPV was found among personnel working in big hospitals and in geographically peripheral regions. Personal exposure to threats and physical violence by a number of attackers indicated higher SPV scores as well.

Furthermore, during violent incidents the main negative feelings reported by EW staff with high SPV were: being threatened, as well as feelings of helplessness, stress and fear. Hospital personnel exposure to violence has been analyzed in many previous studies in this field.

However, the present study is the first to examine also the self-perception of victimization as a result of those violent events, and the extensive consequences of such perception. Suggestions are put forward for further research in this area.

0179 - WORKPLACE VICTIMIZATION OF EMERGENCY RESPONDERS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VICTIMS

Lisa Van Reemst (Netherlands)¹; Tamar Fischer (Netherlands)¹ 1 - Erasmus University Rotterdam

Emergency responders (i.e. police officers, fire fighters and ambulance workers) are identified by studies as employees with a high risk of being confronted with violence by the public.

Experiencing workplace violence could have negative consequences for both employees and organizations, such as mental health problems or higher turnover intentions. Therefore, many countries place a priority on decreasing workplace violence against emergency responders and other employees. For this, knowledge about correlates of being confronted with workplace violence is imperative. Only then it is possible, to address these correlates in interventions. So far, the focus of studies has often been on situational characteristics, related to criminal opportunity theories, which identify correlates that are rather difficult to change (e.g., working

at night and being in contact with the public). However, as noted by the victim precipitation theory, psychological characteristics of employees could also be related to being confronted with violence and these, and related behaviour, offer more opportunity for change. Thus, in this study, the focus is on the extent to which psychological characteristics of employees are related to workplace victimization of emergency responders.

Previous research often examines correlates of a population with a similar occupation or with different occupations without distinguishing between these occupations. However, some psychological characteristics could pose a larger risk for public-related workplace victimization in some occupations than in others, as there are differences between occupations in work situations and expectations of officers. Therefore, we will additionally explore to what extent police officers, fire fighters and ambulance workers differ in correlates of workplace victimization.

This survey study is part of PhD research using a cross lagged panel design. All police, fire and ambulance departments in the Netherlands were contacted, and one third to half of the departments are cooperating with the study. The questionnaire contains questions about work characteristics, psychological characteristics and victimization characteristics. Psychological characteristics are selected based on previous studies and on interviews with employees (which were also part of the PhD research), and include empathy, negative affectivity, hostile attributions, dominance, core-self-evaluations, and aggression. During this presentation, we will present the results from the first survey, which started in spring 2015.

0180 - EXAMINING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN EMPLOYEES’ HOSTILE ATTRIBUTION AND TEAM AGGRESSION IN SERVICE PROVIDER ORGANIZATIONS

Keren Hadar (Israel)¹; Shay S. Tzafrir (Israel)¹; Guy Enosh (Israel)¹ 1 - University of Haifa, Israel

In this lecture, I will present my doctoral thesis. The study examines organizational aggression in service provider organizations, and focuses on social welfare services as a case study. It involves interpersonal aggression and explores the "hostile attribution" phenomenon in organizations - a phenomenon that refers to a person’s tendency to attribute the causes of his failure to factors he perceives as hostile (Heider, 1958). Since one of the behaviours perceived as a direct result of hostile attribution is aggression (Hoobler & Brass, 2006; Martinko, Douglas

& Harvey, 2006; Wu, Zang and Chiu, Kwan & He, 2013), the study examines the association between hostile attribution and aggression among team members in organizations. It examines different aspects of this association as well.

To date, the association between hostile attribution and aggression has been examined mainly on the individual level. This study explores both individual and organizational levels. Both are

147 organizational level, “hostile attribution” is examined via hostile organizational climate (Mawritz, Mayer, Hoobler & Marinova, 2012). Organizational norms related to workers' hostility towards customers are examined as well.

It is impossible to discuss the association between hostile attribution and aggression without considering the implications of aggression. Therefore, the study explores the implications of aggression that have not been examined so far. These implications are "presentism" - a phenomenon that refers to reduced work productivity due to health problems distracting the employee from fully functioning at work (Turpin, Ozminkowski, Sharda, Collins & Billotti, 2004) and employees' aggression towards customers. Although both phenomena have critical implications on workers’ service quality, their association to aggression have not been explored yet and are explored in this study.

This study will contribute to the literature and to the body of research, since it is the first study to examine "hostile attribution" through the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Moreover, it is one of a very few studies dealing with hostile climate in organizations. In addition, this is the first study aiming to explore workers' hostility towards customers. The study also deals with two phenomena emerging from aggression ("presentism" and workers’ aggression toward costumers). Researching those issues may contribute to the managers’ understanding of these organizational phenomena and aid in developing organizational programs to cope with them.

0181 - SOCCER REFEREES AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

Jonas Visschers (Belgium)¹

1 - Leuven Institute of Criminology (LINC), University of Leuven

Until now, the mass media has given way more attention to soccer referees’ victimization of aggressive behaviour than the empirical research community. In fact, comprehensive empirical insights in soccer referees’ victimization of aggressive behaviour are currently lacking. In this paper, an empirical study of soccer referees’ victimization of aggressive behaviour will be presented. First, the study aimed to describe the proportion and frequency of soccer referees’

victimization of aggressive behaviour. The study aimed to map soccer referees’ victimization of both physical aggression, psychological – or verbal – aggression and threat, expressed by both players, coaches, spectators and other people involved in a soccer game. Furthermore, the study intended to explore the relationship between soccer referees’ victimization of aggressive behaviour and some background characteristics. Second, the study aimed to investigate the outcome of referees’ coping with soccer related aggressive behaviour by describing the impact of soccer related aggressive behaviour on several aspects of their functioning on and off the field (e.g. concentration, performance, motivation, self-confidence and insecurity feelings), and to examine the relationship between impact and some background characteristics. A web survey was distributed to all the Flemish soccer referees belonging to the Royal Belgian

Football Association (RBFA) in order to obtain the data for the study. The call for participation was positively answered by 746 referees. After the data-cleaning, a total sample of 672 referees was obtained.

2.24 PUNITIVE ATTITUDES: MEASURES AND PREDICTORS