The Impact of Domestic Violence
A new study from the University of Arkansas shows that abuse at home takes a
heavy toll on the workplace as well
The results of a recent study on domestic violence in the workplace carry
dramatic implications for small-business owners. The University of Arkansas
researchers found that individuals who have been abused by intimate partners
miss work for health-related reasons and are tardy more often than other
employees. It also showed that 20% of threats and 72% of stalking incidents
occur at work, potentially putting other employees, and even customers, at
risk.
Lead researcher Carol Reeves, associate professor of management at the Sam M.
Walton College of Business, spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E.
Klein about the study and its implications for small business owners. Edited
excerpts of their conversation follow.
How did this survey come about?
I have a personal interest in domestic violence and had done some research on
it in the past. I started doing some background work in 2003, and then my
colleague, Anne O'Leary-Kelly, chair of the management department, and I
received two grants totaling $750,000 from the U.S. Justice Dept. to fund this
study.
Who did you survey, and what did you ask about domestic violence?
We sent the survey via e-mail to 4,500 employees of Arkansas-based service
firms. All employee levels were contacted, including executives, supervisors,
and non-supervisory employees. We received 1,500 replies to the survey, which
was a larger examination of work and family issues and also included questions
about depression, self-esteem, and job satisfaction.
Almost 40% of female and 22% of male respondents said they had been abused at
some point in their lives. Slightly more than 10% of the women and 8% of the
men said that they had been victims in the past 12 months.
Were you surprised the abuse rates were so high?
That really was a shocker. These percentages are much higher than national
domestic-violence victimization rates. In 1995 and 1996, the Centers for
Disease Control & Prevention and the National Institute of Justice
sponsored the National Violence Against Women Survey, which reported that just
over 22% of women said they had been abused at some point in their lives. About
1.3% of women nationwide said they had been victims of intimate-partner
violence in the previous 12 months.
The other thing to keep in mind is that we asked about whether they had
experienced threats of physical harm, stalking, physical force, and sexual and
psychological abuse. We didn't even ask about verbal or emotional abuse.
Do you have any explanation for the very high rate of abuse reported in your
study?
Arkansas frequently ranks in the top 10 states in the rate of domestic
violence, and 80% of our survey respondents lived in Arkansas. But we don't
think that fully explains the data. Most of the literature on this topic
speculates that domestic abuse has traditionally been underreported.
My gut reaction is that there was more disclosure of abuse in our results
because we surveyed people at work via the Internet, which is fairly anonymous.
The earlier studies involved calling people at home. And if the abuse is
occurring at home, how comfortable will people feel answering questions there?
We're going to expand the study to other organizations across the country. We
hope those results will help us understand if past studies of domestic violence
underreported victimization rates, or if rates in Arkansas are much simply much
higher than the national average.
How does domestic violence spill over into the workplace?
Victims report that abuse perpetrators are invading the workplace, especially
with stalking behavior like threatening telephone calls, e-mails, following the
victim to work, and hanging around the office. Oftentimes other employees
witness these events and have concerns for their own safety. So worker
productivity is severely affected.
By the way, we followed up the survey with a conference on this issue with
local and national business leaders. One woman I talked to told me that her
husband would come to the office angry and her co-workers would go outside and
try to calm him down. That kind of thing gives me the shivers. There's no worse
place to be than in the middle of a domestic-violence situation.
What should business owners do about situations like the one you describe?
Most of the time, our survey showed, the employer isn't even directly aware of
the domestic violence. Most respondents -- 82% -- said they had not disclosed
the problem to a supervisor; 45% said they hadn't disclosed the problem to
coworkers. However, a sensitive and alert business owner or supervisor might
pick up on some of the side effects.
The survey showed that employees abused by an intimate partner are exhausted more
frequently and have more difficulty concentrating at work than employees who
aren't abused by an intimate partner. These results were true for both men and
women.
When it came to productivity, females who said they had been victimized in the
previous 12 months reported that they had been distracted, missed work, and
were often tardy. Interestingly, male victims didn't report similar effects on
their productivity.
Is there something that business owners can do to minimize the physical and
psychological risks to their employees?
By themselves, business owners don't have expertise to solve the problem.
However, they can contact their local law-enforcement agency and ask for help
and information. Sponsoring a brown-bag seminar would be a start. It could include
information on domestic violence as part of a larger safety program, and that
would alert employees and supervisors to the problem so they can recognize it
when they see it.
The good news that came out of our survey was that victims who perceived that
their organizations or co-workers were supportive reported that the effects of
the violence were mitigated in their work lives. And they also were extremely
grateful for the support. So employers have a chance to develop very loyal
employees when they assist those who are dealing with domestic violence.
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Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and
small-business issues
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