Workplace violence and occupational stress in public organizations. A case of Uganda Management Institute

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the effect of workplace violence on occupational stress at Uganda Management Institute. The study has the following objectives; To assess work place violence. To assess stress and to establish the relationship between workplace violence and stress. Hypotheses tested were; Physical violence is significantly associated with occupational stress at Uganda Management Institute and Psychological violence is significantly associated with occupational stress at Uganda Management Institute. This study adopted a cross sectional survey design. The survey design was preferred because it enabled collection of data from respondents/participants at a specific point in time. The population under study was 196 staff members at the Institute Head office in Kampala and branches of Gulu, Mbarara and Mbale. Findings from table 6 show that there is a negative significant relationship between age group and the physical or psychological workplace violence among employees of UMI. it is concluded that there is no significant relationship between workplace violence and work experience of employees at UMI. Table 8 shows that there is no significant relationship between work environment and occupational stress among employees. Findings from table 9 show that there is no significant relationship between marital status and occupational stress. Findings from the table show that workplace violence is related to occupational stress since r = .282** and p= .002. Results show that there is a positive significant relationship between workplace violence and occupational stress. It was recommended that, one of the important measures that should be taken by institutions to improve the working conditions and reduce the work stress of employees is to examine the occupational stress and its related factors. Identification and management of factors that can cause occupational stress in employees is essential.