It’s not just about resilience: shifting the blame in work-related violence

When workers speak out about violence and aggression at work, too often the response includes:

• Let’s get someone in to facilitate a resilience workshop
• What other ways can you build your resilience to cope with this?
• Have you tried mindfulness or yoga?

Focusing on an individual’s or team’s resilience has become the solution – a buzzword that appears in policies, training packages, team days.

But let’s be clear: resilience is not a shield against workplace violence and aggression.

Now don’t get me wrong – resilience matters. It helps individuals adapt, rebuild, manage stress and adversity. But it does not, and cannot, prevent exposure to harm. When exposure to violence or aggression is reframed as a problem of worker coping, we shift the responsibility onto individuals instead of addressing the systems that are allowing harm to occur in the first place. Through a systematic review conducted by Sheppard, Newnam, St. Louis and Perrett (2023) of over 120 global studies, a systems-thinking lens was utilised to uncover where risk truly lies.

And what did they find? Violence and aggression in the workplace emerge from how systems are built, managed and led.

Resilience training has value but positioning it as a key psychosocial control not only fails to prevent harm, but it also risks normalising work-related violence.

For those on the receiving end, the impacts of work-related violence or aggression can be impactful and long-lasting.

Workers exposed to repeated violence/aggression often face:

• Trauma
• Burnout and compassion fatigue
• Physical injury
• Emotional exhaustion
• Moral injury (the emotional and psychological harm after being part of, witnessing, or being forced into situations that go against your core values or beliefs)
• Exiting the profession altogether — a huge loss for sectors already under immense workforce pressure

Managing work-related violence isn’t about who can “cope better.” It is a foreseeable psychosocial hazard. And under Australia’s work health and safety laws, employers are legally obligated to eliminate or minimise the risks — just as they would with physical hazards.

That means workplaces must take a systemic approach to structural prevention. There is a real opportunity for leaders to embed genuine cultural change for their organisation.

So where can leaders start?

1. Build a clear strategic vision relating to work-related violence to underpin policy, processes and practice.
2. Create and embed a ‘shared responsibility’ approach: driving accountability at every level of the organisation, normalising work-related violence prevention.
3. Review and redesign the systems of your workplace to support zero-tolerance for work-related violence and aggression. This is a comprehensive psychosocial review including things like environmental design, staffing levels, workload, shift and roster schedules, rapid response systems, training, support systems and access, communication channels and flow.
4. Transparent, supportive, accessible, and responsive reporting processes and systems.
5. Utilisation of data capture to develop your understanding of the workplace system to inform ongoing development and change.

Learn  more about how Mapien utilise psychological health and safety frameworks to help organisations understand and address the impact of workplace violence and aggression here. Should you have any questions, please reach out to our team below.

1. Sheppard, D. M., Newnam, S., St. Louis, R. M., & Perrett, M. S. (2023). Factors contributing to work-related violence: A systematic review and systems perspective. Safety Science, 167, 106223.
2. Safe Work Australia (2023). Psychosocial hazards and risk: Code of practice.
3. Safe Work Australia (2021). Work-related psychological health and safety: A systematic approach to meeting your duties.
4. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal (ANMJ) (2023). Nurses face escalating occupational violence and aggression.
5. International Labour Organization (ILO) (2022). Safe and healthy working environments free from violence and harassment.
6. Mayhew, C., & Chappell, D. (2007). Occupational violence: Types, reporting patterns, and variations between health sectors. Journal of Occupational Health and Safety.