WORKPLACE HARASSMENT ASSOCIATED HEALTH HAZARDS AND QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AMONG HARASSED WORKERS IN AN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION | ||
| Egyptian Journal of Occupational Medicine | ||
| Article 5, Volume 35, Issue 2, July 2011, Pages 211-226 PDF (262.24 K) | ||
| Document Type: Study paper | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejom.2011.743 | ||
| Author | ||
| Alazab M. | ||
| Department of Community medicine and Occupational medicine Faculty of medicine, Alazhar University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: harassment at the workplace in Egypt is still a hidden problem and most organizations do not have a policy to combat it. WHO/ILO defined harassment as “repeated and over time offensive behavior through vindictive, cruel, or malicious attempts to humiliate or undermine an individual or groups of employees”. Objectives:To find out the proportion of harassed workers among the studied workers, to determine causes and forms of harassment among the examined workers, to find out the psychosomatic and psychological manifestations among the studied workers and to identify the pattern of quality of working life among the harassed workers. Methods:A cross - Sectional study was conducted among 1127 workers. The workers were investigated with regard to forms of harassment. All harassed subjects were examinedto explore the associated psychosomatic and psychological manifestations and also to identify the pattern of quality of life among them. Results: 71.3 % of the studied workers have experienced harassment at the workplace. The most prevalent forms of harassment among the examined workers were: discount the person’s thoughts (64.2%), screaming at him (53.1%), refuse reasonable requests (49.1%), and regular, unfair criticism in front of colleagues (39.7%). The main factors which encouraged harasserS were: need to meet deadline (91.2%), excessive workload (83.7%), keep workers alert and active (79.6%) and low performance on the part of workers (67.3%). The most prevalent psychosomatic manifestations were; loss of concentration (60.7%), insomnia (57.1%), headache (53.4%), tachycardia (52.7%), and unexplained fatigue (47.3). Prevalence of depression among the harassed workers was 26.6% and manifestations of posttraumatic stress disorders were; recurrent recollection of the event (31.6%), recurrent distressing dreams of the event (33.3%) and feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (24.2%).%). Conclusions: 71.3 % of the studied workers experienced harassment at the workplace. Recommendation: Policy against harassment at workplaces could be addressed as an element of occupational health program. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Harassment; psychosomatic; PSYCHOLOGICAL; Quality; Work; life | ||
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