Profile of perpetrators of customer aggression (a survey among front-line call-center and retail staff).

• Author: Akgeyik, Tekin

1. INTRODUCTION

   Workplace aggression is a kind of antisocial behavior originated from internal (such as colleague or co-worker) or external sources (such as customer or public), of which its ultimate objective is intended to harm the target. Customer (client or patient) violence as a type of incivility in the workplace may be defined as unwelcome and offensive actions toward front-line staff. It includes aggressive or negative acts such as verbal abuse, sexual harassment, psychological stress or mobbing, threats and physical assault (Redenbach, 2010).

   Customer aggression is a significant workplace and occupational safety topic in today's working life. A comprehensive national survey estimates that while totally 47 million Americans have been subjected to psychological or physical aggression on the job, approximately 25% of respondents reported to be victimized by customers (Thomson, 2006), which is in line with the findings of survey by the Campaign Against Workplace Bullying (Sypher, 2004). The 1993 Canada survey indicated that 13% of female employees reported to be exposed to sexual abuse by customers (Hughes and Tadic, 1998). A survey conducted by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed that 5 percent of all physical violence cases derived from angry customers (Perrone, 1999).

   There are several empirical studies on customer victimization attempting to analysis individual characteristics of offenders (including age, gender, and education) that may make a perpetrator more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior.

   A survey on customer sexual harassment of 63 female retail workers and 20 security workers in Canada (1998) suggested that 67% of respondents were subject to sexual abuse by customers. The findings of study implied that men's predominance (85%) as harasser is striking given gender profile of customers (Hughes and Tadic, 1998).

   In UK, a report by Health and Safety Executive, based on the British Crime Survey (2005/06 and 2006/07), has contributed to the discussion on the phenomenon of violence at work. It found that in 15 per cent of cases, the victims often knew the offender as a client. The report also provides a fairly accurate picture of offender characteristics. According to the victims, the incidents are more likely to involve male and young people from the local area or other known persons including friends, neighbors or tradesmen (Webster et al, 2008).

   A survey by Eastley and Mian (1993) examined the patient characteristics in physical assaults. The results showed that assaultive behavior prior to and during admission was significantly associated with male gender, dementia, and increased age in female patients (Eastley and Mian; 1993).

   In another study based on news articles in the Vancouver Sun from 1975 to 1983, Gordon (1992) studied of prostitute women as the victims of violence in Canada. The author pointed out that violence against women who prostitute was the most numerous subject appearing 338 times. Gordon concluded that a typical perpetrator was a male between the ages of 25 and 38 years old and a customer of a prostitute (Gordon, 1992).

   Finally, a National Crime Victimization Survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics demonstrated that between 1993 and 1999 in the US, an average of 1.7 million violent victimizations per year were committed against persons age 12 or older who were at work or on duty. The survey described the common profile of offender as white men with more than 30 years old (Duhart, 2001).

   The focus of this study is to reveal several demographic and social factors affecting the profile of perpetrators of customer violence among the front-line call-center and retail staff, based on a survey prepared for Istanbul University Research Fund between January 2006 and December 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey. The study analyzes four characteristics of perpetrators: gender distributions of perpetrators, age profile of offenders, education level of the violators, and income level of the abusive customers.

   The paper comprises 4 sections. Following the introductory section providing a conceptual framework and summary of previous studies, the section 2 deals with a general description of the survey design and data collection procedures. The third section presents the findings and analysis. The final section provides some concluding remarks.

2. METHOD

   2.1. Study Population

   The study's main population of interest was staff working in the retail stores and call centers. Data for the survey conducted among 734 randomly selected front-life employees. The...