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Gabriella Scaramuzzino. Foto: Sandra Jeppsson.

Gabriella Scaramuzzino

Director of Second Cycle Studies | Senior lecturer | PhD in Social Work

Gabriella Scaramuzzino. Foto: Sandra Jeppsson.

Workplace violence : A threat to autonomy and professional discretion

Arbetsrelaterat våld : Ett hot mot professionellas autonomi och handlingsutrymme

Author

  • Gabriella Scaramuzzino

Summary, in English

Although many theories have been developed and a great amount of research has been conducted on autonomy and professional discretion, knowledge on the extent to which fear of being subjected to workplace violence might restrict such autonomy and professional discretion being used is limited. This article draws on a survey study (N=1,236) and compares the experiences of workplace violence of Swedish social workers, teachers and journalists. The aim of the article is to determine how digitalisation could be linked to workplace violence and also determine the extent to which workplace violence could affect the autonomy and professional discretion of these professional groups and prevent them from carrying out their democratic role. The results show the differences regarding where and how these professionals received threats and provides an alarming picture of the implications of such threats. 40% of the respondents had considered stopping working on a specific social problem, topic, target group, or task due to their fear of being subjected to hate, threats and harassment.

Department/s

  • School of Social Work

Publishing year

2020-12-21

Language

English

Pages

249-270

Publication/Series

Sociologisk Forskning

Volume

57

Issue

3-4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Sveriges Sociologförbund

Topic

  • Other Social Sciences

Keywords

  • socialarbetare
  • lärare
  • journalister
  • Kränkningar på nätet
  • våld
  • sociala medier
  • näthat
  • handlingsutrymme
  • autonomi
  • demokrati
  • social workers
  • teachers
  • journalists
  • hate speech
  • violence
  • threats
  • harassment
  • discretion
  • autonomy
  • democracy
  • journalists
  • professional discretion
  • social workers
  • teachers
  • workplace violence
  • democracy

Status

Published

Project

  • A boundaryless working life in a digital era: Hate speech as a work environment problem

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2002-066X