Call for Papers
Special Issue - Workplace aggression and leadership in the public sector
Public employees, such as teachers and social workers, are often confronted with aggression (Barling et al., 2009; Baron & Neuman, 1998). This can range from verbal aggression (such as calling names), psychical aggression (such as kicking) to property damage (such as damaging one's car) and threats. Regarding threats, Dubois (2010:171) describes how a French social worker was confronted by a citizen, who became aggressive when he did not get the welfare advance he was hoping for. The citizen stated to the social worker that "'If one day I see you again, I will kill you.'" As a result, the social worker stated that she disengages more and more from work. Next to aggression from citizens, public employees can also be confronted with aggression from their own colleagues, their supervisors and other stakeholders. Related to this, there is also another type of aggression emerging in the public sector. Dick (2010) refers to it as bullying directed at task completion (more commonly called work harassment).
When public employees are confronted with aggression, this can have severe consequences. It can lead to increased burnout, reduced wellbeing and less organizational commitment (Hershcovis & Barling, 2010). Further, it can be hypothesized that it decreases Public Service Motivation (Vandenabeele, 2008) and the degree to which public employees trust citizens (Van de Walle, 2010). However, to date not many public administration studies analysed workplace aggression (an exception is Baron & Neuman, 1998). We therefore invite articles that examine workplace aggression in the public sector. We especially encourage submissions that analyse how leadership can reduce (or enhance) workplace aggression (Tummers & Knies, 2013; Van Wart, 2014). Leaders and supervisors often play a crucial role in enacting aggression - but also in coping with aggression - (Hershcovis et al., 2007). We aim to publish six articles specially linking, leadership, management, and workplace aggression.
A recent review by Groeneveld et al. (2015) shows that there is currently a lack of methodological diversification in public administration. Especially mixed methods and experimental designs are in short supply. Furthermore, not many comparative cross-country studies have been conducted . We therefore especially encourage articles using such designs (mixed method, experiments, cross-country comparisons), but are also open to articles which employ different designs.
See more about this special issue in the International Journal of Public Sector Management: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=5997#sthash.G56XzUob.dpuf
Guest Editors:
Lars Tummers, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Yvonne Brunetto, Southern Cross University, Australia
Stephen Teo, AUT University, New Zealand
Submission Deadlines:
March 31 2015 for abstract submission
May 15 2015 for full paper submission
Dr. Lars Tummers
Assistant Professor Erasmus University Rotterdam & Research Fellow Arizona State University
Public Management & Public Policy
www.larstummers.com
New articles:
· Systematic review of the literature: How do public employees cope with stress (JPART)
http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/01/12/jopart.muu056.abstract
· Leadership & Meaningful work (PAR)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.12138/abstract
· How 'policy alienation' negatively affects behavior of public employees (A&S)
http://aas.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/11/01/0095399714555748.abstract