Reducing Workplace Aggression using Collaborative Action Science to Enhance Organizational Change

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses organizational learning, organizational change and performance improvement in the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). Its two objectives are to assess the effectiveness of organizational change interventions designed to reduce workplace aggression and stress and improve performance; and to examine whether and how using "collaborative action inquiry" - a form of participatory action research in which participants partner to co-manage cycles of research-action-reflection - may enhance organizational learning and change. With access to a huge longitudinal database of objective and perceptual measures concerning virtually every aspect of VA operations and performance, as well as "enthusiastic" participation from not only VA management but also its unions, the research team will first model effects and costs of workplace aggression and stress through VA's value chain, to identify high-leverage intervention points, those with greatest potential to improve service quality and cost-effectiveness. Second, the project will provide a template for how organizations can collaboratively use their own data to generate learning and improvement. Third, the project will derive guidelines for improving academic-practitioner collaboration. Panelists praised the creativity of the project, while raising several issues to which the PI has responded: because the root causes of aggression and stress are common, and because the VA is so diverse, generalizeability of results should be substantial. Improvements in the quality of life for the VA's 240,000 employees, and through them, the VA's many clients alone would be a substantial benefit. The character of the VA, its size and diversity, the importance of service industries in general, and of those like the VA's benefits administration centers, healthcare facilities and cemeteries in particular, all increase the project's potential impact.