Answer

Aggressive and Violent Behavior: Case Study

What the City Could Have Done Differently

            In the hindsight, the City of Ft. Lauderdale could have implemented different personnel selection, training, and planning of the organizational factors to reduce the chances of aggression and violence. Personnel selection should have been comprised of programs emphasizing on the need to screen potential workers. The City should have tested to discover any employees with the likelihood of exhibiting violent and aggressive behavior in the future. This proactive approach identifies violent and aggressive behavior for prior considerations before they are hired (Nankervis et al., 2019). Therefore, it had been applied in selection, it would have informed the city on whether Clifton McCree was a suitable employee for the organization.

            The City should have included and communicated a clear workplace violence and aggression policy to minimize incidents (Yragui et al., 2016). Anti-violence and anti-aggression policies can help curb future impacts of violent behavior such as murder and suicide expedited by Clifton McCree. Training is also a critical prevention program that the City should have utilized. Training both the management and employees would have instilled hands-on knowledge and skills to deal with workplace violence and aggression (Nankervis et al., 2019).

Liability of the City

            All employees reserve a right to guaranteed security at the workplace (Yragui et al., 2016). The City should have formulated a violence and aggression policy to guide workers on what was termed acceptable and unacceptable behavior but it did not until 1994. Besides, even after termination for to violence and aggressive behavior, Clifton McCree still gained entry into the recreation department. As a result, workers were exposed to imminent and predictable danger resulting as a frustration and possible depression consequence from McCree’s termination and inability to get another employment contract (Nankervis et al., 2019). Therefore, the City should be held liable for failure to provide guidelines of reporting aggressive behavior which delayed termination of Clifton McCree and enhanced his violent and actions. The City can also be liable for not prohibiting his entry into the recreation department after dismissal.

Effect of Discharging Clifton McCree

            Discharging Clifton McCree was the most optimal solution for the city considering the danger he was posing to himself and other workers. However, after working for eighteen years in the organization and with 9 years of aggressive and violent threats and behavior, Clifton McCree may have thought that his behavior was already acceptable or rather tolerable by the colleagues and organizational management. Thus, being discharged without prior records of his aggressive tendencies created an abrupt life turnaround, for which he was unprepared. The inability to find alternative work increased his frustrations. Thus, by not having a credible backing to support his dismissals such as previous substantiated reports of aggression and violence, the city increased the chances of retaliation.

Strategies to Minimize Tragedies

            Aggressive behavior for communities affected by drug abuse, ethnic and racial unrest, and with ease of access to weapons by disgruntled employees is a major workplace challenge. Therefore, the human resource (HR) manager should encourage the early reporting of aggressive and violent tendencies and take immediate action to stop their propagation (Yragui et al., 2016). The HR department should implement training sessions for managers and employees on how to manage workplace aggression and violence. Besides, companies should develop a strong violence and aggression policy to inform employees of appropriate workplace behavior and the consequences of inappropriate actions. The HR Manager should also accompany employee punishment with a reinforcement methods such as recommendation for counseling to enable the affected worker to overcome the negative behavioral trend and reinforce forge positive workplace relationships(Nankervis et al., 2019).