Workplace violence: Gender and age factors in the search for religious spiritual assistance

Abstract

Although there is ample literature on violence in the workplace, the opportunities for religious organizations to participate in providing assistance to victims remain little investigated. Therefore, in this article, we analyse the circumstances that promote the search for religious spiritual assistance and how this corresponds to the expectations of victims of violence in the workplace. Based on the results of the empirical study, we demonstrate that despite secularization trends, a sufficient value-based foundation still remains, which makes assistance provided by religious organizations potentially acceptable to victims. Contrary to what could have been expected, men reported being victims of violence more often, and the differences between individual age groups were statistically insignificant. The age variable was important only for obtaining information on this type of assistance. Women, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of religious values more than men did, but at the same time, they also showed greater sensitivity to the contextual circumstances on which the decision to seek religious assistance depended. This article presents only part of the results of a broader scientific study, one that is exclusively related to victims’ gender and age.