UA Conference to Address Workplace Effects of Family Violence

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A vice president of clothier Liz Claiborne Inc., a director from the American Bar Association, the manager of L.L. Bean’s corporate security and Arkansas Attorney General Mike Beebe are among the experts who will appear at a conference titled "The Workplace Effects of Family Violence," to be held on Nov. 11, 2005, on the University of Arkansas campus.

The Sam M. Walton College of Business, along with the sponsorship of the National Institute of Justice and several Arkansas businesses, is holding a one-day conference for managers at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development. For more information about the conference, contact Teresa Clark at (479) 575-2856 or 1-888-824-3933. To register online, go to http://cmed.uark.edu.

Walton College researchers Carol Reeves and Anne O’Leary-Kelly received two grants totaling $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice to study the effects of domestic violence on the workplace.

O’Leary-Kelly, who is a professor of management, chair of the management department and holder of the William R. and Cacilia Howard Chair in Management, said, "In our research with Arkansas employers, we found some astounding statistics. Almost 40 percent of women and 22 percent of men who participated in the study said they had been abused at some point in their lives. Slightly more than 10 percent of the women and 8 percent of the men said that they had been a victim in the past 12 months. Yet less than one percent of the women and no men said they had discussed the abuse in any depth with their supervisor."

Reeves, who is an associate professor of management and holds the Cecil and Gwendolyn Cupp Applied Professorship in Entrepreneurship, added: "Because this seems to be a hidden problem, many managers are not aware of the serious problem family violence poses for their employees. We found that individuals who have been abused miss work for health-related reasons more frequently and are tardy more often than employees who are not victims of domestic violence. Moreover, our research showed that employees abused by an intimate partner are exhausted more frequently and have more difficulty concentrating at work than employees who are not abused by an intimate partner. These results were true for both men and women.

"However, our results also point out the difference employers can make in the lives of their employees," she said. "While we found that victims experience productivity-related effects, we also found that these effects were dramatically lower for victims who had supportive co-workers and organizations."

O’Leary-Kelly and Reeves have observed that many employers are unaware of the resources available to them to help their employees deal with abuse. Further, many managers are not aware of the legal liabilities their companies may incur because they have not developed policies around family violence. As a result of their research, they have brought together a panel of national and state experts to assist Arkansas businesses in addressing the effects of family violence on the workplace.

"Our speakers are some of the foremost authorities in the country about the human resource and legal issues associated with domestic violence," O’Leary-Kelly said. "They will be discussing specific actions managers can take to help their workers and their organizations effectively address domestic violence."

Contributing sponsors include Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield, Arvest Bank Group, Cadbury Adams, McKee Foods Inc., and Tyson Foods Inc. Participating sponsors include J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc., Nabholz Construction, NOARK: Northwest Arkansas Human Resource Association, and the University of Arkansas.

The Workplace Effects of Family Violence agenda includes:

7:30-8:00 Check-in and continental breakfast