A psycho-educational model for university lecturers to facilitate the constructive management of aggression

Abstract

Background: Experienced workplace aggression is a lingering phenomenon and comprises an extensive body of knowledge. Experiences of workplace aggression require constructive intervention and support. These interventions and support must aim to assist university lecturers to constructively manage experiences of aggression.

Aim: The aim of this article is to describe the process followed to develop, describe and evaluate a psycho-educational model for university lecturers that could be used as a conceptual framework of reference to facilitate the constructive management of experienced aggression.

Setting: The model is applicable in universities where the university lecturers work and experience aggression. This study was conducted in a specific college at a university in Johannesburg in South Africa.

Method: A theory-generating, qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was applied to develop a psycho-educational model. The process included four steps: concept analysis, relationship statements, description of the model and evaluation of the developed model. The criteria of clarity, simplicity, generality, accessibility and importance were used during the evaluation of the model.

Results: The central concept in this study was to facilitate constructive management. The psycho-educational model as the conceptual framework of reference for facilitating the constructive management of experienced aggression was described and evaluated. University lecturers’ destructive management of experienced aggression formed the basis for the psycho-educational model.

Conclusion: The psycho-educational model provides a conceptual framework of reference for university lecturers that may assist them to constructively manage experiences of aggression in their places of work.