Employees’ safety from psychological violence in social enterprises: state subsidies or private initiative?

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Socialinė įmonė; Psichologinis smurtas; Darbuotojų saugumas; Psichosocialiniai veiksniai; Tarpasmeniniai konfliktai; Socialinė integracija; Social enterprise; Psychological violence; Employees’ safety; Psycho-social welfare; Interpersonal conflicts; Social integration.

ENThis study analyses the range of problems of the enterprises that integrate disabled persons into the labour market, evaluating the capacity of their staff to deal with the emerging problems of employees’ safety from psychological violence in the cultural context. Attention is drawn to the fact that social enterprises implementing governmental programmes for the employment of persons with disabilities are oriented only to the guarantees of the physical working conditions, but the issues of psychological safety, psychological well-being, and social exclusion are not dealt with. The latter questions are not discussed neither in the government programme nor in policies of the enterprises; therefore, they are dealt with depending on the established business management culture. The management personnel of companies with the status of social enterprises perceives the function of the enterprise as a certain niche in the market, receiving the state aid for the implemented requirements to employ disabled persons and adapt the physical environment for them. This approach highlights such side effects as unaddressed (suppressed) discriminatory attitude towards employees with disabilities in enterprises, organisational weakness in dealing with interpersonal conflicts, the lack of competence of the managerial staff and the lack of systematic knowledge on work with personnel. In this case, there is a debatable question of whether the efforts of the state will reach the desired goal, i.e. the fully-fledged work and social integration of the people who the investments are intended for, or continue the traditions of silent social segregation? This study shows that it is necessary to critically evaluate the selected model for fostering businesses to integrate into the labour market, in which the issues of psycho-social welfare and social initiative of enterprises are underestimated. [From the publication]