What role can bystanders play in ending workplace bullying?
Bystanders are persons who witness bullying directly or who hear about it from others.
The following, though not an example of workplace bullying, provides a harrowing illustration of the role bystanders play in witnessing the offense workplace bullying, a category of workplace harassment.
On Memorial Day, May 25, 2020, a concerned citizen recorded the now-infamous video of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed and restrained George Floyd for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Desperately exclaiming, “I can’t breathe,” Mr. Floyd pleaded in vain to be allowed to sit up. The video captured a murder. The citizen subsequently released the video to the public via social media. This concerned citizen was a bystander. While Mr. Floyd was crying out for help, other concerned citizens could be heard in the background, joining Mr. Floyd’s pleas. They also implored Chauvin’s patrol partner, former Minneapolis police Officer Tou Thao, to intervene, to no avail. (Officer Thao is seen standing near Officer Chauvin and Mr. Floyd in the video.) These people were also bystanders. Others watched the scene as it unfolded from across the street or nearby. They too were bystanders. (Note that, in the legal system, bystanders are ‘witnesses.’)
A 2017 Workplace Bullying Institute study found that 19 percent of American workers, or roughly 30.2 million employees, are bystanders who witness workplace bullying. Workplace bullying is the “persistent exposure to interpersonal aggression and mistreatment from colleagues, superiors, or subordinates”[1]. Bystanders respond to workplace bullying in a variety of ways.
A coworker (bystander) repeatedly witnesses a coworker (bully) spreading rumors or gossip about the targeted employee (victim), causing the other coworkers (bystanders) to shun the victim at lunch. The bystander decides to follow her coworkers’ example and shuns the victim, too, lest the bystander becomes the bully’s next target.
A team leader (bully) berates the targeted team member (victim) for poor performance again in front of the team. One of the other team members (all are bystanders) agrees with the bully, saying that the victim has always been incompetent, and then eggs the team leader on, while the other team members look down at their hands or fiddle with their pens.
A coworker (bystander) calls out the supervisor (bully) for making false allegations to the manager about the targeted employee’s job performance that can potentially jeopardize the victim’s job promotion.
Critical to understanding the phenomenon of workplace bullying is that it is, by and large, a collective event[2]. Workplace bullying typically involves a triad of individuals (bully, victim, bystander). According to the 2017 Workplace Bullying Institute US Workforce Survey, 63% of perpetrators worked alone, which means 37% had accomplices. In another study, researchers found that the majority of bullying incidents involved accomplices providing either public or private support to the bully[2]. According to the researchers, “[a]ctive accomplices were other aggressors; passive accomplices included upper managers, HR staff, the bullies’ peers, and, in some cases, even the targeted persons’ peers”[2].
Research shows that bystanders take on a variety of roles, constructive or destructive, in workplace bullying events[3]. They can actively or passively respond to the bullying[3]. Bystanders who adopt constructive roles tend to take the side of the victim by defending her or him (speaking up for the victim to challenge the bully’s tactics and behavior); intervening to stop the bullying incident; showing sympathy for and supporting the victim; defusing the situation while not taking sides; and showing empathy for the victim without intervening on the victim’s behalf[3]. Destructive bystander roles include instigating the bullying situation on behalf of the bully; manipulating the bullying situation, so that the bully and victim confront each other; collaborating with the bully to support the bully’s behaviors toward the victim publicly; facilitating the bullying by joining in gossip or engaging in office banter; ignoring conversations regarding the bullying or avoiding the bullying incidents altogether; or becoming the next victim after unsuccessfully defending the victim[3].
Depending on the situation, bystanders can alternate between roles or take on multiple roles[3]. The role that the bystander adopts during a workplace bullying incident can reinforce and continue the bullying behaviors or stop them. Generally, constructive roles can lead to positive outcomes for the victim and the organization, while destructive roles, particularly active ones such as instigator, manipulator, collaborator, or facilitator, can reinforce the bullying behaviors[3]. Bystanders adopting these active, destructive roles can be viewed as active accomplices.
Thus, bystanders are uniquely positioned to respond to workplace bullying. Bystanders comprise a large employee cohort and are virtually by definition more numerous than bullies, victims, and supervisors or managers in the workplace[4]. They witness the bullying behaviors or learn of them before supervisors and managers do[4]. They interact with the victims and bullies on a daily basis. Victims may confide in their coworkers (bystanders), and bystanders may offer support and encouragement, and may report the workplace bullying behaviors to their supervisors or managers[4]. Bystanders can validate the victim’s experience with workplace bullying because they witnessed it[4].
Since bystanders play a key role in stopping workplace bullying, what prevents more bystanders from speaking up for the victims and intervening? While there are many bystanders who do intervene and speak up for the victim, there are also bystanders who are reluctant to intervene or choose not to get involved in the situation. For these bystanders, they may fear repercussions from coworkers, bullies, or management for intervening, especially if the senior leadership has not adopted a zero-tolerance, anti-bullying policy that encourages bystanders to intervene and to report incidents of workplace bullying. These unwllling actors may fear becoming a victim of bullying, too, should they speak up or intervene. It is conceivable that some bystanders may not understand the concept of workplace bullying and their role in stopping bullying behaviors. Others may not know how to intervene successfully, or lack confidence in their ability to respond to workplace bullying incidents, nevertheless, wishing to become part of the solution to ending workplace bullying rather than reinforcing its destructive presence in the workplace.
Organizational leaders set the tone of the culture and climate of the organization. To create a respectful, inclusive, and productive work culture and climate, leadership can:
Adopt anti-bullying policy that states clearly the organization’s zero tolerance for workplace bullying (and other forms of workplace harassment);
Include accountability systems in the policies that will hold bullies accountable for their behaviors, and include reporting procedures for employees while maintaining their confidentiality and protection from retaliation[4];
Implement bystander intervention training to employees to empower them to be active, constructive bystanders since bystanders are key to the success of the organization’s anti-bullying program [5, 6]; and
Give bystanders the necessary intervention tools when witnessing workplace harassment and bullying behaviors [5, 6].
References:
[1] Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., & Notelears, G. (2009). Measuring exposure to bullying and harassment at work: Validity, factor structure and psychometric properties of the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised. Work & Stress, 23(1), 22-44.
[2] Namie, G., & Lutgen-Sandvik, P. E. (2010). Active and passive accomplices: The communal character of workplace bullying. Interpersonal Journal of Communication, 4, 343-373.
[3] Paull, M., Omari, M., & Standen, P. (2012). When is a bystander not a bystander? A typology of the roles of bystanders in workplace bullying. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(3), 351-366.
[4] https://www.eeoc.gov/select-task-force-study-harassment-workplace#_Toc453686311 (“Workplace Civility and Bystander Intervention Training”)
[5] Coyne, I., Gopaul, A., Campbell, M., Pankász, Garland, R., & Cousans, F. (2019). Bystander responses to bullying at work: The role of mode, type and relationship to target. Journal of Business Ethics, 157, 813-827.
[6] Scully, M., & Rowe, M. (2009). Bystander training within organizations. Journal of the International Ombudsman Association, 2(1), 1-9.