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Part 6: Towards a prevention framework

Encourage. Support. Act!

Bystander Approaches to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace



Part 6: Towards a prevention framework

Bystander intervention is a potentially invaluable component of sexual harassment prevention in the workforce. Ideally, bystander education applied to workplace sexual harassment would teach people to interrupt incidents of sexual harassment or the situations which lead to harassment, to challenge perpetrators and potential perpetrators, to provide support to potential and actual victims and to speak out against the social norms and inequalities supportive of sexual harassment. However, the effectiveness of strategies is dependent on its integration within a comprehensive framework of prevention and efforts to reduce and prevent workplace sexual harassment will only make real progress if they adopt the principles and strategies shown to constitute best practice in violence prevention. Over four decades of research and evaluation regarding efforts to prevent other forms of interpersonal violence have produced an emerging consensus regarding the features of effective violence prevention. Effective interventions have five generic features; all of which are likely to have relevance for the development of bystander approaches to sexual harassment.

First, effective violence prevention is comprehensive: it uses multiple strategies to address the problem behaviour and does so in multiple settings and at multiple levels.[259] Multi-level or ‘ecological’ interventions address a variety of factors associated with sexual harassment at different levels of the social order, from individuals’ relationships and communities to local contexts and organisations to wider social forces. Experience from other fields suggests that comprehensive interventions have a greater impact on attitudes, behaviours and social norms[260] than singular or isolated approaches. The section below canvasses a range of bystander intervention strategies that can be considered ‘multi-level’, in that they are organised around primary, secondary and tertiary themes and ‘comprehensive’ in that they are aimed at individuals, organisations and society at large.

The second general principle of effective violence prevention which should be applied in workplace sexual harassment is that frameworks should be built on a sound understanding of both the problem – of the workings and causes of sexual harassment itself – and of how it can be changed. In other words, it incorporates both an appropriate theoretical framework for understanding sexual harassment and a theory of change.[261] More information is needed to understand the motivations and actions of bystanders of sexual harassment in different contexts and to guide theoretically appropriate and targeted prevention programs in organisations.[262] However, many of the strategies outlined below draw on emerging forms of effective practice in bystander intervention and research-based explorations of how best to increase the likelihood that bystanders will notice sexual harassment, identify intervention as appropriate, take responsibility for intervening and act.[263]

The third general principle of effective prevention is that it involves educational, communication and other strategies known to create change. For example, strategies addressing sexual harassment should address the factors known to be antecedents to or determinants of this behaviour, use effective teaching methods and have sufficient duration and intensity to produce change.[264] The strategies below incorporate a number of educational, training and communication techniques within organisations found to be effective in changing the behaviours and attitudes of organisational actors. They include approaches which empower individual bystanders, as well as legal and policy mechanisms which protect them in taking action.

Fourth, effective prevention is contextualised. It is crafted with an attention to context, both in terms of larger social and structural constraints and with a concern for local beliefs and norms.[265] The importance of contextualising bystander interventions strategies in organisations cannot be understated. Organisational contexts vary according to a myriad of factors including, tasks, values, goals, structural and institutional arrangements, locations and industry norms. This variability affects the fundamental embededness of bystanders’ perceptions and actions which in turn, impacts the effectiveness of specific interventions. Thus, while all bystander approaches should be consistent with the general principles outlined here, programs cannot be implemented as a one-size-fits-all but rather must be flexible enough so they can be tailored to relevant factors in a particular organisational setting.

The fifth and final general principle for effective prevention is that the framework should involve a comprehensive process of impact evaluation that is integrated into program design and implementation.[266] While there are very few studies which address the effectiveness of programs in relation to sexual harassment specifically, there is a small but growing body of evidence in the violence prevention literature demonstrating that bystander intervention strategies can increase participants’ willingness to take action, their sense of efficacy in doing so and their actual participation in prosocial bystander behaviour. Evaluating the effectiveness of bystander intervention strategies – by organisations and by researchers – will contribute to knowledge of which strategies have a positive impact, versus those which are ineffective or even cause harm.

6.1 Translating existing bystander approaches to sexual harassment in organisations

There are significant challenges in identifying how bystander approaches must be crafted for workplace sexual harassment, given that there are both continuities and contrasts between this and other forms of violent, abusive or anti-social behaviour or similar forms in non-workplace settings. A salient example is cyberbullying. Whereas bystanders are often present online when this form of bullying occurs, there may be fewer witnesses to sexual harassment, which tends to be concealed because of perpetrators hiding their actions and because of under-reporting.[267] However, while sexual harassment may be more hidden than cyberbullying, there is strong evidence that bystanders do frequently observe, or at least hear about, workplace sexual harassment, especially where it clusters in certain workplaces.[268] This would support the potential adoption of cyberbullying strategies which are relevant to technology-facilitated sexual harassment in organisational settings.

Another contrast between sexual harassment and other violent behaviours is that the situations in which the risk of workplace sexual harassment is elevated may be different from those for other forms of violence and abuse such as sexual assault. Some bystander intervention strategies focus on encouraging bystanders’ preventative action in response to markers for high risk for the violent behaviour in question, such as for the sexual assault of college women by college men.[269] For example, Burn’s situational model of sexual assault prevention identifies the following high-risk markers: ‘women going to a private location with male acquaintances, women left alone by their friends at a party or bar, intoxication (of potential victim or perpetrator or both), [and] walking or running alone in secluded locations or at night’.[270] While some of these situational elements are relevant for workplace sexual harassment, others are not.

Another example of the potential differentiation of violence prevention in interpersonal situations and workplace sexual harassment is that the risk markers associated with sexual harassment, which should prompt bystanders’ interventions, may be distinct. For example, in relation to sexual assault prevention, bystanders are encouraged to intervene when in the presence of a man exhibiting ‘pre-rape behaviours’ which indicate an increased likelihood of perpetration.[271] Such behaviours include various manifestations of sexual entitlement, power and control, hostility and anger and acceptance of interpersonal violence.[272] Sexual entitlement may be evident in an individual ‘touching women with no regard for their wishes, sexualising relationships that are not sexual, inappropriately intimate conversation, sexual jokes at inappropriate times or places, or commenting on women’s bodies, preference for impersonal as opposed to emotionally bonded relationship context for sexuality and endorsement of the sexual double standard’.[273]

While many of these behaviours are also correlates of an increased likelihood of perpetrating sexual harassment, there has been little research on the individual-level factors associated with men’s perpetration of sexual harassment. While existing scholarship suggests that men who hold hostile sexist attitudes, support rape myths and who are authoritarian are more likely to perpetrate sexual harassment[274], the lack of strong evidence poses challenges for developing specific recommendations for individual level interventions such as providing negative feedback to harassers or directly intervening in an unfolding sexual harassment event. Importantly however, it is clear that work and organisational environments are at least as important as men’s individual orientations in shaping the likelihood of harassment. An environment which is ‘permissive’ towards sexual harassment is a critical antecedent for this behaviour, as various reviews demonstrate.[275]

It is also important to consider how bystander intervention approaches which are focused on workplace sexual harassment specifically, can reckon with the constraints placed by workplaces themselves. As noted, individuals’ ability to intervene in sexually harassing behaviour and its consequences is structured and indeed constrained in powerful ways by the systems, dynamics and laws of organisations. It should also be noted that workplace environments may not be conducive for reporting sexual harassment, where reporting requires bystanders to make a judgment about what behaviour is offensive, which may be unclear (for example, many consensual relationships begin in the workplace). Notwithstanding these challenges, here are some preliminary suggestions, based on existing knowledge, for areas where bystander interventions may be useful. Consistent with the categorisation of bystander intervention strategies in violence prevention, strategies are structured according to when they occur; primary (before the problem starts), secondary (once the problem has begun) and tertiary (longer-term responses). Preventative and remedial strategies related to bystanders may contribute to cultures – in organisations and in society more generally – which acknowledge sexual harassment as a profound and damaging workplace injustice and demonstrate a high level of intolerance for such conduct.

6.2 Primary prevention strategies: Training and education

The evidence presented on perceptual differences in how sexual harassment is viewed by bystanders has a number of potentially important implications for including bystander strategies in the development of organisational training and education. Overall, this evidence suggests bystanders tend to recognise sexual harassment as having occurred and by implication, are more likely to respond: (a) if it occurs between a supervisor and subordinate rather than between co-workers; (b) when there was no previous relationship between the parties; (c) when the target responds assertively, indicating that the behaviour is unwelcome, rather than if they respond passively or acquiesce; and (d) when the behaviours are severe. Taking these factors into account and considering how bystanders may be enlisted to help prevent and respond to workplace sexual harassment, it would seem important that training be designed to lower the threshold of recognition of sexual harassment and that examples be used which clarify the ambiguity associated with how sexual harassment is defined. This would include challenging certain myths associated with sexual harassment, for example, that perpetrators are always more senior than the target, that men cannot be harassed by other men, or that women fabricate or exaggerate the problem.[276]

Designing the specific content of training and education which includes bystander strategies may usefully adopt some of the lessons learned from bystander interventions designed to address other injustices. As noted in Part 4 which addressed violence prevention for example, bystanders can be mobilised and encouraged to intervene not only while the conduct is occurring, but also in the wide range of behaviours which sustain such events. In the context of the workplace, these behaviours may include sexist and harassment-supportive jokes and comments or behaviours which denigrate certain groups, such as women, gay men or lesbians, or others who do not conform to stereotypically masculine norms. However, as well as addressing sustaining behaviours, the possibility of ‘high involvement’ intervention behaviours could also be included in training content, including confronting the harasser or publicly encouraging the target to report the harassment.[277] Importantly however, the potential risks to bystanders of these high-involvement interventions, especially retaliation by the accused person, would also need to be communicated.

Other content that may be incorporated in sexual harassment workplace training in relation to bystanders is strategies to build skills in behaving as active bystanders (improving self-efficacy), facilitating the formation of groups of individuals who act as peer-based educators and mentors such as those evident in workplace health and safety strategies and public commitments to speak up and act in relation to workplace injustices.[278] In a similar way to strategies recommended to prevent cyberbullying, bystander approaches for sexual harassment that is perpetrated on-line or via other technologies, may include instructions to never contribute to harassment or gossip about others on social networking sites or via email and never to forward messages or pictures that may be offensive or upsetting.[279]

The importance of workplace education and training to prevent sexual harassment is no more evident than in studies which suggest that it has an effect on organisational cultures over and above the impact of individual training. That is, widespread training in a workplace is associated with a greater recognition of sexual harassment amongst all employees, regardless of whether individual training has been undertaken.[280] Work on bystander approaches in violence prevention would suggest that those who witness sexual harassment subsequent to being educated about it can challenge the attitudes and norms, behaviours, institutional environments and power inequalities which feed into violence in all its forms, including sexual harassment. The potential for comprehensively delivered training to both raise awareness of sexual harassment (creating a culture of awareness) and prevent it occurring means that organisations should ensure that education is delivered to all employees – at all sites and across all hierarchical levels – and not just to targeted groups or those who volunteer to attend.

Effective workplace education must also address the fundamental links between sexual harassment and wider inequalities, for example by interrogating the constructions of gender and sexuality in a particular organisational context. These constructions inform men’s and women’s differing perceptions of sexual harassment[281] and help explain the way gendered forms of power manifest in organisations.[282] Studies of whistle blowing are instructive in this sense in that they suggest that ‘moral agency’ must be developed in the organisation, by orienting and training employees about what the organisation considers wrongful and what to do if wrongdoing is observed. While the development of appropriate workplace training in all organisations should incorporate discussions of the theoretical underpinnings of sexual harassment (power, gender inequality and so on), in some male-dominated workplaces in particular, training may need to also explicitly address behaviours associated with sexual bravado and posturing and incorporate elements which challenge the sanctioning of the denigration of feminine behaviours where it exists.[283]

A rather perplexing finding in the sexual harassment literature is that observers tend to place a disproportionate amount of focus on the target of the violence and their responses, in deciding whether sexual harassment occurred. Passive target responses normalise and lower the moral intensity of conduct that may constitute sexual harassment. This implies a need for training which instructs parties (particularly those in grievance handling roles) to place greater emphasis on the behaviour of the alleged harasser compared to the way the target reacted, since this is likely to reveal more information about whether sexual harassment occurred.

Older research on bystander interventions in emergency situations highlights the importance of making social responsibility norms salient in order to encourage helping behaviours.[284] It is well accepted that men’s violence against women is sustained in part by institutional and collective factors and it would therefore seem important that frameworks of workplace training acknowledge that bystanders can be mobilised as individuals, but also as a collective of workers who can help prevent sexual harassment. Supporting this possibility is that co-workers know one another and are likely to be, in most cases, higher in cohesiveness than strangers in emergencies. Workplace training strategies that explicitly acknowledge the idea that fellow employees should work as a collective or team and ‘look out for one another’, may be effective in harnessing the potential for pro-social bystander behaviours. This has been highlighted in the workplace health and safety literature, where employees are encouraged and trained to observe co-workers’ work practices and offer supportive feedback for safe behaviours and corrective feedback for unsafe behaviours and where they are held accountable for such observation and feedback.[285] Fostering practices which catch and correct co-workers’ errors may also have the added advantage of countering conventional masculine scripts, thus translating into less rigid, non-stereotyped views of women and consequently, the advancement of gender equality in the workplace.[286]

Modelling, through demonstrations in training, also appear promising in raising the frequency and immediacy of interventions. This is because modeling facilitates employee learning in how and when to take action and because employees’ inhibitions toward intervention can be lowered by the role model’s previous behaviour.[287] The use of modeling in the context of bystander approaches might include the use of video recorded vignettes, or simply verbal descriptions (which are less resource-intensive to develop), of scenarios where bystanders have effectively assisted a target or safely intervened to prevent or stop sexual harassment. Experience in violence prevention and other fields suggests that education programs which produce behavioural change are those in which the focus is on skills development and there is a clear ‘behavioural message’.[288] Bystander training therefore should include practice in the skills of bystander intervention.

The primary prevention strategies canvassed here have focused on those relevant to organisations. However, the persistence of workplace sexual harassment as a damaging phenomenon – to individuals, workplaces and the economy more broadly – suggests there may also be an opportunity for a wider social marketing campaign on bystander approaches which is directed at larger audiences. Violence prevention programs already developed for groups in universities, schools, or other settings could also potentially address how situational and behavioural aspects of the program may translate to the workplace.

6.3 Secondary prevention strategies: Responding to claims of sexual harassment

Having explored the desirable characteristics of education and training in supporting bystanders to prevent and appropriately respond to sexual harassment, this section addresses secondary prevention strategies, that is, after the problem has occurred. The importance of organisational voice mechanisms and grievance procedures feature prominently in this section.

As has been demonstrated in this paper, there is strong emerging evidence in the management and whistle blowing literature of how organisations can design grievance procedures or ‘voice systems’ to encourage bystander reporting and respond and protect bystanders through the process. It is clear that implementing effective grievance procedures offers organisations significant protection because they enable targets and bystanders to report misconduct internally rather than outside the organisation, thereby avoiding legal proceedings.[289] Indeed, both the sexual harassment and organisational justice literatures indicate that there are significant costs to organisations of ignoring or minimising the development of ‘effective voice climates’ which deal effectively with complaints of sexual harassment.

Not surprisingly perhaps, many of the existing recommendations suggested for organisations to prevent and appropriately respond to complaints of sexual harassment by targets, would also appear to be important for encouraging bystander intervention strategies. For example, organisational and management studies suggest that enlisting bystanders to support or advocate on behalf of sexual harassment targets relies heavily on voice systems which are characterised by timely responses and investigations and an open and supportive environment where employees – bystanders as well as targets – feel safe to express their views and can expect management to take them into account.[290]

The high frequency with which sexual harassment and non-sexualised incivility co-occur[291] suggests that it is important for organisations to acknowledge sexual harassment as a manifestation of broader gender inequality and to implement organisation-wide efforts to promote a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for women. In work environments which are systemically male-dominated and privileged (eg mining, police work, manufacturing), some studies have suggested that it is important to provide explicitly articulated opportunities for women to collectively and democratically participate in order to challenge prevailing regimes of control and strive for a more inclusive environment.[292] This might include involving women in the development of organisational complaints procedures and other organisational processes which directly affect them. These representative forms of participation, which involve worker input being channelled through formal structures with elected or appointed spokespersons, have demonstrated effectiveness in the workplace health and safety realm because they place concerns within an industrial relations context and can be linked to statutory measures and collective agreements.[293]

Studies of whistle blowing further suggest that legalistic responses within organisations, rather than laws themselves, are needed to successfully encourage and protect bystanders in preventing sexual harassment and other unethical workplace practices. An important first step in the process of protecting bystanders who report sexual harassment on another individual’s behalf is for senior management to clearly understand what constitutes wrongdoing and injustice – under the law and with respect to the organisation’s own policies – but also from the perspective of societal standards and the penalties they may suffer if they allow the conduct to continue.[294] Within the context of secondary prevention, an important management strategy for encouraging bystanders to report is to create a workplace environment that positively endorses reporting of sexual harassment. This is akin to a number of evidence-based principles in the workplace health and safety literature, such as offering rewards for process activities including coaching safe work behaviours, rather than only rewarding outcomes such as accident or injury rates.[295] Also important in encouraging whistle blowing is for organisations to provide multiple communication channels so that employees can choose to report to someone with whom they are comfortable[296] or who has a lesser direct stake in their everyday work. In larger organisations, this might include nominating sexual harassment contact officers in different areas of the organisation so that targets and bystanders can refer the problem to someone other than their line manager and outside their work team.

The whistle blower literature provides some further important lessons for protecting bystanders from victimisation or retaliation when they report sexual harassment. As outlined in Part 3, legalistic strategies include providing immunity from legal action and making it an offence to take detrimental action against a person who has made a disclosure, while organisations should attempt to keep the whistle blower’s identity anonymous by excluding them as a subject of the investigation and imposing a duty on the recipient (eg manager, sexual harassment officer) not to reveal the discloser’s identity.[297]

Another important component of secondary prevention is the application of appropriate sanctions or penalties when sexual harassment has been found to occur. This demonstrates to employees that organisations can ‘walk the talk’ and deliver distributive justice, which has a profound impact on the likelihood of further reporting. Indeed, some of the most significant reasons for under-reporting sexual harassment are beliefs that the harasser will not receive any penalty and low expectations by employees that justice will be done.[298]

Implementing grievance procedures which are perceived to be fair (by both targets and their supporters) is important not only for employees, but also for mitigating risks to organisations. This is because perceptions of fairness may influence the likelihood of legal redress being sought outside the organisation.[299] There is some evidence, for example, that observers perceive the use of external investigators in sexual harassment cases to be more fair and less biased than the use of internal investigators.[300] However, such studies are relatively rare and there remains much to be learned about the types of voice mechanisms employees deem to be fair in relation to sexual harassment specifically. However, it seems clear that the potential for bystanders to report sexual harassment is enhanced where organisations proactively seek an understanding of justice perceptions of their employees, especially in developing and modifying grievance and investigative procedures around sexual harassment.

Developing well-functioning grievance procedures appears to be especially important in certain contexts, such as when targets are employed in precarious and lower level positions and thus are not part of a high status group which is more likely to receive support from bystanders and in a recessionary economy where the potential costs associated with expressing voice are higher than usual for all bystanders.[301] Thus, when developing, implementing and monitoring complaints procedures, organisations need to take account of how they can be used effectively by employees at all levels of the organisational hierarchy and regardless of their contractual arrangements or the financial position of the company at any particular time.

6.4 Tertiary prevention: Dealing with the consequences of sexual harassment

Bystander approaches may be effective in not only preventing sexual harassment from occurring in the first place and in designing effective procedures to respond to the problem once it has occurred, but also in dealing with the longer term impacts of the problem on those affected. In violence prevention, activities focus on responding to, or treating the problem, minimising the impact of violence, restoring health and safety and preventing further victimisation and perpetration.[302] In workplace sexual harassment however, knowledge of the longer term impacts on targets and bystanders is much less reliable and consequently, tertiary prevention strategies are, at best, tentative.

As outlined in Part 1, the negative impacts on targets of sexual harassment and also bystanders, can be significant, including negative psychological, health and job-related consequences.[303] While knowledge of the impacts of sexual harassment generally focus on those that occur in the weeks and months following sexual harassment rather than those in the longer term, these more immediate impacts suggest that bystander approaches may be relevant in two different ways in regards to tertiary prevention. First, given bystanders often experience detriments that parallel those of direct targets[304], they may require similar longer-term supports following the resolution of a sexual harassment incident or complaint procedure. Such supports may include ongoing external counselling, which should be resourced by the organisation and /or other workplace-level interventions such as job-training opportunities. Second, bystanders may be enlisted to support targets, such as by facilitating a ‘buddy system’ which may buffer targets from potential negative, longer-term effects.

Other bystander-related strategies which could be considered as tertiary are the ongoing monitoring, evaluation and subsequent modification of organisational processes designed to address sexual harassment (including many of the primary and secondary prevention strategies outlined here). Consistent with the principles for designing the programs themselves, impact evaluations should be underpinned by an appropriate theoretical framework and be considered from multiple levels and with the specific workplace context in mind. While sophisticated studies involving experimental designs and standardised measures of impact are probably more the preserve of researchers than organisations, it is important for organisations to continually monitor programs or strategies designed to mobilise bystanders and assess how they may be constantly improved.

Table 1 provides a preliminary framework for the development of bystander interventions in workplace sexual harassment, summarising the principles for developing bystander interventions and the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies outlined above.

Table 1. Principles and strategies for developing and implementing bystander approaches to sexual harassment.

Principles informing the strategies Strategies
 
Primary Prevention – training
Secondary Prevention – reporting and investigating
Tertiary Prevention – supporting bystanders
Design comprehensive programs, using multiple strategies, settings and levels Design training to:

  • increase recognition of sexual harassment
 
  • include content which addresses different forms of bystander involvement and challenge myths of sexual harassment
 
  • address the links between sexual harassment and other forms of gender inequalities
 
  • define sexual harassment by focusing on the behavior rather than the response

Make social responsibility norms evident in the workplace; acknowledge bystanders can be individuals or respond collectively

Use modeling in training modules to demonstrate how bystanders can assist

Deliver training to all employees

Respond and investigate complaints in a timely way

Allow employees to participate in the design of complaints procedures

Establish what constitutes sexual harassment in the organisation

Create a workplace environment that allows for reporting sexual harassment

Give management credit for taking action to encourage reporting

Preserve the anonymity of bystanders who disclose

Address the risks of victimisation to the bystander

Implement appropriate penalties for harassment when it occurs

Provide multiple communication channels for bystanders and targets

Acknowledge that some organisational actors are more vulnerable

Support bystanders who may have experienced the negative impacts of sexual harassment

Enlist the support of bystanders to assist targets of sexual harassment in the longer term

Implement ongoing monitoring and evaluation of bystander strategies

 
Develop an appropriate theoretical framework
Incorporate educational, communication and other change strategies
Locate bystander approaches in the relevant context
Include impact evaluation in the bystander approach

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[260] E Casey and T Lindhorst, ‘Toward a multi-level, ecological approach to the primary prevention of sexual assault: prevention in peer and community contexts’ (2009) 10(2) Trauma, Violence & Abuse, pp. 91-114.

[261] M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, (2009), pp. 33-35.

[262] V L Banyard, ‘Measurement and correlates of prosocial bystander behavior: the case of interpersonal violence’ (2008) 23 Violence and Victims, pp. 83-97.

[263] S M Burn, ’A Situational Model of Sexual Assault Prevention through Bystander Intervention’ (2008) 60(11-12) Sex Roles, pp. 779-792.

[264] M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, (2009), pp. 35-54.

[265] E Casey and T Lindhorst, ‘Toward a multi-level, ecological approach to the primary prevention of sexual assault: prevention in peer and community contexts’ (2009) 10(2) Trauma, Violence & Abuse, pp. 91-114; M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, (2009), pp. 55-56.

[266] M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, (2009), pp. 57-58.

[267] Australian Human Rights Commission, Sexual Harassment: Serious Business. Results of the 2008 Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey (2008); G Scott and B Martin, ‘Tactics against sexual harassment: the role of backfire’ (2006) 7(4) Journal of International Women’s Studies, pp. 111-125.

[268] Australian Human Rights Commission, Sexual Harassment: Serious Business. Results of the 2008 Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey (2008); K Low, P Radhakrishnan, K Schneider and J Rounds, ‘The experiences of bystanders of workplace ethnic harassment’ (2007) 37(10) Journal of Applied Social Psychology, pp. 2261-2297.

[269] S M Burn, ’A Situational Model of Sexual Assault Prevention through Bystander Intervention’ (2008) 60(11-12) Sex Roles, p. 780.

[270] S M Burn, ’A Situational Model of Sexual Assault Prevention through Bystander Intervention’ (2008) 60(11-12) Sex Roles, p. 780.

[271] S M Burn, ’A Situational Model of Sexual Assault Prevention through Bystander Intervention’ (2008) 60(11-12) Sex Roles, p. 780.

[272] P Rozee and M Koss, ‘Rape: A Century of Resistance’ (2001) 25(4) Psychology of Women Quarterly, p. 299.

[273] P Rozee and M Koss, as above.

[274] J Begany and M Milburn, ‘Psychological predictors of sexual harassment: authoritarianism, hostile sexism and rape myths’ (2002) 3(2) Psychology of Men and Masculinity, pp. 119-126.

[275] A Pina, T Gannon and B Saunders, ‘An overview of the literature on sexual harassment: perpetrator, theory and treatment issues’ (2009) 14(2) Aggression and Violent Behavior, pp. 126-138; L Fitzgerald, F Drasgow, C Hulin, M Gelfand and V Magley, ‘Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations: a test of an integrated model’ (1997) 82(4) Journal of Applied Psychology, pp. 578-589.

[276] K Lonsway, L Cortina and V Magley, ‘Sexual harassment mythology: definition, conceptualization and measurement’ (2008) 58 Sex Roles, pp. 599-615.

[277] L Bowes-Sperry and A O’Leary-Kelly, ‘To act or not to act: the dilemma faced by sexual harassment observers’ (2005) 30 Academy of Management Review, pp. 288-306.

[278] E Geller, ‘Ten principles for achieving a total safety culture’ (1994) 39(9) Professional Safety, pp. 18-24; A Powell, Review of bystander approaches in support of preventing violence against women, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) (2011), p. 23-28.

[279] Australian Human Rights Commission, Cyberbullying, Human rights and bystanders (2010). At http://www.humanrights.gov.au/pdf/bullying/VHB_cyberbullying.pdf.

[280] H Antecol and D Cobb-Clark, ‘Does sexual harassment training change attitudes? A view from the federal level’ (2003) 84(4) Social Science Quarterly, pp. 826-842.

[281] M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria, (2009) p. 34.

[282] C MacKinnon, The Sexual Harassment of Working Women (1979); S Zalk, ‘Men in the Academy: A Psychological Profile of Harassment’ in M Paludi (ed), Ivory Power: Sexual Harassment on Campus (1990), pp. 141-175.

[283] L Chamberlain, M Crowley, D Tope and R Hodson, ‘Sexual harassment in organizational context’ (2008) 35(3) Work and Occupations, pp. 262-295; S De Haas and G Timmerman, ‘Sexual harassment in the context of double male dominance’ (2010) European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1st March.

[284] G Rutkowski, C Gruder and D Romer, ‘Group cohesiveness, social norms and bystander intervention’ (1983) 44 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, pp. 545-552.

[285] E Geller,’Ten principles for achieving a total safety culture’ (1994) 39(9) Professional Safety, pp. 18-24.

[286] R Ely and D Meyerson, ‘An organizational approach to undoing gender: The unlikely case of offshore oil platforms’ (2010) 30 Research in Organizational Behavior, pp. 3-34; D Meyerson, R Ely and L Wernick, ‘Disrupting gender revising leadership’ in D Rhode and B Kellerman (eds.), Women and leadership: The state of play and strategies for change (2007) pp. 453-473.

[287] A Bandura Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory (1986); L Bowes-Sperry L and A O’Leary-Kelly, ‘To act or not to act: the dilemma faced by sexual harassment observers’ (2005) 30 Academy of Management Review, pp. 288-306.

[288] M Flood, L Fergus and M Heenan, Respectful Relationships Education: Violence prevention and respectful relationships education in Victorian secondary schools, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, State of Victoria (2009), pp. 42-43.

[289] J Near and M Miceli, ‘Wrongdoing, whistle-blowing and retaliation in the US Government: what have researchers learned from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) survey results?’ (2008) 28(3) Review of Public Personnel Administration, pp. 263-281.

[290] C Goldman, M Clark and A Henley, ‘Speaking up: a conceptual model of voice responses following the unfair treatment of others in non-union settings’ (2011) 50(1) Human Resource Management, pp. 75-94; K Harlos, ‘When organizational voice systems fail: more on the deaf-ear syndrome and frustration effects’ (2001) 37(3) Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, pp. 324-342.

[291] S Lim and L Cortina, ‘Interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace: the interface and impact of general incivility and sexual harassment’ (2005) 90 Journal of Applied Psychology, pp. 483-496.

[292] J Eveline and M Booth, ‘Gender and sexuality in discourse of managerial control: the case of women miners’ (2002) 9(5) Gender, Work & Organization, pp. 556-578.

[293] D Walters and L Vogel, Risk assessment and worker participation in health and safety: A European overview, paper presented at the Policies for Occupational health and Safety Management Systems and Workplace Change, Amsterdam (1998).

[294] J Near and M Miceli, ‘Wrongdoing, whistle-blowing and retaliation in the US Government: what have researchers learned from the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) survey results?’ (2008) 28(3) Review of Public Personnel Administration, pp. 263-281.

[295] E Geller, ‘Ten principles for achieving a total safety culture’ 91994) 39(9) Professional Safety, pp. 18-24.

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