The short answer is yes! Research has found that when a person is prepared to advocate for the target of the bullying and take a stand on their behalf, the bullying behaviour decreases or in fact ends. Witnesses or bystanders are the group with the most power to stop bullying, yet they are notorious for not intervening when they see it happening.

Why are bystanders reluctant to get involved?

A study conducted by the Australian Rights Commission (2012) titled Cyberbullying and the Bystander highlighted some concerning statistics relating to bystanders in schools:

• 20-30% of students actively assist or reinforce bullying;
• another 26-30% of students try to stay outside the bullying situation; and
• less than 20% of students act to stop the bullying and defend the student being bullied.

The study highlighted the power of bystander intervention noting that when students did decide to intervene observational research found that bullying stopped within ten seconds of peer intervention in many cases.

The study noted possible reasons why students were reluctant to intervene including:

• their desire for peer acceptance;
• uncertainty about what action to take;
• fear of becoming the next target of the bullying;
• lack of knowledge about appropriate strategies to use to intervene;
• and/or assuming that another observer will take action to stop the situation.

Although the study was confined to school aged individuals some of the reasons bystanders remain passive are also germane to adults, particularly the last point.

A ground-breaking experiment that looked into the role of bystander’s reluctance to intervene was the Bystander Apathy Experiment conducted by Social psychologists, Darley and Latané (1964) in response to the brutal rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in New York. The murder was committed outside Kitty Genovese’s apartment building. It was reported up to 38 witnesses saw or heard the attack and did not call the police, prompting the now famous experiment by Darley and Latané. As a result of the experiment the term(s) bystander effect and bystander apathy were coined, being a social psychological phenomenon in which individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present. They noted several factors contribute to the bystander effect, including ambiguity, cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility. The last term diffusion of responsibility is phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present. Considered a form of attribution, the individual assumes that others either are responsible for taking action or have already done so.

The Australian Human Rights Commission noted a more recent study conducted in 2005 proposing a model relevant to bystander issues in the workplace. The model contains 4 propositions by which a workplace observer will respond to a perceived injustice or violation of a co-worker. Ultimately the study: highlighted bystanders are less likely to be passive when they identify with the bullying target and they are influenced by the organisational environment such as the organisational culture and repercussions for becoming involved.

We thought we would share with you two clips that are great for emphasising the importance of bystander action. You might like to consider these in your internal communications.

This is a 2009 video showing an experiment conducted in London whereby actors pretended to be ill and collapsed in a busy public place while many bystanders walked past without intervening. You will see, the impact of diffusion of responsibility is very strong as people are struggling with two social rules, the first being that they ought to help and the second being they ought to do what everyone else is doing, in this case not helping. In one of the experiments within 4 minutes, 34 people passed without helping, with the first attempt to help taking 20 minutes. Interestingly when the actor was dressed in a business suit and as such appeared to be “part of the group”, it took only 6 seconds for a bystander to intervene, highlighting the likeliness of individuals to react when they identify with the victim. The experiment also clearly highlighted that when one person stopped to help the willingness of others to also stop and help was increased, thus creating a new group norm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsPfbup0ac

The below link also details an experiment conducted in the US, showing the reluctance of bystanders to intervene.

https://youtu.be/EisZTB4ZQxY

To complement our successful Respectful Workplace Series, PEEL brings you the Diversity and Inclusion Introductory Workshop. PEEL believes inclusive cultures and a diverse workforce can drive innovation and collaboration, create trusted partnerships with your customers, suppliers and community partners, and contribute to the success and sustainability of your organisation.

Although there is more to workplace diversity than a single workshop can provide, our introductory Diversity and Inclusion Workshop does have the ability to increase awareness, impart knowledge, and educate employees on how to accept differences among fellow employees. It keeps the team talking about Diversity and Inclusion and how it applies to the work they perform every day, thereby assisting to break down the barriers.

The Introductory Diversity and Inclusion Workshop will support your internal D&I and EEO strategies and represents an opportunity for you to educate your employees about the importance and benefits of a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Rather than focusing on telling people what not to do, what not to say and what not to believe, this 2-hour introductory workshop focuses on helping people to work out what they can do - how they can proactively build inclusive workplaces.

Specifically the workshop covers….

• What is Diversity and Inclusion about
• The benefits of valuing Diversity and Inclusion within the workplace
• What we each can do to encourage an inclusive workplace
• Generalising v Stereotyping – what’s the difference and why does it matter
• Unconscious Bias – what is it?
• To have an awareness of your individual biases

Mediation for One….try Conflict Management Coaching as an alternative.

Conflict Management Coaching (CMC) is another option organisations can access through PEEL to support the resolution of conflict in the workplace. Conflict coaching supports the early resolution or management of conflict and restoration of working relationships. Using the CINERGY® Conflict Coaching Model, CMC is a structured process designed to adopt a supportive and problem solving approach to managing conflict.

A specially trained coach works one-on-one with the coachee who is experiencing conflict with another person, working with them to improve the way they manage and interact in their interpersonal workplace conflicts and disputes. It is a future-oriented process that focuses on each person’s specific conflict management goals. CMC is not therapy or counselling. The CM Coach does not provide advice or act as a representative but rather, helps people gain increased competence and confidence to manage their interpersonal conflicts. CMC enables the coachee to talk about the conflict with a neutral third party (the conflict coach), consider options for managing the conflict and explore options for managing the conflict with the other person.

CMC is designed to help people shift their thinking, perspectives and behaviour in relation to the conflict. It is about empowering the person in dealing with their conflicts. As people generally are unable to change other people’s behaviour, coaching assists them to work out strategies that they can use in dealing with the person with whom they are in conflict.

CMC is a voluntary and confidential process which generally encompasses a series of individual sessions (the number of session will vary depending on the particular brief). The CM coach can work with both parties to the conflict or one party. CMC is can be used when you first have grumblings of conflict manifesting or post a workplace investigation when parties need to move forward with their relationships.

Change is challenging for most people, especially if they were not directly involved in decisions which may impact their jobs. Managing your people and workplace concerns during a period uncertainty is one of the most significant challenges to be faced by Leaders and HR practitioners.

However, wide scale change is a catalyst to cultural change.Your culture will change when there are changes to direction, structures and process.Culture is the outcome of these changes.It is an opportunity to be relished not one to be fawned.Grab it with both hands and travel with it, shape it.

While the change is occurring, times will be difficult.People are not always going to love the new direction straight away.Strong leadership is required.As the dust settles, a new culture will emerge.You want to ensure the culture shaped by the new processes will be one that enables the achievement of the organisations strategic direction.

In the time before the dust settles, careful planning, focused communication and support for your people is needed to maintain a level of calm.

Most people prefer a predictable and stable work environment. Quite naturally, during organisational change, such as an amalgamation or merger, there is a perceived winner and loser and as such, people fight against change. They fear it because it presents a threat to the way they have gone about their work, they fear losing control, they fear the consequences on their remuneration, they question their competence and often struggle with the increased workloads which accompany change processes. Conflict which may have been sizzling underneath or between people and teams will often surface during periods of organisational change. This conflict can become destructive if there isn’t a willingness to collaborate and work towards a solution.

Leaders and HR practitioners must be able to recognize the difference between healthy constructive and destructive conflict. According to Robbins and Judge (2009, Organisational Behaviour), ‘conflict is constructive when it improves the quality of decisions, stimulates creativity and innovation, encourages interest and curiosity among group members, provides the medium through which problems can be aired and tensions released, and fosters an environment of self-evaluation and change’. This is where new cultures are built.Conflict can be particularly destructive if it is suppressed. Resentment and tension can build and people can explode. Leaders need to be able to identify such conflict and intervene early to de-escalate it.Leaders need to be skilled to identify healthy conflict and support it.

As a leader you can facilitate and support a culture of a healthy response to workplace conflict by:

• Modelling, demonstrating and showing commitment to desired behaviours around communication.
• Talking with employees separately.Be a sounding board and encourage them to reflect on their concerns to ensure they have them in perspective. Work with them to determine if there are any changes they can make to the situation which may affect a change to the way it is operating.
• Getting people talking with each other to resolve differences. Leaders have a role in encouraging and supporting this through providing guidance and coaching on how to approach such difficult conversations.
• Taking action and addressing issues before it’s too late. The means leaders need to be prepared to have discussions with their teams and show a willingness to listen and understand issues and concerns as this can lead to increased insight, changed outlooks and the generation of solutions to problems.
• Setting clear expectations around roles and responsibilities and standards of behaviour and be prepared to have conversations when these are infringed.
• Undertaking a team building exercise to allow staff to become aware of and talk about their work preferences – this is often a source of conflict.

Conflict is inevitable and even more so when massive changes are thrust upon people. Managing conflict and workplace concerns which erupt during these times is a critical management function.

Do you have teams where there is disharmony; where communication is poor and collaboration is low?

Do you have teams who are performing but you want to take them to the next level?

Click on the below link to learn more about how PEEL is using the Team Management Profile (TMP) to work with teams to communicate and interact in a more effective and collaborative manner.

BuildingTeamCollaborationPDF.pdf

It is common for people to wait until conflict escalates before they do something about it, often this can mean significant impacts have been occurring to individuals and teams around them in the meantime. PEEL HR now offers Conflict Management Coaching (CMC) as a proactive, alternative strategy for organisations to have in their toolkit when they are supporting individuals who are in conflict.

CMC can be implemented at any point before, during, or after conflict. For example:

Before conflict – (i.e. before an unnecessary evolution of it) – such as where a person expects to get pushback and negative reactions to the delivery of a difficult message. For example, when managers are reticent to give performance feedback or conduct a performance review as they anticipate negative reactions from certain employees or where an individual needs to deal with challenging situations, such as meetings.

During the Conflict – CMC at this point in a conflict situation helps the person to consider how the conflict can be better managed rather than letting it escalate, such as to assist them in having a conversation with the other person.

After the Conflict – (e.g. post-mediation coaching) — CMC can be used to help individuals with any unresolved responses, or to manage ongoing interactions or consider what to do differently in the future if the same sort of situation arises.

This type of coaching is ‘Dispute Specific Coaching.’ Meaning, the coach helps people to focus on a particular dispute that is adversely affecting their work and working relationships. In these situations the Coach guides the person to conduct a structured analysis of the dispute, to gain insights about their own conduct in the dispute and to engage in a problem-solving dialogue with the other person. The main objectives of this process is to coach participants to:

• Identify their goals for managing conflict effectively;
• Reflect on the ways they react and contribute to conflict;
• Consider how they react to certain triggers;
• Shift unhelpful reactions to conflict to constructive responses;
• Consider and develop alternate ways to approach conflict;
• Improve language and communication skills in order to interact and address conflictual situations more effectively; and
• Reduce the harmful impact of conflict on themselves and others.

Dispute Specific Coaching may take four to eight sessions to complete (approximately an hour for each session), with increased awareness occurring in between the sessions due to seeds planted during coaching. The CMC coach uses a range of skills, including powerful questions that engender new perspectives about each person’s contribution to the conflict, including their own. CMC seeks to move people from reaction to reflection, which ultimately facilitates a more rational analysis and choice of action.

For many HR practitioners and line managers, conducting workplace investigations can be a daunting task, even if you’ve been through training or completed investigations in the past, they present their own unique challenges…Am I following due process? Are my interview questions appropriate? Do I have enough evidence? Have I been reasonable in my assessment of the evidence? Are my findings correct?

Through purchasing hours in your Investigations Coaching Bank, PEEL can act as your specialist investigations sounding board, providing you with support and assistance as you track through your workplace investigation.

You can use your Investigations Coaching Bank hours to have PEEL:

• answer any questions in relation to your investigation
• help you frame allegations
• assist with the development of your interview questions
• review your investigation report
• consider your recommendations

The Investigations Coaching Bank can be used at any time over an 18 month period. So if you have hours left over from your current investigation, you can use them at a later date for any subsequent investigation.We can attend your workplace, talk over the phone or video conference with you.

Workplace concerns, range from simple misunderstandings, interpersonal conflict to serious grievances such as discrimination, bullying, harassment and violence. Leaders must be equipped to be able to address such matters when they are raised with them.

This program prepares Leaders to:

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An intervention to resolve a workplace conflict can only be truly effective if it is done for a long term result. Workplace mediation that fixes the immediate conflict and doesn’t consider preventative measures is a job half done. It’s like listening to the hit, not the LP. Rather than take a traditional approach of addressing the immediate relationship conflict, take a more contemporary holistic risk management approach of understanding what is underlying the conflict and address it.

What are the contributory factors to the immediate conflict as they could be impacting other relationships in conflict or simmering below the surface. Sustainable outcomes can not be achieved if we are sending the people, post mediation, back into a climate or environment fertile for further conflict. Find the root causes and change the environment away from one that cultivates conflict.

What could be the underlying risk factors ? Click Risk Factors - Unhealthy Workplace Conflict for a table setting out some practical examples.

When the risk factors are identified they should be caught and referred to the appropriate person to further consider and action them. The risk factors might be identified by regular systemic reviews or analytics. They might be identified by the mediation parties during the mediation, the HR Leader conducting the mediation may identify them in the mediation or in the proceedings leading to the mediation. To be further on the front foot, your Leaders should be identifying the risk factors in their day to day operations. That way, they are identified as early as possible and eliminated or controlled.

Providing your Leaders with the core competencies in managing workplace conflict is an organisational necessity. Building the competency within your leadership means that early resolution or better still prevention of unhealthy workplace conflict can occur.

Conflict left unattended can escalate to bullying. Not only lost production and decreased engagement but the business will suffer costs in managing a complaint and potential workers compensation claim. Taking a more moderate perspective, international research shows that workplace conflict costs leaders 20 – 30% of their time each year in responding. Even if the time spent in your business is less – say 15%, this still is a significant cost to the business. With an average TRP of $80 000, that is a cost of $12 000 per leader. If you have 50 leaders across the business, this is an annual cost of $600 000. These are conservative figures.

Peel HR offers training in holistic workplace mediation. We deliver both 1 ½ day programs for HR Professionals and 1 day programs for Leaders. Ask us about them