By Emily M. David, Sabrina D. Volpone, Derek R. Avery, Lars U. Johnson and Loring Crepeau

Most of us probably retain the hope that we can recognise and call out unjust treatment when we see it happening to other people, regardless of who they are. However, our recent research suggests that gender plays a crucial role in determining our response when witnessing workplace mistreatment.

Using two laboratory experiments and a large field study of over 8,000 employees, our study found that when it comes to interpreting workplace injustice or mistreatment, bystanders who are women, or those of the same gender as the victim (e.g., men witnessing men being mistreated), are more likely to experience identity threat than men and those not similar in gender to the victim.

Identity threat is when a person feels personally threatened after vicariously witnessing someone who is similar to them being mistreated. Whether it forms as an instantaneous emotional response to seeing the mistreatment, or as an intellectual processing of the event afterwards, identity threat leads the person to ask themselves: “If that can happen to them, can it happen to me? Am I next?” In turn, this may lead the person to perceive their workplace organisation as less fair, less just, and more prone to permitting acts of mistreatment overall, especially towards their shared social identity.

Our study is unique in that it examines both women’s and men’s identity threat and organisational perceptions after witnessing the mistreatment of others. Beyond these general findings, we also noted that:

• Both men and women can shape their “moral scope” based on their identity – adjusting their level of concern over workplace mistreatment up or down based on gender.
• Men may experience stronger feelings of identity threat when seeing other men suffer gender mistreatment, as it represents a direct threat to the existing status hierarchy.
• Men and women may theorise the motivations for gender mistreatment differently – for example, women may attribute it to patriarchal structures at work, while men attribute it to organisations going overboard in their attempts to rectify past discrimination against women.

It’s clear that managers and supervisors need to be fully aware of the destructive properties of workplace mistreatment, and how it can deeply affect bystanders as well as its original victim. Simply witnessing or hearing about such instances of injustice is often enough to make an employee doubt the fairness of the whole organisation, not just the people carrying it out.

Open-door policies, transparent decision making, and anonymous HR hotlines are all potentially helpful methods for building a working environment based on maintaining trust and fair, equal treatment for everyone. More specifically, since there is a tendency among men to attribute vicarious mistreatment to organisations wanting to appear pro-women, it is essential to communicate that all policies around workplace mistreatment are designed to help create gender parity, not to favour one gender over another.

To help solidify this stance, and to overcome gendered bystander biases, the gender composition of grievance committees, HR staff, and line managers should be taken into consideration, to ensure that people are appropriately considerate and open to the concerns of all employees. Addressing gender bias head on via implicit bias training can also help make managers question their own assumptions when subordinates – particularly those of the opposing gender – have a complaint.

This article is based on a paper entitled, “Am I Next? Men and Women’s Divergent Justice Perceptions Following Vicarious Mistreatment” by Emily M. David, Sabrina D. Volpone, Derek R. Avery, Lars U. Johnson and Loring Crepeau published by the American Psychological Association.

Emily M. David is a Former Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at CEIBS. Sabrina D. Volpone is an Associate Professor at Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. Derek R. Avery is the C. T. Bauer Chair of Inclusive Leadership at Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. Lars U. Johnson is an Assistant Professor at the College of Business, The University of Texas at Arlington. Loring Crepeau is a Personnel Research Psychologist at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.