The following commentary was inadvertently omitted from Volume 12, Issue 1, as a response to the focal article https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.155, “#Ustoo: How I-O Psychologists Can Extend the Conversation on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Through Workplace Training.” SIOP regrets the error.

A major predictor of sexual harassment is organizational context, specifically perceptions that the organization is tolerant of sexual harassment (Barling, Rogers, & Kelloway, Reference Barling, Rogers and Kelloway2001). Women often formally and informally report being victims of more instances of sexual harassment in organizations where such behavior is perceived as being tolerated. Additionally, men reported they were less likely to sexually harass if they perceived their organization would punish those behaviors (Barling, Rogers, & Kelloway, Reference Barling, Rogers and Kelloway2001). These reports, among numerous others, are indicative that the epidemic of sexual harassment in the workplace is a cultural issue that is specific to each organization. Therefore, sexual harassment prevention should be aimed at changing cultural and group norms of organizations to be intolerant of sexual harassment. One of the ways cultures can change is through bystander intervention and, specifically, when bystander intervention is first taught and implemented by those in leadership roles. We want to be clear that in our approach, bystander intervention acts as a Band-Aid to stop sexual harassment, but the ultimate goal is that it will help create a cultural change away from sexual harassment such that it will be eventually no longer needed.

Bystander intervention was first introduced by Latané and Darley in Reference Latané and Darley1970, where they theorized that intervening as a bystander includes five steps: noticing something is happening, identifying the situation worthy of intervening, taking personal responsibility to intervene in some way, deciding how to intervene, and actually intervening. As such, there can be two types of bystanders: passive bystanders, who do not disrupt the situation, and active (or empowered) bystanders, who intervene (Banyard, Moynihan, & Plante, Reference Banyard, Moynihan and Plante2007; Banyard, Plante, & Moynihan, Reference Banyard, Plante and Moynihan2004). According to Coker et al. (Reference Coker, Fisher, Bush, Swan, Williams, Clear and DeGue2015), bystanders can intervene by directly confronting the victim or perpetrator (e.g., “that is an inappropriate comment to make to your colleague”), delegating the intervention to someone else in a better position to end the situation (e.g., letting a boss who will intervene know what is happening), or distracting either person to break up the situation (e.g., “I’m headed out for lunch, do you want to go?”). Bystander intervention training teaches recipients what to look for and how to effectively intervene, thus increasing their levels of self-efficacy (Banyard, Rizzo, Bencosme, Cares, & Moynihan, Reference Banyard, Rizzo, Bencosme, Cares and Moynihanin press).

However, for sexual harassment bystander intervention to be effective in the workplace, it cannot solely focus on increasing bystander self-efficacy at the individual level (Banyard et al., Reference Banyard, Rizzo, Bencosme, Cares and Moynihanin press). People who are more confident in their abilities to be effective bystanders only have higher levels of intentions to intervene, but they are not more likely to actually intervene. What encourages individuals to intervene when they see sexual harassment is the group norms of the people around them. Banyard et al. (Reference Banyard, Rizzo, Bencosme, Cares and Moynihanin press) found that individuals who perceived higher levels of both peer helping and community influence felt a greater sense of responsibility to help, which was significantly related to more active bystander behaviors. Generating higher perceptions of helping norms, along with one’s belief in his or her ability to influence the community indirectly, increased bystander actions through a greater sense of responsibility to intervene. To increase employees’ helping behaviors, it is critical to create a culture that encourages helping behaviors and an engaged community where employees feel they can make a difference (Banyard et al., Reference Banyard, Rizzo, Bencosme, Cares and Moynihanin press). Bystander interventions should be focused on changing the organizational culture via prosocial group norms, establishing a collective group efficacy, and increasing individuals’ sense of responsibility to intervene when they witness sexual harassment.

Another caveat to bystander intervention in the workplace is the fear of retaliation for reporting instances of harassment. Thus, creating the necessary culture change and community development should be achieved from the top down, starting with organizational leaders. Targeting leaders first is effective because individuals are more likely to confront someone engaging in sexually harassing behaviors if the perpetrator is a peer or subordinate (Ashburn-Nardo, Blanchar, Petersson, Morris, & Goodwin, Reference Ashburn-Nardo, Blanchar, Petersson, Morris and Goodwin2014). Employees with less power are more likely to be passive bystanders because the perceived cost to intervene is too high (e.g., losing one’s job). As such, when first beginning the program, leaders would have a greater chance of being successful bystanders in an organization that has yet to develop an intolerant culture toward sexual harassment because they would be more likely to intervene if they see harassment from a peer or subordinate (Ashburn-Nardo et al., Reference Ashburn-Nardo, Blanchar, Petersson, Morris and Goodwin2014). Leaders can then set the standard for acceptable and expected behaviors, serving as models for other organizational employees to follow. Leaders being active bystanders would also convey that the organization was intolerant of sexual harassment, showing support for victims while discouraging people from further committing sexual harassment.

As stated in the focal article (Medeiros & Griffith, Reference Medeiros and Griffith2019), for successful transfer of training it is necessary that participants practice what they learned in training. A concern was that bystander intervention was failing because participants were not able to practice training material. However, cultural change in an organization does not happen rapidly but rather takes place over time (Salama & Easterby-Smith, Reference Salama and Easterby-Smith1994). Essentially, sexually harassing behaviors will not end after one training session. We argue that as the culture evolves in an organization, participants will have opportunities to practice being active bystanders. Further, if training is administered over a span of a few weeks to months, this gives participants a chance to bring their real-life encounters to the next training session to discuss and practice appropriate intervention strategies.

Bystander intervention can be successful if is focused on decreasing sexual harassment via establishing prosocial group norms and organizational culture change. Leaders can be catalysts to this change by serving as role models of appropriate behaviors when faced with sexual harassment. As the culture of the organization changes, people will need to engage in fewer sexual harassment bystander behaviors because the sexually harassing behaviors will no longer exist.