To Act or Not to Act: The Dilemma Faced by Sexual Harassment Observers

Efforts to end sexual harassment that rely primarily on target reporting are unlikely to be successful because most targets do not report their experiences. Thus, we explore an alternative mechanism for controlling sexual harassment--observer intervention. We examine observer intervention in sexual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Academy of Management review Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 288 - 306
Main Authors Bowes-Sperry, Lynn, O'Leary-Kelly, Anne M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Briarcliff Manor Academy of Management 01.04.2005
Subjects
Ambiguity
Banduras
Business studies
Employee involvement
Gender identity
Harassment
Immediacy
Intervention
Labour relations
Morality
Observational research
Observers
Organizational behaviour
Personnel management
Responsibilities
Responsibility
Sexual harassment
Social identity
Social psychology
Studies
Work environment
Working conditions
United States > US
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Summary:Efforts to end sexual harassment that rely primarily on target reporting are unlikely to be successful because most targets do not report their experiences. Thus, we explore an alternative mechanism for controlling sexual harassment--observer intervention. We examine observer intervention in sexual harassment using the literature on bystander intervention for guidance. We describe the concept of observer intervention, develop a taxonomy of intervention types, and discuss factors promoting and inhibiting its occurrence.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0363-7425
1930-3807
DOI:10.5465/AMR.2005.16387886