Reclaiming Power: Five Ways to End Harassment, Bullying and Abuse in the Workplace
This past week, athlete members of USA Swimming’s Board of Directors wrote a letter in response to recent reporting that revealed USA Swimming’s failure to pursue justice in hundreds of cases of sexual abuse. Towards the end, the letter’s writers concluded, “We are committed to… asking ourselves the hard questions as to why any complacence [sic] was allowed to exist, and to ensure that will not recur.”
Indeed, we should not stop at asking, “Why do abusers act the way they do,” but also answer the question, “Why do we let them get away with their abuse?” Whether the accused perpetrator is a USA Swimming coach, Larry Nassar, Harvey Weinstein or Steve Wynn, serial abusers always have two things going on for them: A lot of power and a culture that doesn’t hold them accountable.
There has been plenty of research dissecting the impulsiveness, self-absorption, entitlement and egocentrism of powerful offenders, but very few words have been spent to understand the psychology of those who revere power. The fans. The bystanders. The gossipers. The protectors of the status quo. Everyone who upholds the systems of power that permit abusive behavior to reign unchecked.
After all, most of the news accounts of abusive conduct portray it as a “well-known secret” within the organization or industry in which the abuse took place. OC Register found that sexual abuse of underage swimmers was “commonplace,” and remarked on the “sense of complacency” that characterized the leadership of USA Swimming towards it.
Revering Power
While there are “symptoms” of how people misuse their power (see our article last week on Trumpian leadership), accepting the weaknesses and lapses of judgment of those in power comes with its own symptoms. Signs include making up excuses (“this is how the world turns”), rationalizing (“there are places worse than this one”), retreating into indifference (“it’s none of my business”).
What is perhaps even more alarming than the conduct of Weinstein was the permissiveness of Miramax’s board, and more horrifying than the violations of Nassar or a USA Swimming coach was the passive acquiescence of institutional bodies that were supposed to ensure the highest professional standards. For while the abuses committed by a person are contained to the actions of an individual, the silence of a complicit system hints at the cover-ups of so much more.
The current revelations in sports, Hollywood, business and politics expose how rampant abusive behavior is in today’s organizations. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that at least 25% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work. Zooming out beyond sexual harassment, a 2014 Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) study reported that 27% of the American workforce — 65 million workers — are currently or have been bullied at work; 56% of the bullies were more senior than their targets.
It’s notable that the WBI study did not define “bullying” as mere incivility or rudeness, but rather as “repeated mistreatment, abusive misconduct that is: threatening, humiliating, intimidating.” These behaviors are not separate from sexual harassment, but often work in tandem. A USA Swimming coach who had racked up several allegations of sexual abuse once pressured one of his athletes to wear a dog collar. Jeffrey Tambor, a prominent actor accused of sexual harassment, acknowledged that he was “ill-tempered” and “volatile.” Harvey Weinstein, a movie mogul exposed as a serial sexual predator, would get so worked up that he would put people in a headlock or throw them against a wall.
A Complacent Culture
Bullies are often abetted by the corporate culture in which they operate. According to the WBI survey, employers respond to “condemn” or “eliminate” bullying a mere 18% of the time, but, for the most part, they “deny,” “discount” or “rationalize” the reports made by victims (56%). Ironically, the target of bullying is more likely to be forced out or fired (32%) by the organization than the perpetrator is to be punished or terminated (22%). It’s no wonder that for most targets, the bullying only stops when they leave the workplace.
So why do companies let bullies and harassers get away with their behavior? Part of the answer has to do with our cultural orientation towards power. In an extensive study, Geert Hofstede, a pioneering cultural psychologist, found that there are different dimensions upon which power is understood across cultures. Power can be “vertically” hierarchical or “horizontally” flattened. It can also be oriented towards “individual” self-interest or “collective” good.
Our culture falls into the “vertical” and “individualist” (VI) camp. The key insight from Hofstede’s study is that the ways in which people relate to power affects how they relate to each other. In VI cultures, “people strive to become distinguished and acquire status via competition.” So, when someone accumulates power and uses it selfishly, he/she is performing what is culturally expected.
How does selfish exercise of power morph into egregious unethical conduct? It does not happen overnight. Unethical behavior tends to work on a slippery slope, starting with small transgressions that go unchecked and then snowballing into larger ones. Affording someone the freedom to systematically demean others may accelerate that person’s descent towards the next and worse form of violation. The fact that so much of the perpetrators’ conduct went unpunished over the past few decades is a wake-up call for all of us to confront our collective relationship with power — our implicit deference toward those who are at the top whom we believe have “earned” their privileges.
Our cultural belief that power is based on competitive entitlement also explains why we tend to fault survivors. If a woman finds herself in the position to be harassed, it must be because she was not savvy, confident, strong, or smart enough. We blame victims for being powerless or, at the very least, naive enough to think that opportunities come without price tags. When we implicitly believe that the powerless have to pay a price to improve their status or climb the ladder, we become desensitized to the violations of the powerful.
How We Make a Shift
Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment highlighted, among other things, that those who feel powerless may start to feel resigned to their conditions. But if we look at the current challenges through the lens of a culture change process, there is a lot we can do to improve the status quo. Here are five to do’s we can all put in practice to do our part to stop harassment and bullying in the workplace:
1. As individuals, we can catch ourselves when we experience tolerance and admiration for the dark qualities of power (e.g., “Steve Jobs was ruthless, but that’s why Apple was so good”). We can institute personal practices, such as slowing down and adopting an inquisitive attitude, whenever we make excuses to condone the inappropriate behavior of those in power or whenever we feel we cannot do anything to curb their unethical conduct.
2. As colleagues, we can ask questions, support those who speak up, highlight inequalities, seek knowledge on how to report issues, and foster an open and humble dialogue around workplace harassment, discrimination, unfairness and respect. We can also look for ways to band together to initiate more incisive change — the #metoo and #timesup movements are examples of how collective efficacy can be built.
3. As organizations, we can educate managers, introduce checks and balances for senior leadership, HR and Legal (preferably in the form of independent, external watchdogs), give employees disparate opportunities to voice feedback anonymously and confidentially, and build a culture that emphasizes the responsibilities of power rather than its entitlements.
4. As leaders, we can monitor our conduct and ask for help as soon as we feel inebriated by our own status. We can also keep our privilege in check by exposing ourselves to genuine and undiluted feedback and by reforming internal mechanisms and systems that prevent a more diverse and inclusive culture.
5. As customers, we can look into the credentials of the companies we are buying from or applying to work at; the internet today offers a variety of sources to do that (Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, etc.). As the public, we can engage vigorously and keep ourselves informed.
Our societal veneration of power leaves no one untouched — it affects all of us. #metoo #timesup.
This article is part of the Be Thread series, a project launched by Caterina Bulgarella and Sarah Ngu to further the conversation on the future of work. If you are interested in reading weekly, provocative posts on workplace headlines, trends, common workplace problems and stories, sign up here.
