Killing two birds with one stone: how intervening when witnessing bullying at the workplace may help both target and the
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Killing two birds with one stone: how intervening when witnessing bullying at the workplace may help both target and the acting observer Morten Birkeland Nielsen1,2 · Michael Rosander3 · Stefan Blomberg3,4 · Ståle Valvatne Einarsen2 Received: 23 January 2020 / Accepted: 28 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Objective This study examines under which conditions being an observer of bullying can be detrimental to health and wellbeing. It was hypothesized that health-related problems following observations of bullying are determined by (1) whether the observer has been exposed to bullying her/himself and (2) whether the observer have tried to intervene in the bullying situation that they witnessed. Methods The study was based on a longitudinal probability survey of the Swedish workforce, with an 18-month time lag between assessment points (N = 1096). Results Witnessing bullying at work were associated with an increase in subsequent levels of mental distress among the observers, although this association became insignificant when adjusting for the observers’ own exposure to bullying. Intervening against bullying moderated the relationship between observations of bullying and mental health problems. Observers who did not try to intervene reported a significant increase in mental health problems at follow-up, whereas there were no significant changes in levels of mental health problems among those who did intervene. Conclusions the findings suggest that observer interventions against bullying may be highly beneficial for both the targets and observers of bullying. Organizations should therefore invest in ways to increase constructive bystander behavior in negative social situations at the workplace. Keywords Bystander · Harassment · Psychosocial · Conflict · Health
Introduction
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01575-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Morten Birkeland Nielsen [email protected] 1
National Institute of Occupational Health, Pb. 8149 Dep, 0033 Oslo, Norway
2
Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
3
Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
4
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
A comprehensive body of empirical evidence shows that workplace bullying is a prevalent and detrimental occupational stressor in contemporary working life (Nielsen and Einarsen 2012; Nielsen et al. 2016; Verkuil et al. 2015). With regard to the effects of bullying, those exposed report reduced health and well-being in the form of mental and somatic complaints (Finne et al. 2011; Hansen et al. 2014; Reknes et al. 2016). Exposure to bullying is also a risk factor for workability as studies with objective data have shown increased sick leave rates (Eriksen et al. 2016; Nied
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