The Bystanders of Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is often seen as a two-party process occurring between perpetrators and victims. However, increasingly researchers are recognizing that other people are affected by, and involved in, the process of bullying. Organizations are social entities in which people typically interact with, and work in the presence of, others. As such, when workplace bullying occurs, other people may be party to some of the negative acts that perpetrators direct towards their victims. These other people, who we refer to here as 'bystanders', may play an important role in the development and continuation of workplace bullying, and may also be part of the eventual solution. In this chapter, we review research on the bystanders of workplace bullying and explain why good people do not always do 'the right thing'.