"It's Like Walking on Eggshells": The Lived Experiences of Workplace Bullying Bystanders in Academia

Over 60 million working adults in the U.S. report bullying experiences (Namie, 2017). However, many organizations fail to actively intervene. Workplace bullying becomes a detrimental process riddled with emotional trauma, confusion, and depleted organizational productivity. Workplace bullying bystanders are pivotal as they impact the trajectory of these issues. Bystanders can either be a target-ally (e.g., offer support or actively intervene), bully-ally (e.g., act as a henchman), or silent-bystander (e.g., ignore the situation). Bystanders contend with their own complex sensemaking processes when witnessing bullying happen to others. Researchers have often examined this role through a post-positivistic lens in the quest to better predict bystander responses.

This study used sensemaking in organizations (Weick, 1995) theoretical framework to examine workplace bullying in academia and how bystanders in this environment make sense of these processes. This study asked five research questions: RQ1: How do bystanders come to label an experience as workplace bullying? RQ2: How does emotion inform the sensemaking process for bystanders? RQ3: How do people come to label their role as bystanders throughout workplace bullying processes? RQ4: What does it feel like to be a workplace bullying bystander? RQ5: How does a person’s rank within the organizational hierarchy play a role in workplace bullying sensemaking processes?

Thirty-seven in-depth interviews serve as the data to accomplish the central purpose: examining how workplace bullying bystanders experience and construct meaning based upon their unique perspective over time. Through grounded theory data analysis, five themes emerged among participant narratives – shattered dreams, occupational identity, backstage sensemaking, thrownness, and toxic atmosphere.

This study extends conceptualization of workplace bullying to include expectations, lingering trauma, and frontstage/backstage dimensions. The data also reveal bystander feelings, roles, and motivations, including feeling thrown into their perspective and possibly taking on a protector role. Theory of sensemaking in organizations is extended to include additional identity formation phases, emotional responses, and enactment. Organizational practitioners can develop intervention campaigns with bystanders’ unique perspectives as well as socialization methods that acknowledge lingering trauma stemming from workplace bullying. A goal of this study is to bring comfort to anyone experiencing workplace bullying—know that you are not alone.