“Speak Up!” engage the whole workplace against sexual harassment

The project “Speak up!”: A practice-oriented research project on the prevention of Sexual Harassment (SUSH) tested and developed research-based interventions against sexual harassment in different industries, geared towards ‘bystanders’, in other words, people who witness sexual harassment or hear about it from someone at the same workplace. Researchers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden participated in the project in partnership with the Norwegian Police Service, Gothenburg municipality and the union Vision in Sweden, and the work environment organisation BrancheFælleskab for Arbejdsmiljø – Velfærd og Offentlig Administration, in Denmark.

The three sub-projects studied what is needed to run initiatives geared towards bystanders, the risks of running these kinds of interventions, and the impacts the partner organisations found the initiatives had on knowledge, attitudes, and action in the workplace. In their analyses, the researchers drew on theory and empirical research on bystander behaviour, organisational interventions, and sexual harassment as well as critical perspectives on gender and other factors such as age, ethnicity and sexual identity.

Denmark: “Clear generational shift in assumptions of what is acceptable behaviour”

The Danish part of SUSH tested the Danish intervention tool Grib ind overfor krænkende handlinger af seksuel karakter (Intervene Sexual Harassment) in a public organisation consisting of several teams. The intervention is a dialogue meeting where participants learn about bystander behaviour and discuss different ways of acting and intervening in sexual harassment situations.

Prior to implementing the intervention, we carried out a baseline questionnaire survey to assess the prevalence of sexual harassment. Results showed that 37% answered ‘yes’ to having experienced sexual harassment at least once in the previous 6 months. Yet, baseline group interviews showed that most interviewees thought that no sexual harassment was taking place. Preliminary analyses of the interviews also pointed to a clear generational difference in terms of which behaviours were considered acceptable, with younger employees having issues with the type of banter that their older colleagues found unproblematic.

The preliminary analyses of the follow-up qualitative data showed that the employees in general thought the intervention’s dialogue-based format was relevant and useful. Interviews also pointed to Intervene Sexual Harassment having enabled constructive dialogues on boundaries and appropriate types of humour. There was also greater awareness that preventing sexual harassment in the workplace must be a joint responsibility.

Eva Gemzøe Mikkelsen and Kristian Stampe Nielsen, Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark

Sweden: “Made use of employees’ resources in coming up with solutions”

In Sweden, we worked with established partners and participants from two municipal units with support from our trade union partner. We started with knowledge development in the form of a series of lectures on organisational culture, gender equality, gender-based violence, research into sexual harassment, and preventing sexual harassment, the labour law dilemmas related to reporting, and investigating sexual harassment, and preventive measures.

We ran talks and workshops, drawing inspiration from an American intervention programme to reduce the risk of sexual violence and dating violence on campus, and an Australian prevention programme. The main aim of the programmes is to change social norms in the workplace, identify harassment risk situations, attempt to interrupt, or divert the risk situations, and support victims in various ways.

We explored opportunities to improve the work environment and prevent sexual harassment by participants themselves suggesting steps that could be taken. Applying an inclusive and participant-oriented approach, it was possible to capture the interests, capacities, and collective resources of the employees to create solutions for preventing sexual harassment. One insight from the project is that if we want to change social norms in the workplace, and reduce the risk of sexual harassment, a large amount of training is needed with discussions and exercises on repeated occasions.

Ulla Carin Hedin and Linda Lane, Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg

Norway: “Despite long-term efforts, there is no systematic follow-up”

The Norwegian sub-project worked with the Norwegian Police Service (NPS). As the NPS had worked on preventing sexual harassment for a long time, the first step was to compile and go through all the documentation on previous initiatives and attempt to say something about the presumed effects of these initiatives. The next step was to translate and adapt the Danish intervention tool Intervene Sexual Harassment to the police setting and include a focus on intersectionality.

The results showed that although the NPS has been working on this issue for a long time, more focus has been placed on ‘doing something’ than on developing measures based on existing national and local data and then systematically following up the effects of their own intervention work. Some earlier measures included bystander and intersectional perspectives, such as potential effects of visible religious symbols, age, occupational background, etc. but the majority did not.

We will, based on the results from SUSH, further develop and finalise our version of the Danish Bystander Intervention in the Norwegian part of the four-year project Understanding and Intervening against Sexual Harassment at work (UISH), funded by Nordforsk. There we will also continue to study the long-term effects of efforts to combat sexual harassment, the management’s understanding of the sexual harassment, and the organisational fatigue that the different subprojects in SUSH found may arise when working with prevention work directed at sexual harassment.

Brita Bjørkelo and Tatanya Valland, Norwegian Police University College and Celine Pedersen, Norwegian Police University College/Oslo Metropolitan University

Applying an inclusive and participant-oriented approach, it was possible to capture the interests, capacities and collective resources of the employees to create effective solutions for preventing sexual harassment themselves.

Linda Lane, University of Gothenburg

Key messages from the project

Bystander interventions to combat sexual harassment need to be systematic and continuous. Start out with assessing organisational risk factors for sexual harassment including own statistics and results. Use knowledge about the organisation when choosing interventions, and focus on the link between what is done, and the effect it has had when continuing internal preventive work.
Bystander intervention programs is a good complement to methods such as zero tolerance policies, training, reporting procedures, etc. Yet to achieve positive effects, the workplaces must prioritise resources for its implementation, evaluation, and follow-up.
Ensure that all employees participate in the intervention to achieve the necessary shared understanding of the tone of conversation and code of conduct in the workplace and how to act.
Use a QR code to disseminate information about policies, rules, and procedures regarding sexual harassment in the workplace This makes the information easily accessible to everyone without causing stigma.
Given the right knowledge and support (i.e., Intervene Sexual Harassment), workplace teams can take an active part in participating and potentially co-developing instruments that aim at preventing sexual harassment at work. Management needs to trust the employees’ capabilities to take on an active part in prevention work directed at bystanders of sexual harassment, and provide resources such as time, and agency to enable changes being made, as a result of participatory prevention work.
Management should encourage communication both upwards and downwards in the organisation and create a work environment characterised by trust. This demands leadership that allows grievances and criticisms to emerge, and that acts when sexual harassment is reported.
Mixed-method studies are needed that monitor workplaces over several years and evaluate different measures over time.

More about the project

The project “Speak up!”: A practice-oriented research project on the prevention of Sexual Harassment (SUSH) was allocated funding in the second call of the research initiative. This targeted practice-based research activities in collaboration, focused mainly on preventative measures and methods for intervention through industry studies and comparative studies of different industries. The applications built on partnerships between several Nordic countries. 

Project partners

The Norwegian Police University College, Norway (primary applicant), the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and the University of Southern Denmark, in partnership with the diversity committee at the Norwegian Police University College, the union Vision and Gothenburg municipality in Sweden and the work environment organisation BFA Velfærd og Offentlig administration in Denmark.

Ongoing research

The Norwegian SUSH sub-project is continuing in a new project Understanding and Intervening against Sexual Harassment at work (UISH), 2023–2027 funded by NordForsk. The researchers in the Danish and Swedish SUSH sub-projects are contributing as members of the UISH academic council. In UISH, police researchers will investigate the understanding of and approaches to working with sexual harassment in practice in partnership with the police in Sweden, Iceland, and Norway.