ABSTRACT
Workplace bullying has been attracting an increasing level of attention in recent years. Research on workplace bullying has primarily been quantitative and focused on the links between organisational features and individual effects. In addition, both quantitative and qualitative research has concentrated on victims and perpetrators of bullying. Research into witnesses of bullying in the workplace has been limited (Agevall, 2007). In some of the original research into bullying (Heinemann, 1972; Olweus, 1973; Leymann, 1986; Adams, 1992) witnesses were not even mentioned, whilst in more recent research witnesses are rarely mentioned, and then only in terms of the experience of the victims (Hallberg & Strandmark, 2004) or the effect that bullying has had on witnesses such as reduced job satisfaction and productivity, increased stress and impaired well-being (Einarsen et al. , 2003), depression (Vartia, 2001; Lutgen-Sandvik, 2006; Niedhammer & Degioanni, 2006) or intentions to resign (Rayner, 1999). Whilst these studies show that witnesses to workplace bullying are infl uenced by the bullying process, little has been said on how witnesses become involved in the process. Workplace surveys show that witnesses are by far the largest group affected by bullying, with 35 per cent of respondents in a Danish survey (Hogh et al. , 2009) indicating that they had witnessed bullying. Other surveys show substantially higher levels of witnessing with Lutgen-Sandvik (2006) identifying that more than 80 per cent of employees had witnessed workplace bullying. Generally (Einarsen et al. , 2003), most employees report that they would support a victim of bullying, yet many victims of bullying indicate that they received little support from witnesses. Rayner (1999) found that although a third of witnesses said they wanted to help victims, they did not do so due to fear.
