Cultivating Institutional Courage As an Intervention to Address Workplace Incivility and Sexual Misconduct

Background and Purpose: Evidence suggests most women and gender minority academic faculty and staff have experienced sexual harassment or workplace incivility. These experiences may impact career trajectory through increased anxiety, depression, and PTSD as well as decreased productivity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The impacts of sexual harassment extend beyond direct victims, as observing sexual harassment or incivility and perceiving an organization as unresponsive to sexual harassment is linked to less job satisfaction. These findings suggest the need for novel approaches to address the widespread harms of sexual harassment and transform workplace climate.

Therefore, we partnered with a university to evaluate a program designed to improve toxic workplaces through an approach to healing grounded in institutional courage and transformative justice. The program translates institutional courage into an actionable process addressing the widespread harms of toxic workplace behavior and uses consultation, individual and group listening sessions, focus groups, and community conversations to identify root causes of harm and develop collective action plans. This paper serves as the first step of a mixed-methods evaluation of this program.

Methods: We identified and invited campus stakeholders and employees in units implementing or maintaining reforms developed by the program (e.g., later stages of program involvement or post-program involvement) to participate in qualitative interviews with two authors. A total of 11 stakeholders and 17 employees who participated in the program were interviewed in the Fall of 2022 and Spring of 2023.

We used thematic analysis to a) identify and describe how employees experience toxic workplace climates after harassment or other direct harms have occurred, and b) explore whether and how a restorative justice process might operationalize institutional courage, counteract the harms of institutional betrayal, and improve workplace climate and employee well-being. All transcripts were coded by the two authors to identify themes and patterns of meaning.

Results: Participants described the widespread impact of toxic workplaces, including impacts on emotional well-being, relationships with co-workers, productivity and creativity, job satisfaction and intention to stay, and physical health. Key elements of program implementation include the non-judgmental demeanor of the facilitators, the individualized training and technical assistance provided to leaders who felt they otherwise lacked the skill and nuance to navigate the toxic environments without causing more harm, and the concrete skills that interventions built. Participants primarily described their involvement in this program as a relief that instilled hope and renewed their commitment to their work. However, in some cases, toxicity seemed persistent and difficult to transform, suggesting a need for prolonged intervention.

Conclusions and Implications: Our findings provide preliminary evidence of the potential of this approach as a structured method of increasing institutional courage, improving workplace climate, and nurturing employee well-being. As survivors continue to draw attention to sexual harassment, organizations need strategies to address the wider impact of toxic workplace behavior. Our findings suggest that this novel intervention has the potential for replication in academia and other fields.