Preventing Workplace Aggression Through Culture and Leadership

When workplace aggression occurs, organisations often focus on the individuals directly involved: the person harmed and the person responsible for the behaviour. While accountability is essential, research increasingly shows that workplace aggression cannot be fully understood, or prevented, by looking only at individuals. Workplace cultures, leadership practices, and organisational systems play a crucial role in shaping whether aggression is challenged, ignored, normalised, or indirectly encouraged. Professor Roberta Fida's research has explored how organisational environments influence ethical and unethical behaviour at work, with particular attention to workplace aggression, moral disengagement, and organisational culture.

Workplace Aggression Is Not Only an Individual Problem Aggressive behaviours rarely emerge in a vacuum.

Research shows that workplace aggression is more likely to occur in environments characterised by:

• high pressure and excessive demands;
• poor leadership;
• unclear expectations;
• low psychological safety;
• fear of speaking up;
• tolerance of disrespectful behaviour;
• weak reporting cultures;
• organisational silence.

In these contexts, employees may come to believe that certain behaviours are "just part of the culture", especially when concerns are ignored or when inappropriate conduct carries few consequences. Prevention must therefore go beyond reacting to incidents. Organisations need to understand the broader conditions that allow aggression to emerge and persist in the first place.

The Role of Leadership Leadership plays a central role in shaping workplace culture.

Leaders influence:

• what behaviours are accepted or challenged;
• whether employees feel psychologically safe;
• whether reporting systems are trusted;
• how conflict is managed;
• whether wellbeing is prioritised;
• how fairly people believe they are treated.

Research consistently shows that authoritarian, inconsistent, or highly controlling leadership styles are associated with greater risk of workplace aggression and bullying. In contrast, respectful, supportive, and ethical leadership can act as a protective factor. Importantly, employees do not only pay attention to formal policies.

They observe what leaders actually do: How are complaints handled? Are inappropriate behaviours challenged consistently? Do leaders model respectful behaviour? Are some individuals protected because of seniority or performance? Is wellbeing discussed only rhetorically, or reflected in organisational practices?

Employees notice the gap between stated values and everyday decisions, and that gap shapes culture more than any policy document.

Organisational Moral Disengagement

A key concept in Professor Roberta Fida’s work is organisational moral disengagement. This refers to processes through which harmful behaviours become psychologically justified, minimised, or normalised within organisations.

For example: aggression may be reframed as “just strong management”; incivility may be dismissed as “banter”; excessive pressure may be justified as necessary for performance; employees who raise concerns may be labelled as “too sensitive” or “not resilient enough.”

Over time, these narratives can weaken ethical boundaries and reduce people’s willingness to challenge problematic behaviour. This process is rarely deliberate, but its effects are real. When an entire organisation develops shared ways of explaining or rationalising harmful behaviour, individual moral standards erode.

Prevention is therefore not only about identifying individual misconduct, it is also about recognising and interrupting the organisational conditions that may indirectly sustain it.

The role of bystanders

Workplace aggression does not only affect those directly involved. Colleagues who witness aggression, bystanders, play a crucial role in whether harm escalates or is interrupted. When bystanders feel empowered and psychologically safe, they can act as one of the most effective prevention resources available to any organisation. A colleague who speaks up, offers quiet support to a target, or reports a concern early can interrupt a cycle of harm before it becomes entrenched. When bystanders feel silenced, by fear of retaliation, uncertainty about what to do, or a culture that discourages challenge, their inaction can inadvertently signal that harmful behaviour is tolerated.

Research shows that witnesses of workplace aggression also experience negative health and wellbeing consequences, including stress and increased intention to leave. Bystanders are not peripheral to the problem. They are central to its prevention.

Prevention Requires Culture Change

Many organisations already have policies on bullying, harassment, or dignity at work. However, policies alone are not enough.

Effective prevention requires:

• visible leadership commitment;
• psychologically safe reporting systems;
• fair and trusted procedures;
• active bystander cultures;
• consistent accountability;
• respectful management practices;
• attention to workload and organisational pressures;
• ongoing dialogue about behaviour and wellbeing.

Importantly, prevention should not focus only on crisis management after harm occurs. Organisations need to strengthen the everyday conditions that support respect, inclusion, trust, and ethical behaviour, before an incident takes place.

From compliance to culture: a broader view of prevention

Many organisations treat prevention as a compliance exercise: a policy is written, training is delivered, a box is ticked. Research shows this is not enough. Culture is shaped by what actually happens, how managers behave under pressure, whether speaking up is genuinely safe, whether misconduct is consistently challenged regardless of seniority.

Through the Improve Workplace initiative, our goal is to support organisations in moving from reactive responses toward more systemic and preventive approaches. This means recognising that workplace aggression is relational, organisational, cultural, and preventable. By understanding the role of leadership, culture, and organisational systems, organisations can move beyond compliance and towards creating workplaces where people feel safe, respected, and able to thrive.

The Workplace Aggression Prevention Toolkit and Dashboard are available to support organisations in taking that next step — from understanding the problem to building a tailored, evidence-based response