Preventing Workplace Aggression: A Multi-Actor Approach to Safer and Healthier Workplaces

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Workplace aggression (including bullying, harassment, and violence) remains widespread in the UK, damaging wellbeing, productivity, and culture. We systematically mapped 8,413 statutory and advisory documents, identifying only 57 that directly addressed workplace aggression. This review revealed that, despite extensive research on its causes and consequences, UK policy frameworks remain fragmented, reactive, and misaligned with the evidence.

We propose a Multi-Actor Prevention Framework, with a practical Toolkit and Dashboard, to support coherent, proactive, evidence-based action.

Our analysis revealed six persistent shortcomings:

• Definitional Gaps and Ambiguities – Inconsistent and sometimes contradictory definitions of bullying, harassment, and violence undermine clarity, leaving employers and employees uncertain about protections.
• Workplace Aggression in Remote and Homeworking Contexts – Cyberaggression is barely covered in policy, while domestic abuse in homeworking has received stronger recognition. This inconsistency leaves workers vulnerable in new forms of work organisation.
• Bystanders Overlooked – Witnesses, who play a pivotal role in whether aggression escalates or is challenged, are mentioned only in fragmented and reactive ways, with little focus on empowerment or prevention.
• Insufficient Tools for Monitoring – Existing tools rely on self-labelling questions, which risk under-reporting, and none capture bystanders’ experiences. Organisations lack reliable data to diagnose and prevent problems.
• Prevention without Definition – Policies refer to “prevention” but rarely define it or link it explicitly to perpetrators, targets, and bystanders. Codes of conduct are often recommended but risk becoming symbolic “facade ethics” when not consistently embedded in practice.
• Overemphasis on Secondary Prevention – Most recommendations focus on responses after harm has occurred, particularly directing targets to grievance procedures or well-being support. Primary prevention is underdeveloped, and tertiary prevention is almost entirely absent.

Policy Implications and Recommendations

This review shows that while UK frameworks acknowledge workplace aggression, they lack the clarity, scope, and balance needed for effective prevention. Inconsistent definitions and vague uses of “prevention” undermine credibility, while policies remain focused on traditional, face-to-face workplaces and post-incident management. Monitoring is encouraged but poorly designed, relying on limited self-labelling measures and excluding bystander perspectives. Even when policies exist, they are often reduced to symbolic codes of conduct without the cultural support required for impact.

To close these gaps, policymakers and employers should:

1. Clarify and harmonise definitions, and explicitly distinguish primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
2. Broaden scope to cover digital aggression, homeworking risks, and explicitly recognise bystanders.
3. Rebalance prevention strategies, moving beyond grievance systems to proactive and recovery-focused approaches.
4. Strengthen monitoring, adopting behavioural tools and integrating bystander experiences.
5. Ensure codes of conduct are enforced in practice, linking them to leadership accountability, performance management, and cultural change.
6. Empower and support bystanders through training, safe reporting channels, and recognition of constructive intervention.
7. Embed systemic cultural change by applying a multi-actor, multi-level framework that addresses perpetrators, targets, and bystanders across all stages of prevention.

To address these shortcomings, we proposed a Multi-Actor Prevention Framework, and developed a toolkit and dashboard. The framework recognises workplace aggression as a relational phenomenon involving perpetrators, targets, and bystanders, and situates interventions across three levels of prevention:

• Primary prevention: shaping culture, expectations, and systems to stop aggression before it occurs.
• Secondary prevention: intervening early to prevent escalation and wider harm.
• Tertiary prevention: supporting recovery, rebuilding trust, and preventing recurrence after serious incidents.

By embedding prevention across all three levels and all actors, policymakers and employers can move beyond fragmented and reactive responses. A systemic, evidence-based approach is essential to creating safer, healthier, and more inclusive workplaces where people can thrive.

Workplace aggression can be prevented. By adopting a comprehensive, multi-actor, evidence-based framework, policymakers and employers can safeguard dignity, cut costs, and build safer and more inclusive workplaces.