Please feel free to intervene: A longitudinal analysis of the consequences of bystander behavioral expectations.

Bias incidentsin the workplace cancreatea pattern of behaviorthat damages organizationalclimate not only for victims but also bystanders who witness these incidents. Using incivility and threat ridigity research as a guiding framework, we explore the mitigating potential of bystander intervention on the relationship between bias incidents and witnesses ’ perceived workplace climate and intention to leave. We developed andtestedamoderatedmediationmodelusingtime-laggedordinaryleastsquares(OLS)regressionwithdatafromorganizationalclimatesurveysadministeredannuallyfrom2014to2017.Resultscon fi rmed that bias incidents increase turnover intentions through their negative effect on workplace climate. More importantly, the expectation that faculty colleagues will intervene if a bias incident occurs mitigates the negative impact of bias incidents on workplace climate. Our fi ndings suggest that raising awareness about bias incidents, encouraging colleagues to intervene when bias incidents occur, and, most critically, fostering a culture in whichintervention is expectedhave great potential for improvingworkplace climate andreducing employee turnover. This is the fi rst research study that provides empirical evidence of the potential for bystander intervention expectations to mitigate the negative effect of bias incidents on workplace climate.