Mobilizing bystanders to address microaggressions in the workplace: The case for a systems-change approach to Getting A (Collective) GRIP.

Abstract

Microaggressions present significant barriers to the entry and advancement of individuals from marginalized groups within the workplace. Their ubiquity, coupled with their harmful impact, creates an urgent need for organizations to mitigate them to foster truly equitable and inclusive work environments. In this paper, we present a bystander-focused approach to address this particular form of workplace bias. Informed by the empirical literature and grounded in socioecological principles, we underscore the importance of a systems-change approach to the development and implementation of any bystander program. We describe ways to incorporate social-ecological sensibilities into the substance of the training itself by outlining our Get A (Collective) GRIP framework. This framework emphasizes the need for active bystanders to employ an ecological scan that includes Assessing what happened, determining one s Goals for intervening, considering the Relationships among those involved in the incident (target/s, transgressor/s, and witness/es), taking into account the Institutional context in which the incident occurs, and being attuned to structural issues and Power dynamics within the context. Finding ways to address microaggressions that embody systemic analyses has transformative potential for the workplace and doing so through activating bystanders to alter local social norms is an area that has tremendous promise in this regard.