Reporting Workplace Discrimination: An Exploratory Analysis of Bystander Behavior

Abstract

Reporting workplace discrimination has garnered renewed attention in public administration scholarship. Missing, however, from the literature is bystander reporting, a relatively new and understudied mode of reporting. Using a sub-sample of respondents (i.e., bystanders) who witnessed others encountering workplace discrimination—specifically race- (n = 886) and/or sex-based discrimination (n = 1,152)—this study finds that less than one fifth (18.7% and 16.6% respectively) of all bystanders reported the alleged offense. However, this study suggests that personal characteristics such as age, race or ethnicity, and veteran status, as well as occupational variables such as supervisory status and tenure duration, significantly impacted bystander reporting after witnessing race-based discrimination. Likewise, personal characteristics such as age, as well as occupational variables such as grade level, supervisory status, and tenure duration, also significantly impacted bystander reporting after witnessing sex-based discrimination. These findings are important because a different mode of reporting may increase agency accountability for acts of workplace discrimination or retaliation.