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Bystander interventions can play a critical role in preventing workplace s-xual harassment, but employers first need to shift their culture, an Australian researcher says.

There is a rising acknowledgement that encouraging "pro social" behaviours in bystanders is better than just relying on individual complainants to come forward about workplace harassment, according to QUT Business School professor Dr Paula McDonald, who spoke at a recent Clyde and Co. virtual event.

Whether actively or passively, she says bystanders have some responsibility to prevent the behaviour from occurring again, reduce the risk of harassment, and "strengthen the underlying conditions that work against harassment"...