Depending on these elements, according to the seriousness of the situation, mediation, conciliation or arbitration will sometimes be encouraged. Working with the management on the organisation of work relationships can also appear useful. Finally, in certain cases, it is in acting on the group dynamic between colleagues that solutions might start to take shape.

Those who say ‘no’

One of the article’s other points of interest lies in underlining the interaction between the harassment and the work environment. ‘Confronted with the spiralling of a situation which leads to harassment, colleagues can either remain silent, encourage the aggression or say no. The same goes for the management personnel, which has the power to let things go or to put an end to the situation. The article shows – and this aspect is important for every harassment at work situation – that the environment can act as a brake and prevent things escalating.’

‘In an ideal situation, people would intervene before the victim suffers too much,’ the psychologist reminds us. ‘The group can help in this. In business companies certain people dare to stand up to cases of harassment. But it is not always easy to confront a harasser and it is not always enough to break the cycle of the mechanisms in play. Moreover it can occur that those who have dared to say no are harassed in their turn,’ she warns.

Situation reversals

Up until now few studies had taken an interest in the impact of the group’s reaction to the harasser (or that of the managerial dynamic). This has now been done. Moreover the literature habitually insists on the imbalance of resources between the harasser and the person harassed. Here the multi-perspective and multi-temporal analysis has enabled the power each protagonist has retained to be brought to light, the value which is accorded to it and its positive or negative evolution over time (for one, his professional capabilities, for the other, her social skills). But Professor Blavier notes that, paradoxically, Xavier’s great skills, just like his personality, ended up making him vulnerable. They led to his isolation and shattered the impunity he had available beforehand.

The article also reveals a ‘piquant’ point: following the complaint registered by Anne, the values which had previously considered as work qualities (Xavier’s professionalism and rationality) began to be seen as faults or to be devalued, including by the management personnel. At the same time, other qualities, such as sensitiveness (that of Anne) gained in consideration. That explains in part why certain aspects of Xavier’s behaviour, tolerated for a while, were subsequently the source of ‘sanctions’ concerning him. And why the social process at work around the protagonists evolved, leading in the end to changes in the relationship between Anne and Xavier.

Act, before it is too late…

After such a study, the Liège model won’t stop there: with certain of its points partially amended thanks to this case study, it will be applied to other harassment at work and at school situations, for example. With as a consequence new knowledge concerning the phenomenon of harassment, a better understanding of the links between the behaviour of the harasser, the attitude of the victim and the role of the management personnel. ‘Thanks to the behaviour analysis offered by the Liège model, it could become a tool for harassment prevention,’ estimates the psychologist. ‘From that perspective, it could be of real usefulness for intermediaries (people one confides in, prevention advisors, or occupational doctors) who already have knowledge of the work atmosphere in the company concerned.’

In any case, in basic terms, ‘in going beyond the tormentor-victim framework, the model applied in this article serves as a reminder that the discourse of the two people involved is not sufficient and that it is necessary to take into account a whole system, to see how it allows a case of harassment to be maintained or how it can make it evolve, through the influence of a colleague and/or the management hierarchy,’ concludes the psychologist.

Whilst waiting for this systemic method to make its entrance into business companies, Adélaïde Blavier is not forgetting that the victims continue to pay a very heavy price for harassment: ‘for them, the injuries are very deep, very raw. The doubts over their competence and the shattering of their own self-confidence often sideline them durably from the world of work.’ The article does not say so but, in the ‘play’ in which Xavier and Anne were acting, this has not been the case. It is Xavier who no longer works for this company.