The Impact of Workplace Harassment on Employee Well-Being

Dear Colleagues, 

People spend a large portion of their lives at work. Accordingly, it is important to assure that work environments, climates, and cultures are consistent with maintaining and enriching the lives of employees at all levels. Unfortunately, too often employees engage in misconduct and counterproductive behaviors that harm individuals as well as the larger organization and impair functioning at a high level. Research suggests that one of the most common forms of misconduct involves experiences of workplace harassment. Workplace harassment often results in a range of negative impacts for employees, teams and units, and the larger organization. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), received over 98,000 allegations, 27,000 of which involved incidents involving sexually harassing behaviors. This finding alone suggests that, even with continued research on this topic over the past several decades, social–sexual behavior continues to be an important factor within the work environment of many employees. Moreover, other forms of workplace harassment (i.e., not primarily based on social–sexual behaviors) represent a large portion of alleged harassment claims. Such experiences have the potential to create a hostile work environment and result in decreased health and well-being, organizational productivity, and the organization being viewed as less attractive to future job applicants. At the individual level, victims are apt to experience negative short- and long-term consequences, including decreased physical and psychological health, job attitudes, work performance, etc. At the group level, such experiences may serve to increase in-group/out-group distinctions and elicit group-based stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. It is worth noting that these findings are limited to US businesses and organizations and do not include countries outside of the US. Historically, much research in this area has been limited to sexual harassment (in its many forms), with less focus being placed on the antecedents and consequences of experiencing other types of work harassment or multiple types of harassment (e.g., sexual ethnic, bystander, gender role). This Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences sees to broaden our understanding of workplace harassment. Specifically, it seeks papers focused on all forms of workplace harassment and its relation to employees (at various organizational levels) health and well-being, as well as the organizational implications associated with this form of counterproductive work behavior. We welcome original research papers and review articles addressing the topics noted below, as well as other related areas: 

• Traditional sexual harassment (antecedents and consequences);
• Organizational implications of workplace harassment behavior/experiences;
• Additive and multiplicative models of harassment;
• New and innovative approaches to the study of work harassment, including measurement;
• Victim and perpetrator characteristics;

• LBGTQ+ status and work harassment experiences;
• Culture-related issues including immigrants and immigration;
• Neuroendocrine correlates of workplace harassment and their relation to health and well-being;
• Intersectionality approaches to the study of workplace harassment;
• Review papers related to workplace harassment and personal and organizational well-being (including theory development).
• Non-Traditional assessments are also encouraged including longitudinal and experimental designs.

Abstract Submissions. Abstracts should be emailed to behavsci@mdpi.com before 30 April 2025. The abstract should be embedded in the body of an email and contain (a) the title of the proposed paper; (b) list all contributing author(s) with affiliation information and emails; and (c) summarize the purpose, methods, analyses, findings, and conclusions of the proposed study in no more than 250 words.

Invitation Decisions. Decisions on abstracts and invitations to submit full manuscripts will be sent to potential authors no later than 31 May 2025. Manuscript submissions will be reviewed and the invitation of a full paper (following abstract submission) does not guarantee publication.

Submission and Review Process for Invited Papers. Authors invited to submit papers must submit full manuscripts by 31 October 2025.

Prof. Dr. Robert T. Hitlan
Prof. Dr. Armando X. Estrada
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (no more than 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• workplace harassment
• sexual harassment
• ethnic harassment
• bystander harassment
• organizational health and well-being
• work attitudes and behaviors
• discrimination
• organizational climate
• employment
• gender
• sexual orientation
• intersectionality
• misogyny
• psychological health
• physical health
• social–sexual behavior