Some years ago I wrote about the Bystander Problem in organizations. Read thatby clicking alongside. CLICK HERE
Even Ballu never broached the subject again and in a true bystander fashion we both let it go. However let me try and elaborate a bit more on this topic that has been of interest to social researchers since 1970's.
In USA there was a very well publicized and documented murder of a lady by name of Kitty Genovess on 13th March 1964. She parked her car a small distance from her home and was approaching her home when she was attacked by a man Winston Moseley who chased her and stabbed her repeatedly as she screamed aloud for help. As many as 3 dozen neighbors watched from behind their windows and screens and ignored her call for help and never stepped out to save the lady. She finally succumbed to her injuries.
Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane, explored the issue of why witnesses of such drastic acts demonstrated a lack of response to help the victims and found that the bystander apathy is a major factor that influences helping behavior. It refers to a phenomenon by which greater the number of people present who are witnessing a distress situation less likely is a person ready to help.
When a distress situation occurs observes are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses.
Reaction time for someone to help is also higher when larger number of bystanders are present.
The explanation of this is that when more number of people are present the responsibility gets diffused. Also people seem to imitate what they believe is socially acceptable ways and since others did not move forward to help each one was waiting to see whether others would act and no one acted. Also when situation is ambiguous people tend to resist acting
In the organization contexts when people witness something going wrong and there are many other witnesses the same bystander phenomenon creeps in. Everyone is waiting for someone to act and each one thinks someone else will act and in the end no one acts. Also the bystander effect is juxtaposed by the pretender phenomenon when every one believes that nothing went wrong and no one is to blame as the blame is spread thin over many bystanders and hence diluted and no one is guilty.
This phenomenon can be detrimental to organizations if it becomes recurrent, however one must use some deliberate strategies to overcome the same and we can discuss this in another blog.
You can also read
Frame it for Success
Problem Elimination Not Problem Solving Should be the Focus
Even Ballu never broached the subject again and in a true bystander fashion we both let it go. However let me try and elaborate a bit more on this topic that has been of interest to social researchers since 1970's.
In USA there was a very well publicized and documented murder of a lady by name of Kitty Genovess on 13th March 1964. She parked her car a small distance from her home and was approaching her home when she was attacked by a man Winston Moseley who chased her and stabbed her repeatedly as she screamed aloud for help. As many as 3 dozen neighbors watched from behind their windows and screens and ignored her call for help and never stepped out to save the lady. She finally succumbed to her injuries.
Psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane, explored the issue of why witnesses of such drastic acts demonstrated a lack of response to help the victims and found that the bystander apathy is a major factor that influences helping behavior. It refers to a phenomenon by which greater the number of people present who are witnessing a distress situation less likely is a person ready to help.
When a distress situation occurs observes are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses.
Reaction time for someone to help is also higher when larger number of bystanders are present.
The explanation of this is that when more number of people are present the responsibility gets diffused. Also people seem to imitate what they believe is socially acceptable ways and since others did not move forward to help each one was waiting to see whether others would act and no one acted. Also when situation is ambiguous people tend to resist acting
In the organization contexts when people witness something going wrong and there are many other witnesses the same bystander phenomenon creeps in. Everyone is waiting for someone to act and each one thinks someone else will act and in the end no one acts. Also the bystander effect is juxtaposed by the pretender phenomenon when every one believes that nothing went wrong and no one is to blame as the blame is spread thin over many bystanders and hence diluted and no one is guilty.
This phenomenon can be detrimental to organizations if it becomes recurrent, however one must use some deliberate strategies to overcome the same and we can discuss this in another blog.
You can also read
Frame it for Success
Problem Elimination Not Problem Solving Should be the Focus
