Shifting the Lens: Moving From Individual Blame to Organizational Accountability in Workplace Mistreatment

Abstract: Workplace mistreatment remains a pervasive organizational challenge affecting employee wellbeing, performance, and retention across industries. This article examines the evolution of theoretical frameworks for understanding workplace abuse, with particular attention to the problematic legacy of victim precipitation theory and the emergence of more progressive, evidence-based alternatives. Drawing on scholarship spanning criminology, organizational psychology, and feminist theory, this review traces how outdated victim-blaming paradigms have gradually given way to perpetrator-focused and systems-level approaches. The article critically analyzes seminal work by Cortina, Rabelo, and Holland (2018) that exposed fundamental flaws in victim precipitation ideology, while synthesizing current research on organizational interventions, social status protection theory, and selective incivility frameworks. Evidence demonstrates that effective responses to workplace mistreatment require shifting attention from victim characteristics to perpetrator behaviors, organizational cultures, and power dynamics that enable abuse. Organizations implementing systemic interventions—including civility programs, transparent accountability mechanisms, and leadership development focused on ally behaviors—demonstrate measurable improvements in workplace climate and reductions in mistreatment prevalence. This article concludes with actionable recommendations for practitioners seeking to create psychologically safe work environments through evidence-based, ethically sound approaches that place responsibility for misconduct squarely on those who perpetrate it and the systems that enable them.