Interventions preventing work-related gender-based violence and harassment: collective knowledge, capacity and commitment

The past 30 years of research have documented the detrimental impacts of work-related gender-based violence and harassment (WR-GBVH) on employees and workplace environments. Most research recommends the development of enhanced prevention measures. This article presents a study of two new preventive workplace interventions – the Power Plays intervention methods – designed for workplace adaptation and collective engagement. Based on an intervention ethnography in five workplaces of care in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the article presents and analyses the intervention processes and the outcomes they engender. The analysis thematizes the research participants’ recognition of WR-GBVH enablers in terms of the intimate locations of care work, the professional ethos, and the work-based power relations. The analysis also illuminates the research participants’ identification of organizational response-ability as a core disabler of WR-GBVH. Based on this analysis, we identify four core components of WR-GBVH prevention and conceptualize this as WR-GBVH literacy, which offers a comprehensive conception of the complex dynamics and affordances of situated and capacity-building workplace interventions preventing WR-GBVH.