Allegations of Mistreatment in an Era of Harm Avoidance: Taboos, Challenges, and Implications For Management

The contemporary culture of harm avoidance sanctifies the role of the victim, which creates a suite of challenges for managers and researchers attempting to address impartially allegations of harmdoing. We contend that victimhood sanctification compromises our understanding of mistreatment largely due to three forces: 1) a shift toward hypersensitivity, which expands the definition of mistreatment, 2) cognitive shortcuts that cast actors as...