The #MeToo movement revealed the continued problem of harassment in the workplace, which employers have long attempted to mitigate through harassment training programs. While training is widely used, the absence of sound measures has prevented policy makers, employers, and academics from properly evaluating the efficacy of such programs. This project sought to develop a new measurement scale to evaluate how workplace training programs influence attitudes and behavioral intentions related to harassment.

More specifically, we constructed the Collective Accountability in the Workplace Change Scale (CAWS) to measure employee attitudes and intentions to act in response to discrimination and harassment. To create the CAWS, we used modified versions of scales developed to evaluate sexual assault trainings on college campuses, as well as scales used to measure attitudes towards reporting child abuse. This conceptually grounded scale draws from two well-known theoretical constructs - the Transtheoretical Model of Change and the Theory of Planned Behavior. We also conducted a randomized experiment to assess whether the scale was sensitive to real workplace harassment training modules used by employers. We found that a bystander intervention training module was associated with increased scores on the CAWS, while traditional harassment content did not lead to these positive effects. Results highlight the importance of emphasizing collective accountability and providing concrete bystander intervention strategies to improve the efficacy of education and training efforts. The CAWS is a psychometrically sound scale that can be used as an outcome measure in future research. In addition to scholarly contributions, the scale can help managers, university leaders, consultants, and other stakeholders evaluate the effectiveness of workshops, programming, and other training designed to combat discrimination and harassment.