Maja Graso: Invisible Harms in Organization: Challenges in Adjudication and Revision of Mistreatment

Topic: Invisible Harms in Organization: Challenges in Adjudication and Revision of Mistreatment

Unlike the more visible threats that can unify and inspire immediate, coordinated action (e.g., a major natural disaster), invisible harms often trigger divisions due to their ambiguity and differences in people’s perceptions, interpretations, and proposed solutions. Examples of such hidden challenges include allegations of harm that leave no evidence (e.g., he-said; she said scenarios, allegations involving psychological harm, and incidents that happened in the distant past) and those that may have more systemic roots that are not readily identifiable (e.g., allegations of systemic sexism, injustice, or social exclusion).

In this seminar, Dr. Maja Graso will show experimental data highlighting the complexities and inconsistencies in observers’ definitions of harm, concern with safety versus justice when adjudicating such cases, and crucially, support for reappraisal. The seminar invites attendees to consider the implications of these vast differences in perceptions of what is harmful in deciding whose perceived reality should dictate social norms and how organizations should respond in instances of radical uncertainty.

Dr. Maja Graso researches what influences people’s perceptions of visible and invisible harms in their social environments. Unlike the more visible threats that can unify and inspire immediate, coordinated action (e.g., a fire threatening a community), invisible harms often trigger divisions due to their ambiguity and differences in people’s perceptions, interpretations, and proposed solutions.

She is interested in how people perceive such harms they cannot see and how they seek to resolve them. For instance, if there are vast differences in perceptions of what is harmful, whose reality should guide social norms, and how should organizations respond? Which well-meaning efforts to resolve them only lead to short-term safety at the expense of long-term peace?

Dr. Maja Graso and her colleagues have been exploring the implications of these questions for contexts ranging from allegations of non-physical mistreatment at work to Covid-19, and we are always interested in engaging with people with different views on these topics.

Before joining Groningen, she spent six years at the University of Otago in majestic New Zealand and five years at a young teaching-focused school in Abu Dhabi (Zayed U, UAE), where she got to understand the full meaning of Arab hospitality. Originally from Croatia, she also spent time in the Netherlands Antilles, and worked and studied in the USA (Washington State University).