AURA – Active Upstander Reflective Awareness

Project Partners/Funders

• PTSB

Fund Award Amount

• €110,000

Project Overview

The project is a 20-month research and development initiative designed to address the growing challenge of workplace incivility in high-pressure financial environments. Supported by PTSB, the project seeks to transform managers from passive bystanders into active upstanders by enhancing self-awareness, interpersonal and intercultural sensitivity, and confidence in addressing minor deviant behaviours before they escalate. Grounded in evidence-based frameworks, including the incivility spiral (Andersson & Pearson, 1999), power and belonging dynamics, and active upstander theory, the project investigates how subtle acts of disrespect originate, escalate, and impact psychological safety, trust, and employee well- being. By examining managerial self-awareness, barriers to intervention, and
cultural factors unique to the banking sector, the project aims to create a customised, data-driven learning framework tailored to the lived experiences of PTSB staff.
For PTSB, the project provides a strategic opportunity to strengthen workplace culture, reduce risks associated with unmanaged incivility, and enhance talent retention. By replacing generic training with a bespoke, evidence-based framework, the organisation positions itself as a leader in cultural reform and an employer committed to psychological safety and long-term resilience.

Project Goals

The project aims to attain specific organisational, behaviours, and cultural objectives that tackle the underlying causes and effects of workplace incivility at PTSB. Its primary goals are:

(1) Increase managerial self-awareness – Strengthen managers’ ability to recognise their own behavioural ‘blind spots’ and understand how inaction or ‘incivility by omission’ contributes to the escalation of disrespectful behaviour.

(2) Develop active upstander capability by equipping managers with the confidence, skills, and behavioural strategies necessary to intervene effectively when witnessing incivility, thereby transforming them from passive bystanders
to proactive culture shapers.

(3) Interrupt the incivility spiral by minimising the escalation of minor slights through enhanced early detection, response, and de-escalation practices.

(4) Enhance psychological safety and well-being – Improve team trust, belonging, and emotional security by reducing exposure to disrespectful behaviours and strengthening managers’ relational competence.

(5) Strengthen intercultural sensitivity – Build managers’ awareness of how cultural differences shape communication, interpretation, and perceptions of respect.

(6) Reduce organisational risk and attrition – Lower the likelihood of grievances, legal challenges, and the ‘quit and stay’ phenomenon by proactively addressing toxic microcultures.

(7) Create an evidence-based learning framework – Develop a training model tailored to the lived experiences of PTSB employees, replacing generic off-the- shelf- solutions with targeted, research-informed interventions.

Research Areas

Workplace Incivility, Active Upstander Behaviour, Managerial Self-Awareness, Intercultural Sensitivity

Principal Investigators

Prof Yseult Freeney (yseult.freeney@dcu.ie) and Dr Paolo Yaranon (paolo.yaranon@dcu.ie)