Abstract
PURPOSE: Gender-based harassment (GBH) is a persistent workplace problem with substantial consequences for employees and organizations. Although organizational conditions are assumed to shape harassment risk, longitudinal evidence on modifiable organizational antecedents remains limited. Building on organizational justice theory and the perpetrator-predation paradigm, this study examines whether procedural justice and supportive managerial leadership prospectively predict GBH. METHODS: Using data from the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) from 2018 and 2020 (n ≈ 5000), we estimated cross-lagged associations between self-reported procedural justice, managerial leadership, and experienced and witnessed GBH within a structural equation modelling framework. RESULTS: Experienced GBH was reported by 3%-4% and witnessed GBH by 6%-9% of the working sample. Higher procedural justice in 2018 was associated with a very small decreased risk of experienced (β = -0.001, p = 0.018) and a small decreased risk of witnessed (β = -0.052, p < 0.001) GBH in 2020. Higher managerial leadership scores were associated with a small decreased risk of experienced GBH (β = -0.036, p = 0.017). No reverse associations were observed. CONCLUSION: The findings provide longitudinal evidence that organizational justice and leadership, although relatively weak, shape harassment risk environments over time. By demonstrating prospective associations while accounting for reverse and stability effects, the study advances understanding of organizational antecedents of GBH beyond predominantly cross-sectional research.