From Workplace Conflict to Crime: An Organizational Mediation Framework on Harm, Victimization and Criminalization

Workplace harm is examined across distinct bodies of literature addressing conflict, bullying, organizational power, victimization, workplace violence, and criminalization. Although these perspectives have generated substantial insights, the organizational processes connecting harmful conduct to its institutional recognition, classification, and potential penal significance remain insufficiently integrated. This conceptual paper addresses this gap by proposing the Organizational Mediation of Workplace Criminalization Framework (OMWCF). Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in organizational sociology, organizational behavior, victimology, and criminology, the framework conceptualizes organizations as active mediating contexts in which workplace harm is interpreted, reported, investigated, normalized, or left unaddressed. It distinguishes analytically between harmful workplace conduct, the experience and articulation of victimization, organizational mediation, and institutional classification, including possible criminalization. Five conceptual propositions examine how organizational power relations and institutional responses may shape divergent, non-linear trajectories of workplace harm. Particular attention is given to reporting practices, credibility assessments, normalization, silence, denial, and organizational inaction as processes that may influence institutional visibility and the attribution of responsibility. The OMWCF contributes a meso-level, process-oriented framework for examining the relationship between workplace harm, organizational responses, and broader legal and penal institutions. It also identifies implications for organizational governance, compliance, and victim support, while outlining directions for future empirical research.