Labour Arbitration of Co‐Worker Sexual Harassment Cases in Canada

Women have the right to a workplace free from sexual harassment under Canadian provincial and federal human rights legislation. Canadian labour laws incorporate the right to a grievance procedure including binding arbitration where arbitrators must interpret and apply human rights legislation. This paper analyzes co‐worker sexual harassment cases in order to assess how well arbitrations protect the right of unionized women to a harassment free workplace. Results indicate that women complainants were often subjected to aggressive gendered cross‐examinations and the application of gendered jurisprudence that largely ignored the impact of gendered power relations in the workplace. The conclusion is that women's experiences in arbitrations are likely a deterrent to filing formal complaints, effectively undermining rather than protecting their rights. Copyright © 2012 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of person and organizational variables in the three component model of occupational commitment

We add to the small number of studies that have used the Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) three component model to better understand occupational commitment. A series of demographic (age, education), dispositional (emotional intelligence), and organizational variables (human resources practices and perceived organizational support) were examined for their relationship to occupational commitment. Our relatively small set of variables, from 431 debt‐collection employees and their supervisors at 34 banks in Taiwan, accounted for substantial variance in each of the commitment facets. In the context of the entire set of variables, perceived organizational support was the strongest predictor across all three forms of occupational commitment. Other variables (e.g., age, emotional intelligence) were of predictive value for a subset of the components only. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hide and uncover: the use of secrets in marketing

ABSTRACT

Amidst the forceful public demand for organisational transparency, there is an ambition to explore the limits of openness. What kind of information could and should firms keep secret and under which conditions? In this paper, we explore the limits of transparency in the marketing domain and develop a conceptual model of secrecy in marketing. We describe three modes of ‘secretive’ relations: between the brand and customers who know the brand secret (insiders), between the brand and customers from whom the secret is hidden (outsiders), and between insiders and outsiders. The effects of secrecy in marketing extend along with these three modes. First, secrecy creates value for insiders by reinforcing their connection to the brand. Second, it provokes outsiders’ curiosity, especially when the secret is related to a prominent brand. Finally, secrecy establishes insiders as an aspirational reference group for outsiders.     

Organizational failure to ethically manage sexual harassment: Limits to #metoo

The recent deluge of sexual harassment allegations in the media serves as a reminder that sexual harassment remains a pervasive, destructive occurrence in the workplace. Organizations in the United States have taken a legal‐centric approach to managing workplace sexual harassment, resulting in impotent anti‐harassment policies, ineffective sexual harassment training, and underused reporting mechanisms. In this conceptual paper, I argue that men's differential perceptions of sociosexual behaviors have propagated this legal‐centric approach, which fails to meet organizations’ ethical obligation to provide a safe and healthy work environment. Specifically, men have a different psychological experience of sexual harassment, which may inhibit their ability to take the perspective of targets. This lack of perspective‐taking has influenced the jurisprudence on workplace sexual harassment, which has in turn informed organizations’ approach to managing the phenomenon. I contribute to research on both business ethics and workplace sexual harassment by integrating two bodies of scholarship that have developed largely independent of one another: organizational psychology and legal. In so doing, I offer an explanation for the continued pervasiveness of workplace sexual harassment despite decades of legal sanction, organizational interventions, and research.     

Effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions

This study focuses on the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) practices on female employees’ turnover intentions and the moderating effect of supervisor gender on this relationship. With a sample of 212 female employees from eight different industries in Finland, the results indicate that SR‐HRM practices promoting equal career opportunities and work–family integration play a significant role in reducing women's turnover intentions. The study adds to the academic discourse of corporate social responsibility by highlighting the impact of the organizational‐level HRM determinants on the individual‐level outcome. In addition, supervisor gender makes a difference in the studied relationship: female supervisors have a stronger and more significant impact on the relationship than male supervisors. Our findings suggest that organizational measures which support work–family integration should be taken seriously to decrease female employees’ turnover intentions. Male supervisors could adopt some gender‐incongruent leadership behaviors, such as individualized emotional concern and caring when dealing with female employees. In the future, other gender combinations in the supervisor–employee relationship would merit research.     

Sexual-harassment liability in 1998—goods news or bad news for employers and employees?

In June 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court issued three separate rulings regarding workplace sexual harassment. In an apparent victory for employers, the court ruled in one case that a victim must actually suffer a tangible loss (i.e., a demotion or unwelcome transfer) to establish a case for quid pro quo harassment. The court affirmed, moreover, that employers can absolve themselves of liability in hostile-environment cases by establishing a meaningful and effective policy against sexual harassment. Absent a meaningful policy, however, employers will be liable for a hostile environment created by supervisors. Thus, in another case, the court found an employer liable for workplace harassment because the employer failed to disseminate its existing policy and to follow its terms. Finally, in a same-sex harassment case, the court rejected the notion that egregious sexual harassment is per se unlawful, leaving open the possibility that a harasser who treats men and women equally, no matter how badly, could be found not guilty of unlawful behavior. Still, the court made it clear that an employer's best defense against supervisors' sexual-harassment behavior is an effective prevention policy. Consequently, employers should draft a policy that (1) defines sexual harassment; (2) states the company prohibits such conduct; (3) provides a clear procedure for submitting claims, including the names of individuals involved in the resolution process; (4) states that those who complain or cooperate with an investigation will not be retaliated against; and (5) is disseminated to all new employees when they join the company, reissued to all employees each year, and posted in a conspicuous location in the workplace.     

Mentoring in supervisor-subordinate dyads: Antecedents, consequences, and test of a mediation model of mentorship

We develop a framework to look at mentoring as a consequence of employees' values and beliefs, as well as to explore its role in determining the employees' attitudes towards their organizations. Based on social exchange theory, we hypothesize that employees' levels of individualism, collectivism, and trust in supervisor influence the level of supervisory mentoring received. Moreover, mentoring influences employees' affective commitment and intention to quit, as well as mediates the relationships between the proposed antecedents and outcomes. Using structural equation modeling to examine these relationships, we find that within supervisor-subordinate dyads, subordinates report more mentoring when they have collectivist personal values and trust their supervisor. Additionally, more mentoring is positively related to subordinates' affective commitment towards the organizations and negatively related to their intention to quit. We also find that mentoring mediate the relationship between both collectivism values and trust in supervisors and both organizational commitment and intention to quit.     

Sexual Harassment: A Matter of Individual Ethics, Legal Definitions, or Organizational Policy?

Although interest in business ethics has rapidly increased, little attention has been drawn to the relationship between ethics and sexual harassment. While most companies have addressed the problem of sexual harassment at the organizational level with corporate codes of ethics or sexual harassment policies, no research has examined the ethical ideology of individual employees. This study investigates the relationship between the ethical ideology of individual employees and their ability to identify social-sexual behaviors in superior-subordinate interactions. The results indicate that ethical ideology does have an effect on employees' ability to identify verbal sexually harassing behaviors. This effect, however, is not demonstrated on nonverbal sexually harassing behaviors.     

Predictors of ethical decisions regarding insider trading

This paper examines potential predictors of ethical decisions regarding insider trading. An interactionist perspective is taken, in which person variables, situational variables, and the interaction of these two sets of variables are viewed as influencing ethical decisions. The results of our study support such a perspective. Ethical decisions regarding insider trading appear to be a function of a complex set of interacting variables related to both the person and the situation. The implications of these findings are discussed.David E. Terpstra is Hearin-Hess Professor of Management at the University of Mississippi. A frequent contributor to management and psychological journals, his current research interests involve business ethics, sexual harassment, and human resource management issues.Mario G. C. Reyes is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Idaho. His research and publications have been primarily in the areas of market efficiency, portfolio management, and financial econometrics. He has participated in the Authur Anderson & Co. Conference on Teaching Business Ethics.Donald W. Bokor's research interests are in the domain of organizational structure and development with implications on human behavior and strategic management.     

Up in smoke: demarketing and consumer smoking cessation

The concept of demarketing refers to the use of marketing techniques to reduce or eliminate demand for a product or service. A review of the demarketing literature relating to health and specifically antismoking initiatives indicated that, while research on this topic exists, much of it is not grounded in an acceptable attitudinal or behavioural theory. After determining the importance placed by a sample of 18–24‐year olds on nine demarketing initiatives, two dimensions were identified that best explained this construct. Items within these dimensions were summed and averaged to form single variables, which were then used to form the attitudinal component of the Model of Goal Directed Behaviour. The findings showed that two of these variables – one that captured product packaging aspects and another that consisted of place and price items – significantly influenced the desire to quit and indirectly influenced the intention to quit. Anticipated positive emotions, frequency of quitting attempts and perceived control over quitting also positively influenced the desire and/or intention to quit. The article concludes with a discussion that interprets these findings from a theoretical and practical perspective and suggests directions for future research.     

Behaviour‐Based and Outcome‐Based Control Systems: A Meta‐Analytic Study

Sales control systems are instruments used by firms to improve performance and other organizational outcomes. To understand their antecedents and consequences, this paper conducts a meta‐analysis based on 104 studies. The results showed significant relationships between behaviour‐ and outcome‐based control systems and the complexity of the products, bonuses, financial performance, sales innovation, organizational support and satisfaction with supervisors. The outcomes revealed that behaviour‐based control systems were the most effective mechanism in turbulent markets and for determining financial performance. However, outcome‐based control systems were the most efficient instrument for complex products.     

Supervisors' overtime hours,abusive supervision and leader–member exchange: How supervisors' long work hours harm their relationships with subordinates

The current research examines the consequences of supervisors' overtime hours on subordinates. Drawing upon the stressor-emotion model of counterproductive behaviors, we argue that supervisors' overtime hours positively relate to abusive supervision behaviors through negative emotions, which in turn undermine leader–member exchange relationships. We further posit that this process is exacerbated among subordinates with a strong relational self-concept. Multisource multilevel data collected from an organizational sample of 181 employees and longitudinal data from 416 employees from multiple organizations support our predictions. This research indicates that the consequences of working overtime extend beyond supervisors, as subordinates may be negatively affected when their supervisors work long hours. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.     

Diminished or Just Different? A Factorial Vignette Study of Privacy as a Social Contract

A growing body of theory has focused on privacy as being contextually defined, where individuals have highly particularized judgments about the appropriateness of what, why, how, and to whom information flows within a specific context. Such a social contract understanding of privacy could produce more practical guidance for organizations and managers who have employees, users, and future customers all with possibly different conceptions of privacy across contexts. However, this theoretical suggestion, while intuitively appealing, has not been empirically examined. This study validates a social contract approach to privacy by examining whether and how privacy norms vary across communities and contractors. The findings from this theoretical examination support the use of contractual business ethics to understand privacy in research and in practice. As predicted, insiders to a community had significantly different understandings of privacy norms as compared to outsiders. In addition, all respondents held different privacy norms across hypothetical contexts, thereby suggesting privacy norms are contextually understood within a particular community of individuals. The findings support two conclusions. First, individuals hold different privacy norms without necessarily having diminished expectations of privacy. Individuals differed on the factors they considered important in calculating privacy expectations, yet all groups had robust privacy expectations across contexts. Second, outsiders have difficulty in understanding the privacy norms of a particular community. For managers and scholars, this renders privacy expectations more difficult to identify at a distance or in deductive research. The findings speak directly to the needs of organizations to manage a diverse set of privacy issues across stakeholder groups.     

Recruitment of Seemingly Overeducated Personnel: Insider–Outsider Effects on Fair Employee Selection Practices

Fair employment policies constrain employee selection: specifically, applicants’ professional experience can be a substitute for formal education. However, reflecting firm-specific job requirements, this substitution rule applies less strictly to applicants from outside the firm. Further, setting low educational job requirements decreases the risk of disparate impact charges. Using data from a large US public employer, we show that successful outsider candidates exhibit higher levels of formal education than insiders. Also, this gap in educational attainments between outsiders and insiders widens with lower advertised degree requirements. More generally, we find strong insider–outsider effects on hiring decisions.     

Managing Institutional Complexity: A Longitudinal Study of Legitimacy Strategies at a Sportswear Brand Company

Multinational corporations are operating in complex business environments. They are confronted with contradictory institutional demands that often represent mutually incompatible expectations of various audiences. Managing these demands poses new organizational challenges for the corporation. Conducting an empirical case study at the sportswear manufacturer Puma, we explore how multinational corporations respond to institutional complexity and what legitimacy strategies they employ to maintain their license to operate. We draw on the literature on institutional theory, contingency theory, and organizational paradoxes. The results of our qualitative longitudinal study show that managing corporate legitimacy is a dynamic process in which corporations adapt organizational capacities, structures, and procedures.     

Multinational corporations,inter-organizational networks and subsidiary charter removals

This paper provides insights into the dynamics of a charter removal at a Hungarian subsidiary of the Siemens telecommunication switching division. By using inter-organizational network theory, we investigate how host-country factor endowments, the resource position of a subsidiary and the density of network exchange relationships within the organizational network influence the removal of a multinational corporate subsidiary's charter. The dispersion of resources in a multinational corporation drives intra-firm competition, which will typically lead to the removal of a subsidiary's charter if the subsidiary lacks specialized resources – typically an outcome of host country comparative disadvantages – and simultaneously holds a position on the periphery of the organizational network.     

Women Managers in Hong Kong: Personal and Political Agendas

The proportion of women managers in Hong Kong has been steadily increasing in recent years. Hong Kong's ‘can-do’ spirit, education system and laws against sex discrimination probably have contributed to the increase. However, roles in the private (home) and public (work) spheres remain highly gendered. This has led to intense worak–family stress for women managers, some of whom also face sex discrimination at work, such as negative attitudes toward women, the old-boy network and sexual harassment. However, the overall level of awareness of sex roles and sex discrimination among women managers is low. Furthermore, women managers tend not to court open and direct confrontation. Instead, they tend to pursue individualistic personal coping strategies. Women managers rely on support from their extended family and hire domestic help to cope with work–family stress. Women managers also work hard to prepare themselves for a job move when they perceive or encounter sex discrimination. They tend not to make demands of their husbands, the workplace, or the government due to concepts about the private and public divide and about gender roles in these two spheres. We argue that political agendas which push for more flexible gender roles, state childcare and women- and family-friendly organizational policies are needed to bring more women into management at a faster pace.     

Organizational Wrongs,Moral Anger and the Temporality of Crisis

By engaging with multiple narratives of a police killing involving questionable legal procedures, known as a police encounter in India, we attempt to narrate stories of what happens to those who resist organizational wrongdoing by displaying moral anger against unethical actions. The State enables police encounters to occur by arguing that exceptional and alternate methods are required to engage with the crisis of terror and crime that the nation faces. Thus, police encounters are executed in the name of the collective morality of the greater common good. Those who resist police encounters argue from the standpoint of a democratic morality by suggesting that the very efficacy of democratic institutions will be eroded if encounters are normalized. We explore questions of organizational ethics from a temporal perspective while navigating between contending moral positions regarding police encounters.     

The effect of customer-initiated justice on customer-oriented behaviors

Researchers have been thorough in their examination of the influence of organizational factors (e.g., supervisors, climate) on employees' perceptions of justice in the workplace. However, much less effort has been directed toward understanding how factors external to the organization – namely, customers – influence perceived justice. This represents an important omission because frontline employees are often held accountable for customer satisfaction which, ultimately, may depend on customers' initial treatment of frontline employees. The research reported herein explores this possibility by proposing that (1) customer interpersonal justice enhances employee-customer fit, (2) customer informational justice increases both employee-customer fit and self-efficacy, and (3) employee-customer fit and self-efficacy interact in prediction of frontline employee customer-oriented behaviors. The results affirm the proposed relationships and thus provide initial evidence that employee-customer fit and self-efficacy mediate the effects of perceived customer-justice on customer-oriented behaviors; the implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

Discrimination, Harassment, and the Glass Ceiling: Women Executives as Change Agents

In this article, we discuss the relationships between discrimination, harassment, and the glass ceiling, arguing that many of the factors that preclude women from occupying executive and managerial positions also foster sexual harassment. We suggest that measures designed to increase numbers of women in higher level positions will reduce sexual harassment. We first define and discuss discrimination, harassment, and the glass ceiling, relationships between each, and relevant legislation. We next discuss the relationships between gender and sexual harassment, emphasizing the influence of gender inequality on sexual harassment. We then present recommendations for organizations seeking to reduce sexual harassment, emphasizing the role that women executives may play in such efforts and, importantly, the recursive effects of such efforts on increasing the numbers of women in higher level positions in organizations.