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.     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Product Differentiation Strategy and Export Performance

This article examines why an organization might wish to manage workplace romance, and describes a number of alternative approaches to managing dating. At first sight the ethics of dating bans balances the need to protect female employees from harassment against employee rights to privacy and freedom of association – a rights versus rights issue. However, dating bans seem not to be directed at protecting female employees from harm, but rather protect employers from sexual harassment liability claims – an employer self-interest versus employee rights issue. This article advocates a consequentialist approach to the problem, via the factoring in of other harms caused by prohibiting workplace romance. Given that most workplace romances end up in marriage or long-term partnerships, a ban on workplace romance is argued to be antisocial. The incidence of sexual harassment is very low in comparison to the number of long-term relationships initiated in the workplace. This article concludes by citing examples of firms that encourage romance, showing that is feasible to manage any resulting problems within these firms’ existing conflict of interest and sexual harassment rules.     

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.     

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.     

Implementing business ethics: Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a problem for many organizations. Organizations must understand that sexual harassment lies within the broader context of sex discrimination and inequality of opportunity in the workplace. Sexual harassment is both an illegal and unethical practice. Companies need to implement a policy which respects the rights of individual employees by prohibiting sexual harassment. This policy need to be clearly stated in the company Code of Ethics and enforced rigorously.Karen A. Crain is a Territory Representative for Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories pharmaceutical company. She has published in a recent Proceeding of the International Conference of theAcademy of Business Administration.Kenneth A. Heischmidt is a Professor of Marketing at Southeast Missouri State University and has published in various professional journals and conferences includingJournal of Advertising, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly andJournal of Education for Business. He has received best paper awards at both the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Business Administration conferences.     

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.     

Gender differences in perceived workplace harassment and gender egalitarianism: A comparative cross-national analysis

Using 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data on 38,179 individuals from 36 countries in 9 relatively homogeneous global regions, we analyze the gender differences and the gender gap in perceived workplace harassment (PWH) with particular attention to gender equality's and gender egalitarianism's roles in molding these differences. We find that despite large regional differences, women in most countries are more likely than men to perceive workplace harassment, although this likelihood is higher in countries that score favorably on our gender equality measures. Hence, political empowerment and better economic opportunities alter women's perceptions of workplace harassment, increasing the probability of their experiencing it. Our results also underscore the important roles of values and gender egalitarian practices. Whereas enhanced gender egalitarianism values increase women's perceptions of workplace harassment, concrete practices tend to reduce them. Especially for management, this result highlights the importance of actually implementing gender equality policies at a corporate level, because a discrepancy between corporate values and practices on this issue will only accentuate the perception of harassment.     

Workplace Romance 2.0: Developing a Communication Ethics Model to Address Potential Sexual Harassment from Inappropriate Social Media Contacts Between Coworkers

This article examines ethical implications from workplace romances that may subsequently turn into sexual harassment through the use of social media technologies, such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, text messaging, IMing, and other forms of digital communication between office colleagues. We examine common ethical models such as Jones (Acad Manag Rev 16:366–395, 1991) issue-contingent decision-making model, Rest’s (Moral development: Advances in research and theory, 1986) Stages of Ethical Decision-Making model, and Pierce and Aguinis’s (J Org Behav 26(6):727–732,2005) review of workplace romance versus sexual harassment issues. The article makes a contribution by developing a new communication ethics model that includes response positive and response negative contingencies to guide decision-making about inappropriate social media contacts that spillover into the workplace. In addition, we recommend that human resource personnel take a more active role in communicating appropriate ethical rules of conduct concerning the use of social media technologies inside and outside the office.     

Sexual harassment: Why the corporate world still doesn't “Get It”

This paper shows that in order to understand and to resolve the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, the corporate world will have to relinquish some myths. Sexual harassment does not result from ignorance about fact or law. It is not merely a cultural, gender, or communication problem. It is a problem which will be resolved only when the corporate world recognizes that sexual harassment is a moral problem and provides moral education for employees. Until then, it will remain an explosive problem for communication specialists.Vaughana Macy Feary, is currently teaching philosophy courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University (Madison Campus) and works as an education and ethics consultant for museums, hospitals, and correctional facilities. She is the author of articles in applied ethics which include an article, Taking the Right to Freedom of Commercial Speech Seriously published in the Journal of Business Ethics last year.     

How does workplace harassment influence the employees’ response in a deluxe hotel?

Recently, workplace harassment in the form of superiors abusing their power over subordinates has emerged as a social problem. In the deluxe hotel work environment, dealing with this issue starts by asking whether harassment by a superior has taken place – and if so, how it has influenced subordinates’ responses. The purpose of this study was to measure the perception of workplace harassment among employees and to explain the relationships between workplace harassment and employee engagement, satisfaction, burnout, and turnover intent in deluxe hotels in South Korea. The results showed that verbal aggression had a significant negative effect on employee engagement, while isolation, disrespectful behavior, and physical aggression exacerbated employee burnout. In addition, employee engagement significantly enhanced job satisfaction, while burnout increased employees’ turnover intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

Relationships Between Moral Disengagement,Work Characteristics and Workplace Harassment

This study was undertaken to investigate whether work variables identified in theory and research as being related to employee experiences/behaviours add to the understanding and explain employees’ experiences of workplace harassment. The extent to which social cognitive theory (SCT), specifically moral disengagement, explains the processes by which work characteristics are related to harassment was also examined. The purpose of the study was to identify the presence of relationships among work characteristics, satisfaction, moral disengagement and workplace harassment. According to the results, employees with negative opinions of their work tended to experience negative affect and to believe that it is acceptable to harm others. The results of this study provide evidence of (1) relationships between harassment and several workplace characteristics and (2) the applicability of SCT to the explanation of how work characteristics relate to harassment.     

Sexual Harassment in Kitchens

ABSTRACT

In summarising the main findings of this study it appears that many hospitality properties in France and Sweden do not have policies regarding sexual harassment nor have the majority of respondents received any information about sexual harassment during their training. Perceptions of what constitutes sexual harassment and the likelihood of reporting possible incidents differ between nationalities and a large percentage of both male and female respondents have experienced serious acts of sexual harassment while at work.     

The Moderating Effect of Equal Opportunity Support and Confidence in Grievance Procedures on Sexual Harassment from Different Perpetrators

This study drew on three theoretical perspectives – attribution theory, power, and role identity theory – to compare the job-related outcomes of sexual harassment from organizational insiders (i.e., supervisors and co-workers) and organizational outsiders (i.e., offend- ers and members of the public) in a sample (n = 482) of UK police officers and police support staff. Results showed that sexual harassment from insiders was related to higher intentions to quit, over-performance demands, and lower job satisfaction, whereas sexual harassment from outsiders was not significantly related to any of the outcome variables investigated. We also examined two moderator variables: equal opportunity support and confidence in grievance procedures. Consistent with our hypotheses, equal oppor- tunity support mitigated the effects of sexual harassment from supervisors on intent to quit and over-performance demands. Confidence in grievance procedures moderated the relationship between sexual harassment from supervisors and all outcome variables. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Sticks and Stones may Break Your Bones, but Words can Break Your Spirit: Bullying in the Workplace

Workplace bullying has a well-established body of research internationally, but the United States has lagged behind the rest of the world in the identification and investigation of this phenomenon. This paper presents a managerial perspective on bullying in organizations. The lack of attention to the concept of workplace dignity in American organizational structures has supported and even encouraged both casual and more severe forms of harassment that our workplace laws do not currently cover. The demoralization victims suffer can create toxic working environments and impair organizational productivity. Some methods of protecting your organization from this blight of bullying are proposed. Bullying has always been part of the human condition; history is rife with references to abuse of power and unnecessary or excessive force. The classic bully story is of Joseph and his brothers, a tale of envy and hostility. The refinement of bullying to include various forms of legally defined social harassment is a relatively late phenomenon, however, dating to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the United States, bullying is not illegal, whereas it is illegal in many other countries. Bullying is not about benign teasing, nor does it include the off-color jokes, racial slurs, or unwelcome advances that are the hallmarks of legally defined harassment. Workplace bullying is the pattern of destructive and generally deliberate demeaning of co-workers or subordinates that reminds us of the activities of the schoolyard bully. Unlike the schoolyard bully, however, the workplace bully is an adult, usually (but not always) aware of the impact of his or her behavior on others. Bullying in the workplace, often tacitly accepted by the organizational leadership, can create an environment of psychological threat that diminishes corporate productivity and inhibits individual and group commitment. The two examples that follow will help to clarify the difference between harassment and bullying.     

Workplace Harassment Intensity and Revenge: Mediation and Moderation Effects

This study examines the mediating role of rumination, state anger, and blame attribution, and the moderating role of trait forgiveness in the relationship between workplace harassment intensity and revenge among employed students at a medium-sized Midwestern U.S. university (N = 310) and full-time employees from various industries in Shanghai, China (N = 251). We tested the proposed model using techniques described by Hayes (Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis, The Guilford Press, New York, 2013). Results within both samples suggested that workplace harassment intensity is positively associated with both major and minor revenge. Results of multiple mediation tests showed that state anger and blame attribution mediated the relationships between workplace harassment intensity and both types of revenge behavior. Furthermore, trait forgiveness moderated the relationship between blame attribution and major revenge.     

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.     

Sexual Harassment in the Public Accounting Profession?

Federal discrimination laws have defined two distinct types of activity that constitute sexual harassment – "hostile environment" and "quid pro quo." The Civil Rights Act of 1991 and more recent Supreme Court rulings make it easier for workers to win lawsuits claiming they were sexually harassed in the work environment.While the public accounting profession continues to address gender-related problems, it remains vulnerable to claims of sexual harassment. In an attempt to better understand the underlying risk the public accounting profession faces, this study focuses on identifying (1) the extent of sexual harassment in the public accounting profession, (2) the type of harassing behavior that is most common, and (3) where the harassment occurs.The research questions are addressed through a survey of female public accounting professionals who are members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Their responses provide evidence that public accounting firms are exposed to significant internal risk. Sexual harassment and a sense of frustration in coping with this issue is evident in the data.Public accounting firms and their respective clients must pause and evaluate their working environment. The responsibility to design and establish a business atmosphere that will encourage and maintain professional relationships between colleagues lies with these firms.     

Street harassment is marketplace discrimination: The impact of street harassment on young female consumers’ marketplace experiences

This study brings street harassment to the retailing and consumer services literature streams. Street harassment describes unwanted interactions in public spaces between strangers or customers and is often motivated by a person’s gender, sexual orientation, or gender expression. To date, marketers have overlooked the occurrence of street harassment in retail establishments and consumer service domains, such as in theaters, public markets, recreational areas, and shopping malls. This work empirically demonstrates the extent to which young women in Nepal experience harassment from men in the marketplace and the various tactics they employ to lessen it. Furthermore, this research exposes the extent to which Nepali men admit to participating in verbal, physical, or visual harassment of women in various retailing and service settings. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical, managerial, and societal implications and encourages public policy officials to treat street harassment as a criminal offense.     

Contrasting consequences: Bringing charges of sexual harassment compared with other cases of whistleblowing

The phenomenon of whistleblowing seems puzzling in that whistleblowing presumably brings a wrongful practice to the attention of those with power to correct the situation. In this respect, whistleblowers act to serve the public interest in defeating harmful, illegal and unjust practices. Yet these persons suffer vilification and worse, not only from their fellow employees, but from members of the general public as well. Cases in which members of a discriminated minority report instances of job discrimination, and especially instances of sexual harassment resemble other cases in which an employee reports corporate or bureaucratic misdeeds. In the early 1970s those who brought charges of sexual harassment did suffer character assassination, reprisals and difficulties in finding equivalent employment afterwards. But by the mid-1980s, consequences for those bringing discrimination charges, and especially the charge of sexual harassment have come to differ in several important respects from other cases of whistleblowing. Examining the differences, and what seem to be underlying causes of these differences, provides some insight into the factors that set limits to the practice of whistleblowing in a democratic society.Natalie Dandekar teaches in the Philosophy Department at Bentley College. She writes in the areas of women's studies and computer ethics.