Sexual harassment: Have we made any progress?

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) is a continuing, chronic occupational health problem in organizations and work environments. First addressed in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology through a 1998 Special Section on Sexual Harassment, we return to this consequential issue. If the goal is to reduce SH in organizations, and we believe that it should be, then a key question is whether we have made progress in 2 decades. The answer is mixed. Yes, there is a 28% decline in SH complaints. No, there is an increase in complaints by males. No, there has been an increase in the percentage of merit resolutions and monetary benefits. Maybe, because how do we explain the complexity of SH with emergent gay, lesbian, and transgender workforce members. One persistent problematic aspect of SH lack of agreement on definition. We address 2 of the 3 definitional approaches. We consider the broad, negative consequences for organizations and for individual victims. Harassers and aggressors destroy lives, leaving long legacies of suffering. In addition, we offer some suggestions for moving forward in science and practice, with emphasis on the role of the bystander. We conclude that SH is a preventable, if not always predictable, occupational health problem. (PsycINFO Database Record

The direct and indirect effects of organizational tolerance for sexual harassment on the effectiveness of sexual harassment investigation training for HR managers

“…Despite advancements in our knowledge of the predictors of training effectiveness in the general training literature, there have been few attempts to apply this knowledge systematically to study sexual harassment training. As a result, we know little about the antecedent and mediating factors that may help explain why sexual harassment training is more (or less) effective (Quick & McFadyen, ).…”

“…Sexual harassment is a negative phenomenon within organizations that results in considerable harm to employees, such as decreased physical and psychological well-being (Gettman & Gelfand, 2007;Jiang et al, 2015;McDonald, 2012;Quick & McFadyen, 2017;Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007), as well as costly consequences for organizations, including decreased organizational commitment, employee engagement, productivity, job satisfaction, and financial performance (Gettman & Gelfand, 2007;Jiang et al, 2015;Miner-Rubino & Cortina, 2007;Quick & McFadyen, 2017;Raver & Gelfand, 2005;Willness et al, 2007). HR managers have a unique responsibility to investigate and manage claims of sexual harassment within organizations.…”

“…As a result, we know little about the antecedent and mediating factors that may help explain why sexual harassment training is more (or less) effective (Quick & McFadyen, 2017).…”

What Will End the Silence? Understanding Employee Voice in Cases of Workplace Sexual Misconduct

“…Organizational psychologists and practitioners have made strides in conceptualizing workplace sexual harassment and sexual assault, and have further identified their primary antecedents and consequences (O'Leary-Kelly, Bowes-Sperry, Bates, & Lean, 2009). Primary, secondary, and tertiary intervention and harm prevention programs have been recommended based on both theoretical and empirical work in the field (Quick & McFadyen, 2017). Yet, relatively little is known regarding the outcomes associated with such programs Magley, Fitzgerald, Salisbury, Drasgow, & Zickar, 2013), particularly with regards to incident reporting.…”

“…Gender harassment behaviours serve to perpetuate internalized gender role norms, as they tend to be used to convey hostile and offensive attitudes towards those who violate normative gender role expectations (Holland, Rabelo, Gustafson, Seabrook, & Cortina, 2016;Berdahl, 2007b). Moreover, despite their association with deleterious individual and organizational outcomes -such as declines in physical well-being, (e.g., nausea, headaches), psychological well-being (e.g., anxiety, depression, eating disorders), job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (Quick & McFadyen, 2017;Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007;Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997b;Harned & Fitzgerald, 2002) -because gender harassment behaviours appear innocuous, they are likely to go unreported. As such, organizations may not be aware of the prevalence of gender harassment within their walls, and are thus unlikely to be actively combatting these behaviours.…”