The importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety in the prevention of sexual harassment at work

Abstract

Objectives Workplace sexual harassment is a prominent issue in Malaysia. Although the subject of sexual harassment has been researched for over two decades, information on how organizations could effectively prevent workplace sexual harassment is limited. The researchers investigated the importance of organizational climate for psychosocial safety of workplace sexual harassment prevention. Methods Purposive random sampling was utilized to recruit participants in the study. Semi‐structured interviews were then conducted with Malaysian employees (N = 20) from various organizations. The study applied the Grounded Theory Approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1976) to identify the participants' coping strategies in dealing with sexual harassment that occurred at their workplace. Results The interviews revealed that both genders were potential victims or witnesses of workplace sexual harassment. Since many Malaysian organizations do not implement any workplace sexual harassment prevention, most of the victims and witnesses tend to use passive self‐coping approaches. Typically, policy and guidelines implementation would encourage employees to voice their concerns; however, we discovered that participants' motivation to use active coping strategies depended on organizational role rather than the policy and guidelines implementation. Surprisingly, we also found out that participants from zero policy organizations used active coping strategies when the sexual harassment reached intolerable levels. Conclusion Organizations play a critical role in helping and supporting both victims and witnesses deal with sexual harassment at the workplace. Organizational climate for psychosocial safety is therefore crucial in the primary and secondary prevention of sexual harassment at work.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Consequences and Perceived Self-Efficacy in Women and Men Witnesses and Non-Witnesses

“…Nonetheless, this is a very important finding because it shows how the phenomenon of SHW affects not only the direct victim but also those who experience it indirectly. This finding is consistent with previous recent studies that, albeit using different methodologies, show that SHW is one of the risk factors at all levels of investigation, from the psychological impact on the individual to the consequences for organizational climate and the welfare parameters of society as a whole [ 57 , 58 , 59 ].…”

‘It’s not a big deal’: customer misbehaviour and social washing in hospitality

“…Organisational culture and the role of leadership to enhance employee well-being Dismissive attitudes by managers accompanied by employee silence, as discussed above, are both problematic workplace responses that result in toxic workplaces impeding workplace well-being and endangering workers (Gupta et al, 2020;Madera et al, 2018;Ram, 2018;Tan et al, 2020). Organisational cultures with a customer-dominant logic (Kuppelwieser and Finsterwalder, 2016) arguably enable these employer and employee responses.…”

“…The above emphasis on emotional regulation corresponds with other recent contributions stressing the self-efficacy, resilience and strategies of workers to “cope” with and “recover” from abusive experiences (Fan et al , 2021; Good and Cooper, 2016; Gupta et al , 2020; Yang et al , 2020). On their part, employers typically ignore or are indifferent to reports of workplace abuse and harassment (Tan et al , 2020). According to Frey-Cordes et al (2020), employee reactions to customer misbehaviour include venting, denial, avoidance and disengagement.…”

“…Recent research by Shehawy (2021) shows that “empowering leadership moderates the relationships between workplace deviant behaviours, emotional behaviour, job satisfaction and firm performance” (p. 1; also see Özekici and Ünlüönen, 2021). In line with a service-dominant logic, people-centred work cultures underscored by workplace dignity and respect can be cultivated to foster safe and supportive workspaces (Gupta et al , 2020; Shehawy, 2021; Tan et al , 2020).…”

Perception and experiences of sexual harassment among women working in hospitality workplaces of Bahir Dar city, Northwest Ethiopia: a qualitative study

“…Precarious jobs [ 27 – 30 ], sexually objectified environment [ 31 , 32 ], tolerance of sexual harassment [ 33 – 35 ], psychosocial safety climate [ 36 – 43 ], and complaint procedures have also been related to WSH [ 16 – 18 ]. In China, studies have revealed that tradition [ 44 ] and abusive supervision are linked to service performance [ 45 ] and WSH.…”