There’s a Policy for That: A Comparison of the Organizational Culture of Workplaces Reporting Incidents of Sexual Harassment

Abstract

It has been more than 25 years since the Equal Employment Opportunity Council first published guidelines on sexual harassment. In response, many companies developed policies and procedures for dealing with harassment in their workplaces. The impact of sexual harassment policies on changing workplace culture has been met with mixed findings. The current study investigates the environmental differences or organizational cultures of companies holding formal sexual harassment policies using organizational level data (2002 National Organization Survey). Logistic regressions compared organizations with and without formal complaints on organizational structure, worker power, and interpersonal climate variables. Findings indicated the importance of negative interpersonal climate variables (threatening, bullying, and incivility) in differentiating companies who experience formal complaints of sexual harassment from those that do not.

Sexual Harassment: A Complex Adaptive System Viewpoint

“…Further, evidence suggests that the costly endeavor of training is effective only if it is ongoing, provided at least semi-annually, and on employees' paid time (Husbands, 1992). The set of rules provided by the decision trees above, along with our simulation results of the previous section, clearly indicates that enforcement is significant in reducing SH, which supports results from the previous studies (Gruber, 2003;Hertzog, Wright, & Beat, 2008). The set of decision rules in Figures 3 and 4 allows an organization to focus their efforts and resources on effective implementation of organizational policies to reduce SH.…”

Workplace Sexual Harassment 30 Years on: A Review of the Literature

“…It is hardly surprising that, with the uncertainties around interpretations of SH outlined in this review, the development of organizational strategies to prevent SH have been less than effective. Policies and procedures that lead to a reduction of SH rely on expanded organizational models which include measures of interpersonal relations as well as organizational structures (Hertzog et al . 2008).…”

“…It is hardly surprising that, with the uncertainties around interpretations of SH outlined in this review, the development of organizational strategies to prevent SH have been less than effective. Policies and procedures that lead to a reduction of SH rely on expanded organizational models which include measures of interpersonal relations as well as organizational structures (Hertzog et al 2008). We know that organizational factors are fundamental in creating an organizational climate that discourages SH (Willness et al 2007) but we have less knowledge of the specific combinations of policies, training programmes and grievance procedures that lead to decreased occurrences.…”

And justice for all: How organizational justice climate deters sexual harassment

“…A few studies (Hertzog, Wright, & Beat, 2008;Lim & Cortina, 2005) have linked incivility, which is conceptually related to justice climate, to sexual harassment. Incivility refers to behavior that is rude, disrespectful, or condescending (Lim & Cortina, 2005), whereas a climate for incivility refers to shared perceptions that incivility is commonplace and is the norm within a group (Paulin & Griffin, 2017).…”