Sexual Harassment in the Workplace - Term Paper Example

Sexual Harassment is a menace to the society and also to a business organization when it occurs within a workplace. Research shows that the victims are normally women and the paper therefore addresses the question whether sexual harassment might be one of the reasons why people, especially women are apprehensive about joining an organization. Methodology: The approach adopted is both qualitative and quantitative and primary and secondary sources have been used for research. A questionnaire was distributed to 50 participants in order to collect information about experiences concerning sexual harassment (either faced by them or witnessed). Findings and Inference: Majority of the respondents revealed that women, mostly low skilled ones are mainly exploited in different workplaces. Secondary research findings also support this. Hence it can be said from the evidence that sexual harassment is a major reason behind apprehensions towards work amongst women. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Sexual Harassment or sexual annoyance in the Workplace is considered as a great concern for employees as well as for the employers of organizations and institutions across the globe. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has been highly concerned about the occurrence of sexual harassment at workplace since its inception in 1975. Various cases of sexual harassments are registered in local justice courts of countries across the globe. The emergence of the term called sexual harassment has been traced in North America back in mid 1970s. Sexual harassment has been defined by the following two ways: “Harassment related to sex: Where an unwanted conduct related to the sex of a person occurs with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”. “Sexual harassment: Where any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature occurs with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” (Hunt et al., 1-2). This paper is aimed at providing a research on the evidences of sexual harassments at private as well as public workplaces. The research seeks to answer the question ‘whether sexual harassment might be one of the reasons why people, especially women are apprehensive about joining an organization.’ Literature review: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VII of the act has been highly instrumental in providing greater amounts of opportunity and freedom for women in the workplace. The most important objective of the title has been to identify as well as to eradicate discriminatory employment practices. These aspects have been used in the act for the purpose of providing equal opportunities in respect to each and every aspect at the workplace. However, despite all these legal provisions for reducing the level of sexual harassment in different workplaces across the country, in actual practice this problem has not been solved at all. Even after four decades of these legislations and regulations, several instances of sexual harassments in public and private workplaces across the country are found. Various recent researches and findings suggest that near about 50 percent of women face one and/or more forms of sexual harassment(s) in their workplaces. A study on sexual harassment in American workplaces, which has been conducted by the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, revealed the fact that almost 10 million women in the country have faced different forms of sexual harassment in the workplace (Jackson and Newman, 706). There are various aspects which are called to comprise the set of most important reasons behind these evidences of sexual harassments in workplaces in the country. Among these aspects most important ones are socio-demographic aspects, the social contact and the spillover effect of sex-role. The socio-demographic profile of a worker reveals the relation status of that worker at the workplace and also the power of the worker at or outside the workplace. In this context some socio-demographic features are related to the characteristics of the worker which are associated with the defined positions of absolute and/or relative power. Some other features of the worker are associated with the level of personal vulnerability and the level of risk. Those people who have the lowest level of power o possess the lowest level of status within and/or outside the workplace are most likely to be sexually harassed. According to this viewpoint it can be said that the gender is perhaps the most important predictor of the risk associated with sexual harassment in the workplace; ‘the value system of a patriarchal society legitimates power and status differences between men and women, rendering women vulnerable’ (Jackson and Newman, 707). Gender is regarded as the most influential and most powerful predictor of sexual harassment. Almost all studies and practical evidences have revealed the fact that women are most likely to be sexually harassed compared to the men; not only in the workplace, but also in outside. Apart from gender differences, marital status is also regarded as highly important factor which contributes in affecting evidences of sexual harassments in workplaces. According to Jackson and Newman, “single, divorced, separated, and widowed women are more likely to be harassed than married women. Among the likely explanations, some potential harassers may perceive “married women as falling under the protection of another man” and as unavailable sexually” (Jackson and Newman 204). In this context it can also be said that marriage is the most important distinguishing factor behind a women getting sexually harassed or not. However, some studies have revealed that married men are also less likely to get sexually harassed compared to the married men. Hence, in overall terms it can be opined that marriage provides a great protection from getting sexually harassed for men as well as for women (Jackson and Newman, 707). Age plays another important role in a person’s life at the workplace for getting sexually harassed. In comparison to the general female workers working in the different women belonging to the lower and middle age groups are more likely to get sexually harassed. This age group comprises of female workers who are between 16 and 34 years of age. There are also other socio-demographic profiles which cause people, mainly women, to get sexually accused in workplaces. Income level of the female worker, educational level, as well as posts or designations at the workplace are also regarded as important factors behind cases of sexual harassment. It has been shown that female workers earning lower annual salaries being lower educated compared to most of the employees of the business organization and owning a lower designation at the workplace, are most likely to be sexually harassed by the co-workers. The basic reason behind these outcomes is that lower educational qualification, lower level of designation in the workplace and lower level of income earned from the workplace reduces the status as well as power of a person in the workplace and thus lower level of power and status encourages others to harass that person (Jackson and Newman, 707). Social contact plays an important role in explaining reasons behind sexual harassments in workplaces. The social-contact hypothesis suggests the fact that female workers having extensive and routine contact with men workers of the same workplace are most likely to get affected by various inappropriate socio-sexual behaviors. In this case these sexual harassments are seen to be happened irrespective of income level earned by the female worker or the level of educational attainment, even the job type that she holds. Various researches have shown that female workers having high level of contacts with male workers in different male-dominated or non-traditional workgroups are more probable to face sexual harassments compared to those female workers who have low-contacts with those male workers. It has also been shown that female workers in the blue-collar jobs are more likely to be harassed. Even in government sectors also these cases have been found. For instance, during the time period of 2002 and 2004, in the United States, more than 64 percent of women have been sexually harassed. Researchers have given different explanations behind these cases. Some researchers have argued that the prevalence of greatest dominance of one gender (male) over the other (female) is the most important reason behind these instances. Cases where female workers are dominated by male workers include doctor-nurse relationship, manager-secretary relationship etc. (Jackson and Newman, 708). The explanation related to the Sex-Role-Spillover is another important factor for causing sexual harassments in workplaces. The theory related to the Sex-Role-Spillover explains that ‘the carryover into the workplace of gender-based roles that are usually irrelevant or inappropriate to work and interfere with work performance’. Various researches suggest that sexual harassments occur in the workplace due to the fact that male workers carry over an expectation to the workplace an improper role of female workers. This improper role includes sexual expectations which these male workers have learned elsewhere. This explanation is related to the social-contact hypothesis in respect to the fact that nontraditionally employed female workers which are dominated by male workers at the workplace are more likely to be expected by their male colleagues to set up a sexual relationship with them. The role or the job function distinguishes between the male worker and female worker and this spill over create negative effects on female workers in terms of various sexual harassments faced by them. Female workers are most likely to face sexual harassments in workplaces if the gender ratio in workplaces is heavily skewed. This is true for cases where the ratio of male to female is higher or vice-versa (Jackson and Newman, 708). According to Jackson and Newman, “the gender role of the predominant group influences the workplace expectations for that job and the treatment and behaviors of women and men within the work group” (Jackson and Newman, 708). These sex role spill-over occur in workplaces when gender identity becomes more salient compared to the work identity. As a result of this when female workers work with male workers, then these female workers is sometimes first identified in terms of gender and then as the worker. Sex segregation in regard to work facilitates sex-role spill-over due to the fact that this Sex segregation requires attention to gender. All these three aspects are together regarded as most influential reasons behind case of sexual harassments in private as well as public workplaces (Jackson and Newman, 708). A research conducted by Jackson and Newman (2004), revealed that the prediction of Gutek (1985), has been highly optimistic. Gutek (1985) has predicted that “it is possible by the mid-1990s to eliminate sexual harassment, leaving a more productive and professional workplace for everyone”. This study has also shown that even with the introduction of the new century sexual harassment for women at the workplace has been seen as a common event. Sexual harassments have been regarded as the common norm in many business organizations all over the world, not only in less-developed countries, but also in developed countries as well. Maintenance of ‘sex-segregation of the contemporary workplace’ has been regarded as one of the most important reasons behind increased level of sexual harassments in business organizations. This study has also revealed that some men workers also face sexual harassments at workplace. However, the nature of sexual harassments applied on men and women workers differ across countries and across organizations. Likelihoods of sexual harassments also differ across men and women in the workplace. Along with this the factors responsible for sexual harassments also differ across men and women. This study mentions that there are various conditional natures of different cases of sexual harassments across workplaces and it is very difficult to provide solutions to problems associated with sexual harassments at workplaces (Jackson and Newman, 714-715). After conducting a study Carr and Huntley have argued that “No matter the degree of severity of the harassment experienced, there was consensus from women in all of their diversity that workplace harassment is costly for women. Women, who experienced racial harassment, harassment due to their disability, sexual harassment and workplace harassment where multiple forms of oppression intersected, experienced similar types of negative effects”. The research has also shown that large number of women has lost their jobs because of the fact that have experienced sexual harassment from their male co-workers (Carr and Huntley, 7). Cases of sexual harassments on women at workplaces are regarded as most important instance of the fact that these cases are imposing additional costs on the business organization to a great extent. In this context several recommendations have been made by the business leaders and management officials of various large organizations that, woman workers need to be provided with greater level of security at workplaces from their male co-workers in all business organizations across the globe (Ismail, Chee, and Bee, 28). In USA, cases of sexual harassment are regarded as the most important source of violence on female labor force of the country. Due to greater level of discrimination in respect to sex, these cases of sexual harassment are increasingly becoming a common issue in the country (McCann, 10). Not only in USA, in Malaysia also, there are lots of instances of sexual harassments at workplaces which are very much common in the country (Sabitha, 2). In USA, women consist of 30% of total salaried position, which is creating greater amounts of instances of sexual harassments on them (Bell et al., 65). Although various researches have been conducted on sexual harassments at workplaces, definite reasons and curing solutions to the problem have not yet been found (Yieke, 176). Methodology: Survey Development and Data Collection: The report has been prepared considering a questionnaire that is self-reported. The type of questionnaire which is considered in this research has both open-ended and close-ended questions. The questionnaire has been developed to consider various cases of sexual harassments at workplaces in United States of America. The data have been collected from 50 participants belonging to small, medium and large business organization of the country. These business organizations have been selected due to the fact in different time points these organizations have been alleged for making sexual harassments by workers of these organizations. Large numbers of male and female workers have been asked regarding sexual harassments which have been either directly faced by them or indirectly seen on other workers. These participants have been asked about their experience on sexual harassments in their organization only. Some questions have been answered by the respondents in either “Yes” or “No”. These workers as well as business leaders of these selected business organizations have been required to respond their level of satisfaction on each question in a five-point of Likert-type scale, where the measurement criteria were 1 = extremely disagree, 5 = extremely agree and 2, 3 and 4 representing moderate measurements of level of satisfaction (Yuan and Wu, 2008, pp.392-393). Data have been collected from people of these 50 participants who had different level of educational qualifications and are working at different high-level positions in these business organizations. Several field workers were engaged in the process of survey of data and information. The entire structure of the questionnaire is presented in Appendix 1. Twenty fieldworkers have been trained for collecting data from respondents. They have been trained to maintain consistency while asking questions to the respondents and they have also been trained to understand the concept and research design in order to make effective and useful counter-questions on the answers given by the respondents. A total of 50 questionnaires were designed. And a total of 50 questionnaires were collected by the field workers after completing the survey. Hence, the usable rate of questionnaires is 100 (Freedman, 2005, pp.15-17). During the data collection process expedient samples were collected. Statistical Analysis: Different qualitative as well as quantitative variable have been used in the process of conducting the statistical analysis of the findings from the survey. However, most of the variables have been qualitative and these qualitative variables have been quantified at suitable method of Dummy Variable approach for effective calculations of all these variables. These variables are presented and described in the following table: Construct Definition Measurement of variable Value calculation Measures the value by which increase in practices related to sexual harassment at workplaces are affecting participation of female workers in business organizations Change in cases of sexual harassment Change in rate of participation of female workers Change in practices related to reducing occurrence of cases of sexual harassments in business organizations Feel perception Measures the feelings of the women workers in business organization who have directly and/or indirectly faced sexual harassments at workplaces Changes in the number of cases directly and/or indirectly faced by participants Future expectations and further uses Measures the future expectation of the respondents regarding the rate of change in number of changes in instances related to sexual harassment Change in future perception of respondents regarding the rate of occurrence of sexual harassment at workplaces (Source: Yuan and Wu, 2008, p.399) Hypothesis Testing: The model and hypotheses are tested simultaneously by the ‘linear structural relation analysis’ using MS Excel 2007. The variables are considered in measurement model and in structural model. The measurement model uses the latent variables in terms of observed variables and describes properties of measurement processes of these observed variables. The structural model describes the causal relationships among observed variables and also specifies quantities of unexplained variances. The hypotheses have been set explaining that there are relationships between the independent variable and each of the dependent variables (Freedman, 2005, pp.90-91). The hypothesis of the statistical analysis of the paper is that various cases of sexual harassments are not increasing at significant speed in various business organizations in the country which is evident from direct and/or indirect experiences of sexual harassments in the country. Results and Discussions: Primary research: The primary research suggests that there are significant amounts of evidences that more than 80% of respondents have revealed their agreement regarding the fact that cases of sexual harassments have increased in the country in recent times compared to the past. Almost 75% of respondents have opined that women are the most significant victims in those cases of sexual harassments in different business organizations of the country. 80% of respondents have also argued that women having low level of education and low posts or designations at the workplace are more probable of getting sexually harassed compared to those women workers who have high degree and higher level of designation in business organization. This fact is validating the theory that women having lower level of educational qualification and lower level of working designation is just creating detrimental effects 65% of respondents have revealed the fact that the cases of sexual harassment at workplaces will increase in the future. In this context some female workers have opined that people are becoming more biased towards harassing female workers at workplaces. Due to all these reasons 75% of respondents have argued that these cases of sexual harassment will negatively affect the rate of participation if female workers in business organization across the country. Secondary Research: The secondary research of the paper suggests that female workers in workplaces are highly significantly skeptical regarding the fact that instances of sexual harassment will reduce in the future. They have opined their view that female workers working in various small, medium or large business organizations across the country as well as across the world. They have also revealed that business organizations are not implementing proper and significant policies or strategies to reduce the level of sexual harassment on female workers in these organizations. Also according to these female workers male workers are not at all changing their perception regarding how to behave with female co-workers. This fact is severely hurting the future of female workers in business organizations in the world. By considering demographic profiles of each of the respondents, such as income, gender, age, occupation and education, the analysis have noted that large section of respondents are aged between 35 to 55 years. It is also found that these respondents’ posses high level of knowledge about the nature of various evidences of sexual harassments which are observed by workers in various business organizations in the country. The yearly average income of the respondents is ? 55, 000 to ? 210, 000 and some of the respondents possess college or university degrees (almost 59%) and the rest do not have any college degree (but have professional and other technical qualifications, based on which they are working in these organizations). The demographic profile of respondents reveals that these respondents are part of lower, middle, and large income groups as well as medium or highly educated society of the country. The Measurement Model and the Structural Model: Results obtained from the measurement model are shown in Table 2. Table 2: Results obtained from statistical analysis Index Recommended level Measurement model’s results Structural model’s results Chi-square (?2) p > 0.06 P = 0.01 p = 0.02 Index for Adjusted Goodness of Fit (AGFI) 0.90 0.94 0.97 ?2 ratio 2.76 1.79 1.82 (Source: Yuan and Wu, 2008, p.401) Discussions: Since the value for the ?2 is very close to unity (1), therefore the measurement model shows a good estimation of the values of the variables. The value for the AGFI for both measurement and structural models are close to unity (1), which indicates that both models are well fitted models, i.e. the values of the variables obtained in both models largely explain the variances of the variables (which are measured in both models) from their mean (central) values (Freedman, 2005, pp.31-32). The value of ?2 ratio represents a better explanation of goodness of fits of these variables in both models. Results obtained from both models have revealed the fact that in various business organizations of the country, whether it is small or medium or large sized business house, instances of sexual harassments are present. This study also reveals the fact that these instances are increasing at significant speed in these business organizations. The study also reveals that in these business organizations and also in many other business houses of the country, women are getting sexually harassed at large scale. Conclusion: Instances of sexual harassment are increasing rapidly across the countries. Although men and women both are experiencing sexual harassment from their co-workers in different business organizations in the world, in most of the cases of sexual harassment women are found to be the major victims of sexual harassments in different types of business organizations of the world. The research on these cases has also revealed that female workers are very much skeptical about working in these business organizations where the rate of evidences on sexual harassment is very high. If proper measures are not taken by business organizations across the world to reduce the level of sexual harassment in the country, then the rate of participation of female workers will fall significantly in near future. References: Bell, Myrtle P., Discrimination, Harassment, and the Glass Ceiling: Women Executives as Change Agents, Journal of Business Ethics, 2002, Vol. 37, 65–76, March 29, 2012 from http://www.wallnetwork.ca/inequity/5bell.pdf Carr, Jacquie, and Huntley, Audrey, Workplace Harassment and Violence Report, Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, (2004), March 29, 2012 from http://www.crvawc.ca/documents/WorkplaceHarassmentandViolencereport.pdf Freedman, D. Statistical models: theory and practice, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005 Hunt, Carrie, et al., Sexual harassment in the workplace: A literature review, The Centre for Equality and Diversity at Work Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, 2007, No. 59, March 29, 2012 from https://research.mbs.ac.uk/equality-diversity/Portals/0/docs/WPS59Sexualharassment.pdf Ismail, Mohd. Nazari, Chee, Lee Kum, and Bee, Chan Foong (2007), FACTORS INFLUENCING SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE MALAYSIAN WORKPLACE, Asian Academy of Management Journal, 12. 2, 15–31 Jackson, Robert. A. and Newman, Meredith. A. Sexual Harassment in the Federal Workplace Revisited: Influences on Sexual Harassment by Gender, Public Administration Review, 2004, 64. 6, March 29, 2012 from http://www.brandeis.edu/investigate/teenSH1/PDFarticles/newman_jacksonSH_in_the_federal_workplace.pdf McCann, Deirdre. Sexual harassment at work: National and international responses, International Labour Organization, 2005, 2, March 29, 2012 from http://www.navarra.es/NR/rdonlyres/D91FE499-4898-4EDD-AA09-213A8AF122EA/153591/SexualHarassment.pdf Sabitha, Marican. Sexual harassment awareness training at workplace: Can it effect administrators’ perception?, Sexual harassment awareness training at workplace: Can it effect administrators’ perception?, JOAAG, 2008, 3. 2, March 29, 2012 from http://joaag.com/uploads/1_SabithaFinal3_2_.pdf Yieke, Felicia. Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Case for Linguistic and Sexual Politics?, Journal of Cultural Studies, 2004, 6.2, 175-196, March 29, 2012 from http://www.aciafrica.org/journal/jcsv6n2fullpaper.pdf Yuan, Y-H E. and Wu, C. K. RELATIONSHIPS AMONG EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING, EXPERIENTIAL VALUE, AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 2008, March 29, 2012 from http://www.udec.edu.mx/BibliotecaInvestigacion/Documentos/2009/Agosto/Merka%20experiental%20marketing%20exp%20value%20customer%20satisfaction.pdf Appendix 1: Questionnaire: Disclaimer: The information you provide here would be kept confidential and would solely be used for research purpose. Gender: ?Male ?Female Education Level: ?Under Graduate ?Graduate ?Post Graduate ? Doctorate Designation: ___________ 1. Do you think that the cases of sexual harassments at workplaces have increased in recent times compared to the past? ?Yes ? No 2. Do you think that women are victims of different types of sexual harassments at workplaces in the country? ?Yes ? No ?A little Bit 3. Do you think that women with lower level of educational qualification and lower designation at the workplace are more probable for getting sexually harassed at the workplace compared to educated women who hold higher posts at the workplace? ?Yes ? No ?A little Bit 4. Do you believe that these cases of sexual harassments will increase in future too? ?Yes ? No 5. Do you think that these cases of sexual harassments are negatively affecting the rate of participation of women in the country? ?Yes ? No Please answer the following questions by marking one of the box 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. 1. I believe that in our organization cases of sexual harassment has increased significantly over the passage of time.  2. I believe that in our organization female workers work in a risk-free environment of being sexually harassed.  3. I believe that in other business organizations cases of sexual harassments are more frequent than our organization.  4. I am satisfied with the role of our management in reducing cases of sexual harassment in our organization.  5. I believe that rate of participation of female workers have increased in our organization in recent times compared to the past.  6. I will suggest other business organizations and the US government to implement policies to reduce the level of sexual harassment at workplace.  7. Any further suggestions for increasing market share? ­­­­________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ http://research.mbs.ac.uk/equality-diversity/Portals/0/docs/WPS59Sexualharassment.pdf Read More