Sexual Harassment at David Jones Limited - Case Study Example

Case study: Sexual harassment at David Jones Limited (Name) (Institution) (Course) (Instructor’s Name) Date of submission Introduction Diversity is in the workplace is an integral issue in this age of globalization and high technologic growth. Mobility of labour and new employment opportunities has created more platforms for interaction between different cultures and genders. Gender diversity in the workplace has been on an upward trend in many countries around the world, Australia included. There are high numbers of women in the workforce never witnessed before. In Australia for instance, more women (58%) than men enrolled in tertiary education institutions as of January 2008 consequently making them more marketable in the workforce (DFAT, 2011). However, this has not always been the case. A few decades ago, education for women and clamour for high positions in the workplace was looked down upon by the society. This mindset has not changed among some people making women vulnerable to discrimination and harassment based on their gender. Most common among the variants of discrimination and bullying is sexual harassment. This paper will use the case of Fraser-Kirk experience at David Jones to discuss the sexual harassment in the workplace. The paper utilises theory from relevant sources to analyse the situation and make recommendations to the company’s management board. The sexual discrimination act and variants of sexual harassment Cases of sexual harassment in the workplace have been on the increase in Australia and around the world (HREOC, 2011). To arrest the situation, both the commonwealth and territorial governments have enacted laws that forbid any form of discrimination. The Federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 prohibits discrimination based on sex, marital status, pregnancy and family responsibility. The same issue of sexual discrimination is covered in the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986. State governments have enacted other supporting laws that are based on these two major acts. A number of organizations, both governmental and non-governmental have also been formed to oversee the implementation of these laws. Persons suspected of perpetrating these forms of discrimination can be charged in a criminal court of law (HREOC, 2011). The case at David Jones is evident that there is a valid criminal case against the CEO, Mark McInnes for sexual harassment. The Federal law on sexual harassment states that sexual harassment can be carried out in form of words, gestures, touching and other forms. A number of authors say that sexual harassment is not restricted to this description alone (Scott & Scott, 2006; Konrad, 2006; Salin, 2003). Scott and Scott (2006) highlight the case of Meritor Savings vs. Vinson in the US which identified two forms of harassments: the common pervasive hostile workplace harassment which may involve use of sexist language, engaging in sexual innuendo, touching, groping, fondling etc and the less common quid pro quo harassment which may involve a superior asking for sexual favours from an employee in return for employment or other considerations or benefits in the workplace. Konrad (2006) suggests another criterion used by researchers which identified three categories: sexual coercion, unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment. Sexual coercion corresponds to pervasive hostile workplace while unwanted sexual attention and gender harassment corresponds to quid pro quo harassment. From this classification, the case of Fraser-Kirk and McInnes falls under the quid pro quo harassment. This is because McInnes never promised to give anything in return for any sexual favours he might have received from Fraser-Kirk or punish her in any way for her refusal. Again, Kirk-Fraser never reciprocated such sexual advancements. While gender based discrimination and sexual harassment are engraved in the law, these vices are rampant at David Jones. Incidences of sexual harassment and bullying have far reaching impacts on the organizational decision making process (Dekker & Barling, 1998), the organization’s public image, its attractiveness as an employer and its performance among other ways (Hertzog, Wright & Beat, 2008; Trevino & Nelson, 2010). For instance, McInnes lost his job at David Jones due to sexual harassment against Kirk-Fraser. In Australia, there seems to be a decrease in the number of reported cases of sexual harassment in the workplace although the incidences of sexual harassment have gone up. A 2008 telephone survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission showed that only 16% of workers who have been sexually harassed in the workplace between 2004 and 2208 had filed a formal complaint as compared to the 32% in 2003. Majority of the people (43%) of those who failed to report thought that the offence was not serious, 15% feared repercussions, 21% did not trust the complaint process and 29% took care of the problems themselves (HREOC 2011). This indicates that the case at David Jones was following a national trend: some employees fear reporting sexual harassment while others have no faith in the management to follow up on such allegations. Reporting sexual harassment in the workplace Victims of sexual harassment may fear retaliation from their harassers especially if they are their seniors. Paludi (1999) and McDonald,Waterhouse and Kellner (2008) say that most victims of sexual harassment, as is the case with Fraser-Kirk, are targeted by their bosses or other senior employees. When confronted with such situations, victims fear for their jobs or other benefits which can be manipulated by their seniors. Nonetheless, Malovich and Stoke in Paludi (1999) claim that women who have high self esteem are better placed in resisting and responding to sexual harassment. The author adds that women who hold non traditional gender role attitudes are likely to report higher incidences of sexual harassment than women who are assigned to the gender role attitudes. In this case, it can be assumed that Fraser-Kirk resisted the traditional role assigned to her gender of being submissive to men. On the other hand, the management, represented by the CEO himself and Kelly and Koch did nothing to uphold the company values that openly forbid any form of sexual harassment. Salin (2009) explains that most organizations fear addressing such issues as they view them as PR disasters. Therefore, the main reluctance by Koch and Kelly to confront McInnes in the first place were based on the impact that such actions would have on the company. Models of sexual harassment Several models have been proposed to account for sexual harassment in the workplace. The major ones include natural/biological model, organizational model, sex-role spill over model and the socio-cultural model (Dekker & Barling 1998; Lim & Cortina, 2005). None of these models suggested is satisfactory in all situations. As a result, every incidence of sexual harassment is subject to environmental factors that create some form of discrepancies with the model. Nonetheless, the models are important in predicting sexual harassment in the workplace. Organizational culture holds a strong role in sexual harassment in the workplace (Salin 2003; Dekker & Barling 1998; Hertzog, Wright & Beat 2008). David Jones, as organization holds a strong policy towards sexual harassments. However, though the declaration exists on paper, the same is not effectively implemented. This is indicated by the fact that prior to Fraser-Kirks case, McInnes had been accused of sexual harassment by other employees before he was promoted to the position of CEO. Despite Fraser-Kirk's immediate supervisor Tahli Koch who also doubled up as the Group General Manager for Financial Services and Marketing and Anne-Maree Kelly the Public Relations General Manager witnessing firsthand sexual harassment, they at first took no action. The toleration of the CEO’s behaviour encouraged other manages to take up the trend of sexually harassing female employees as there was no repercussion for such despite it being clearly stipulated in the organization’s 2008 and 2009 annual reports. Such leniency in the management allowed perpetration of such behaviour. Some behaviours or organizational cultures openly promote sexual harassment among other forms of bullying. In the case of David Jones, there is open leniency towards sexual harassment. It is obvious that the organization earlier on opted to dismiss the victim and retain the harasser. Salin (2003) investigated the precedent and facilitating organizational and personal factors to bullying in the workplace and identified the most influencing factors as organizational structure and power distance. The author says that given that majority of bullying and sexual harassment from empirical studies involves a senior worker and junior worker, the former oppressing the later. Salin (2003) therefore deduces that organizations with vertical organizational structures and large power distances are predisposed to cases of bullying and harassment. She claims that bullying rarely occurs between parties of perceived equal authority or strength. Furthermore, conflicts between senior and junior employees have higher possibility of degenerating to bullying as compared to conflict between employees on the same level or authority. There are numerous personality theories that explain bullying behaviour among bullies. The social cultural environment according to Dekker and Barling (1998) is heavily involved in shaping sexual harassers especially in men. The authors argue that inappropriate sexual harassment beliefs such as the role of victims of rape among men or a society are responsible for encouraging. In such a society, women are perceived and treated as subordinate to men and hence must be submissive (Scott & Scott 2006; Pinnington, Macklin & Campbell, 2007). It can thus be assumed that McInnes has been raised up in such a society where women are not respected. Therefore, as far as he was concerned, he was acting within societal expectations which the organization as his employer did not recognize through the code of ethics declaration of which he was a signatory to. In McInnes’ case, the larger societal values contradicted organizational values in regards to the role of women and how they relate with men. Nonetheless, he was a signatory to the code of ethics and hence he was not only tied to upholding the code but also enforcing and protecting it. Salin (2003) says that bullying often results from self reinforcing or spiralling process. This makes bullying a complex process where many factors may play a role. Psychologists often cite unresolved childhood issues as possible causes for bullying behaviour (Paludi, M. (1999). Bullies will often result to adverse strategies such as sacking their targets to punish them or to cover up their errors where in most cases the victims are young and new employed people (McDonald, P, Waterhouse, J. & Kellner, A. (2008). Fraser-Kirk is thus the right target for bullies such as McInnes. Impact of sexual harassment on individuals and organization Victims of sexual harassment such as Fraser-Kirk often perform poorly in the workplace. The victim in this case was affected by the sexual harassment to the point of refusing to attend a work function in Melbourne for the fear of harassment. Hertzog, Wright and Beat (1998) also believe that it contributes to an all-round fall in performance because “nonverbal, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature interferes with an individual’s work performance and creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile work environment” (p. 169). Responses to sexual harassment in the workplace vary from one individual to the other. In the case of Fraser-Kirk, she is very patient towards McInnes. She opted for the path of reporting the case instead taking matters in her own hands. Raver and Nishii (2010) indicate that response to bullying and harassment in the workplace is greatly influenced by pre-existing life stressors on the part of the victim. They argue that past exposure to harassment heightens a targets arousal increasing the likelihood that new situations in the workplace will be appraised as harassment or threatening. This is called the exacerbation effect which leads to life stressors magnifying each other creating even a larger problem. Individual energy resources are thus dedicated to resisting anticipated harassment instead of involving in positive productivity in the workplace. The result is a fall in individual performance. Recommendations 1. The organisation should carry out intensive training to all employees to sensitive them on bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace (Blakely & Blakely, 1998). The training should also emphasise on the importance of healthy interaction between employees because failure to interact or offensive interaction lowers productivity (McAfee & Champagne, 1994) 2. Creation of a powerful human resources manager. In the case, David Jones does not seem to have the position of a human resources manager. This is because Fraser-Kirk files a complaint with her immediate boss and Kelly, the Public Relations General Manager. Under normal circumstances, she should have filed a complaint with a HR manager. HR managers oversee issues of interpersonal relations in the workplace such as harassment and bullying (Lim & Cortina, 2005). 3. Review and possible withdrawal of the termination compensation payment to McInnes. Such as hefty compensation after a charge of misconduct is an insult to the offended party. This is because as the offender, McInnes received a compensation of $1.5m while the offended party, Fraser-Kirk received only $ 850,000. Furthermore, this kind of compensation does not deter such behaviour from other managers left in the organisation and it is not sustainable (McDonald, Waterhouse & Kellner, 2008; Fitzgerald, L. et al., 1997). 4. Creation of a team to implement and oversee the employee conduct and enforce the code of ethics. This team will also be responsible for disciplining employees who violate the code of techs. This is because a radical response to misconduct by firing employees might create a high employee turnover. The team will also be involved in investigating claims of harassment and bullying to avoid misuse of that provision to target other employees. The HR manager should spearhead the team. Lim and Cortina (2005) believe that HR managers’ knowledge in human relations in the workplace are best placed in fighting sexual harassment. 5. The code of ethics should be integrated in the organizational culture. This involves encouraging participation of both genders equally in the organization’s social events (Hertzog, Wright & Beat, 2008). This implies that the management at David Jones has to put in place activities that foster unity and harmony among employees. 6. All managers in the organisation should undergo a leadership training course. This course will refresh their commitment to good leadership and management skills and wipe off any bad influence left behind by McInnes as the former CEO (Blakely & Blakely, 1998). 7. The board should incorporate of diversity (both gender and cultural) in the business strategy and recognition as a competitive strategy rather than as social justice issue. Strachan, Burgess & Henderson (2007) say this strengthens an organizations resolve to wipe out sexual harassment and benefit from it. References Blakely, G. & Blakely, E. (1998). The effects of training on perceptions of sexual harassment allegations. Journal of applied psychology, 28(1), 71-83 Dekker, I. & Barling, J. (1998). Personal and organizational predictors of workplace sexual harassment of women by men. Journal of occupational health and psychology, 3(1), 7-18 Fitzgerald, L. et al. (1997). Antecedents and Consequences of Sexual Harassment in Organizations: A Test of an Integrated Model. Journal of Applied Psychology. 82 (4) p. 578–589. Hertzog, J., Wright, D. & Beat, D. (2008). There’s a policy for that: A comparison of the organizational culture of workplaces reporting incidents of sexual harassment. Behavior and Social Issues, 17(1), 169-181. HREOC (2011). Sexual harassment: Serious business Results of the 2008 Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey. Retrieved from http://www.hreoc.gov.au/sexualharassment/serious_business/sh_chap4.html DFAT (2011). Women-towards equality. Retrieved from http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/women.html Konrad, A. (2006). Cases in gender and diversity in organizations. London: Sage Lim, S. & Cortina, M. (2005). Interpersonal Mistreatment in the Workplace: The Interface and Impact of General Incivility and Sexual Harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(3), 483–496. McAfee, R. & Champagne, P. (1994). Effectively managing troublesome employees. London: Greenwood Publishing Group McDonald, P, Waterhouse, J. & Kellner, A. (2008). Sacked! Young workers' dismissal and the psychological contract. In Stanton, Pauline and Young, Suzanne, Eds. Proceedings 22nd Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand -Workers, Corporations and Community: Facing Choices for a Sustainable Future, 305-315, Melbourne, Australia. 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