Sexual Harassment and Sexual Discrimination - Research Paper Example

Introduction Sex discrimination is illegal in all the areas of employment. This is covered in areas like dismissal, redundancy, transfer opportunities, promotion, status, terms and conditions recruitment and pay benefits. According to the equal opportunities law, people have to be paid, trained, promoted and employed because of their skills. According to Sex Discrimination Act 1975, it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against employees based on their sex. Analysis shows that sex discrimination can be direct or indirect. It can be intentional or accidental. Both men and women are covered under the sex discrimination law in Australia. (Abbey, 1982) Sexual harassment can be defined as an unwanted demeanour of sexual nature that highly affects women and men at work. This also includes physical, verbal or non verbal behavior that is usually unsolicited for. All these are included in the category of sexual harassment if the conduct is unreasonable, unwanted and offensive to the receiver. This is a hazard that is mostly encountered at the workplace. It plays a big role in jeopardizing the overall well being of men and women. It also undermines gender equality at the working environment Sexual harassment perceptions There are different perceptions that exist in the world concerning sexual harassment. Research shows that age plays a big role in influencing female perceptions on sexual matters. Women who are younger are more likely to be receptive behaviors that are sexually toned because at this age they are seeking for mates. Women who are past menopause age are less likely to condone behavior that is sexually toned. Surveys carried out all over the world reveal that younger women have more chances of perceiving moderate and mild behavior that is sexually toned as less harassing. (Aggarwal, 1994) On the other hand older women who are past menopause age may view it as intolerable and quite harassing. Such surveys carried out reveal a strong correlation between age and perceptions on sexual harassment. That is why female students are less likely to term sexually toned behavior as sexual harassment compared to female employees. These studies also divulge that age is less likely to affect male perceptions about sexual harassment. Sexually ambiguous behaviors are normally construed by different people quite differently. (Aggarwal, 1994) Many men have high chances of interpreting mild behavior from a woman as a sign that she is interested in sex. For women such behaviors are perceived as mere friendly behavior. Many people do not categorize behavior that is sexually toned as sexual harassment. For instance a person saying that ‘you look smart’ simply shows a perception that you are attractive. Though this statement has a mild sexual tone, it does not imply that this is sexual harassment. If this statement however is perceived as offensive and sexual harassment, then it can be considered as sexual harassment. A model labeling sexually –toned behaviors and perception Source; Colarelli, M (2002): Perceptions of sexual harassment; an evolutionary perspective; New York; Macmillan Press Historical view or sexual harassment Sexual harassment has existed throughout history. Research shows that sexual harassment subject has gone through a broad range measures since early 1970’s. This has been at the local levels and also at the international level. At the international level, this issue has been addressed as an aspect of gender discrimination. There has been enactment of various legislations to prohibit sexual harassment. Over the last centuries, women and men have been exposed to harassment of sexual nature. This kind of behavior however was not named until the 1970s when it was recognized as sexual discrimination according to the federal anti-discrimination legislation. (Baker, 1991) Incidences of sexual harassment were identified in as early as the 1830s. During this time women started working in textile mills. During the year 1835 campaigns were carried out in Australia to force women that were working in the textile mills out of their jobs. In the 1960s the term sexual harassment was really coined by feminists. In the year 1964, the Congress passed a Civil Rights Act that prohibits the discrimination of people at the workplace in regard to their sex. The result is that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created. In the year 1969, the Human Goals Charter was drafted that stipulated the respect of both male and female employees. Research shows that sexual harassment is prohibited in Tile VII of Civil Rights Act. This is also included in employment laws. In Title VII there is the prohibition of discrimination based on gender and sexual harassment is included in this. The first case concerning sexual harassment was taken by the Supreme Court in the year 1986. In the year 1991 there was increase in the claims of sexual harassment awareness and claims. This was due to the amendment of the civil Rights Act. This Act was amended to allow jury trials. Effect of sexual harassment on employees Sexual harassment has got various adverse effects on employees. This is very evident from the data taken from reports of surveys that were carried out in the year 2004. The following are the effects of sexual harassment on employees; Loss of job Sexual harassment is unlawful and the accused employees in most cases end up losing their jobs. This is because management in organizations is forced to dismiss the accused in order to avoid such occurrences in the future. This in most cases happens after the court ruling gives the verdict concerning the accused. Such an employee ends up losing his or her job. This is very common when the sexual harassment conduct is extreme. Employee’s health Employee’s health is normally affected by sexual harassment issues. Sexual harassment issues usually result in deterioration of worker’s health. In most of the cases it results in poor commitment at work. Many employees that are victims of sexual harassment develop both physical and mental stress. This normally results in poor concentration at work. Some of these stresses can also lead to the developing of mental illness and chronic diseases like hypertension. Decreased job satisfaction Sexual harassment at work often results in decreased job satisfaction especially on the recipient employee. Such employees that are victims of sexual harassment at the workplace normally feel quite dissatisfied with the work. (Baker, 1991) Isolation and discrimination Victims of sexual harassment at the workplace tend to isolate themselves. It also makes victims to discriminate other employees on the basis of assumptions. A female employee who has been a victim of sexual harassment will not feel free to interact with the male employees at the workplace. Stress Sexual harassment is very stressing to the recipient. This is especially so when the person doing it is a senior employee such that the junior employee feels intimidated and fears to talk about it lest he or she be sacked. (Chotalia, 1994) Decreased productivity Sexual harassment is quite demoralizing to employees and it highly results in decreased productivity on the victim’s part. Effects of sexual harassment on organization Sexual harassment has got various adverse effects on organizations. Below are the effects of sexual harassment on organization; Reduction in production Sexual harassment at the workplace results in reduction in production levels of an organization. It also adversely affects efficiency and profitability levels hence business collapse. Sexual harassment reduces the effective production of employees. This normally makes employers to lay off such employees. (Bargh, 1995) Poor image When an organization has got sexual harassment issues, it is bound to project a poor image to the outside world. Public and customer related effects such as bad publicity whereby people start to brand the organization bad names such as ‘a difficult place to work’ which is not good for the organization. Disunity Sexual harassment at the workplace will always result in the breakdown of individual, team or personal relationships within the organization. Financial effects Research shows that sexual harassment has got very adverse effects on the finances of organizations. It leads to imposition of costs on organizations and firms. This is because there are increased legal, compensation, counseling, mediation and training costs for the organization. This results in bankruptcy in the long run. In many cases the organization is normally asked to pay the plaintiff for the harm done. This is usually large sums of money that really affect the budgets in an organization negatively. (Chotalia, 1994) Effects of culture on sexual harassment behavior Employees at the workplace in most cases come from different cultures. Research reveals that different cultures have got different effects on sexual harassment behavior. It is very clear that culture affects the mode of dressing. Employees from a liberal culture will depict this in their dressing. This mode of dressing which is part of culture can accelerate or reduce sexual harassment behavior. Women who come from a liberal culture tend to dress in miniskirts even when going to the workplace. This is highly known to accelerate sexual harassment from the men to women who are dressed in this manner. This includes women dressing in very low necklines that show their cleavage. Research shows that men are normally easily tempted to touch such women of which this character is termed as sexual harassment. On the other hand Muslim culture teaches the women to dress in ‘hijab’ which totally covers their whole body. This culture tends to minimize sexual harassment. (Collier, 1995) The western culture for instance tends to really accelerate sexual harassment at the workplace. This is because it has high liberalism with people freely watching internet pornography at the workplace. Such characters of western culture like watching internet pornography affect the emotions of employees and hence enhance internet pornography. Sexual harassment is part and parcel of internet pornography and it affects the viewers by making them practice what they see. This kind of culture has become very common at the workplace. (Chotalia, 1994) Culture affects individual’s perception on sexual harassment. There are some cultures that affect what people value. For instance in many of the African countries, culture makes men believe that it is their right to do what they would wish to with the ladies around them. This actually encourages sexual harassment behavior among men. Culture affects believes and traditions of individuals. In some cultures women are made to believe that men are their superiors and they have to accept any behavior displayed towards them by the men. This culture educates women that they belong to the whole society. This highly affects or rather accelerates sexual harassment behavior at the workplace. Effects of culture on organization Culture has got various effects on the organization in general in relation to dealing with sexual harassment issues. Culture affects the way the management will put in place rules that are related to sexual harassment. This will also affect the way the organization deals with sexual harassment cases. For instance a culture that liberal will affect the way the whole organization deals with matters concerning sexual harassment. Such an organization will of course not take such matters with the seriousness that it deserves. Culture will always affect the human resource management of organizations which is the pillar or organizations. This is because this department determines the running of organizations and each and every decision made concerning sexual harassment. Culture affects the way an organization will deal with customers in relation to sexual harassment issues. It will also affect the enactment of policies therein that deal with the same. (Colarelli, 2002) Sexual harassment in relation to Australia’s employment law Employment law in Australia is changing constantly and is becoming increasingly complex with time. This has its effects of regularly exposing business organizations to needless risk and liability. Employers in Australia have the challenge of dealing with employees that are assertive and knowledgeable. Such employees know and actually enforce their legal rights concerning several matters like sexual harassment. The employment law in Australia stipulates that businesses or organizations have to comply with anti discrimination legislation at the workplace. This includes sexual harassment towards both male and female employees. Employment law in Australia is against discrimination issues, and any form of harassment including sexual harassment. There is the Sex Discrimination Act and the Employment Rights Act. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was amended in the year2005. According to this Act, it is illegal for organizations and employers to discriminate against women and men. It is also illegal to subject them to victimization at the workplace. According to this Act, harassment is considered as an unwanted conduct of sexual nature that violates one’s dignity and creates an offensive, humiliating, degrading, hostile and intimidating environment for them. (Collier, 1995) Claiming sexual harassment There are various issues that the plaintiff has to prove for an incident to be considered as sexual harassment. They include the following; The behavior conduct was of a sexual nature The behavior was not wanted The behavior conduct affected you by violating your dignity, or it created hostile, humiliating or intimidating environment. The harassment was sexual in nature including indecent remarks Employment Rights Act 1996 If an employee has worked for one year he can claim for constructive dismissal plus sex discrimination if The employee is considering leaving the job because the employer has failed to investigate or to take action against the complaints of sexual harassment. The employee has to resign because he or she cannot bear working in the job any longer due to the harassment. A limit of three months time is given in the Employment Rights Act for taking legal action. Sexual harassment at work and organizational legal environment Sexual harassment has become quite prevalent at the workplace since the lat decade. This is happening as the integration of women at the workplace also increases. Surveys reveal that approximately 53 percent of women are experiencing sexual harassment at the workplace. Sexual harassment is found in two types. There is the quid pro quo type of harassment that is very common at the workplace. (Lengnick, 1995) In this type of harassment, sexual favors are solicited for in exchange of rewards at work. The other type is called hostile environment harassment. This includes unwelcome behaviors that are of sexual nature. Organizational legal environment involves the frameworks that concern sexual harassment behavior. This includes enacting policies at the organizational level that will prohibit employees from engaging in sexual discrimination or in sexual harassment towards their fellow employees at the workplace. These frameworks normally include the possible measures that the organization can take against any employee found to be practicing this kind of harassment. The legal environment stipulates that the suspect has to be taken to court and charged. If proved guilty the management in the organization has the right to dismiss him from work. Organizations normally have a hard time in recognizing whether sexual harassment has occurred because the definitive boundaries concerning the same issue are unclear. This type of ambiguity makes employees hesitant to report sexual harassment issues because they do not know whether the conduct will be termed as offensive or not. This also can be quite detrimental to organizations because they will fail to put in place the legal environment concerning such hostile workplace harassment. (Lengnick, 1995) In case of sexual harassment behavior, the management has the role of investigating the incidence. In case the management realizes that that the behavior actually took place, they can then forward the matter to court for further investigation. During this time the employee can be suspended from work until the verdict is given by the court to prove whether he or she is guilty or not. Case study This is a case study of sexual harassment act that took place in Basra Commercial Bank of Iraq. In the year 2006 in December there was an incidence that occurred in this bank that gave this Bank poor publicity. During this month there was recruitment of graduate clerk employees. Each of these new recruits was given a supervisor to help in the orientation with the bank. One of the male supervisors assigned to orient a lady to bank operations used to sexually harass her. He would touch her breasts and behinds while showing her some computer soft wares. Since this lady was newly recruited, she feared reporting this to the management. One of the evenings this supervisor was just about to rape her when the human resource manager walked into the room. The lady was crying and said that the supervisor had threatened to sack her if she told anyone. This information reached the press and this gave this bank very bad publicity. (Mate, 1997) The way to solve the problem It is important that a sexual harassment and organizational prevention policy is put in place in Basra Commercial Bank of Iraq. The management in this bank has to implement this immediately. This will act as a guide so that every employee in Basra Commercial Bank of Iraq will know what is expected of him or her in terms of conduct or behavior. This will help this organization to eradicate or to minimize problems that are related to sexual harassment. Basra Commercial Bank of Iraq can include this policy in the Workplace Health and Safety Act of the year 1995. The management in Basra Bank of Iraq also has the option of making it a solo policy. They also have to ensure that the policy conforms to the mother policies of human rights min this nation before doing this. The managers in Basra Bank of Iraq have to ensure that the policy is well written in a simple language. This is to enable each and every worker to understand what is written bearing in mind that such an organization has got very learned and also unlearned employees. This policy also has to include a value statement. This statement in most cases describes how organizations are committed to curbing such vices as sexual harassment. In the policy, sexual harassment has to be clearly defined. The examples of sexual harassment have to be included in the policy and the resultant effects on the organization and the individual person too. The policy has to include the various obligations for every employee in Basra Bank of Iraq. All these have to be clearly spelt out. They should include the upper echelon of employees like the managers and also the lower echelon like the sweepers or cleaners in the bank. This will help all these employees to cease from such practices. The policy has to encourage employees in Basra Bank to report cases of sexual harassment no matter who is involved. The penalty for employees who default these rules has to be clearly spelt out in this policy. It is not just enough to enact such policies, but implementing them will always go a long way. (Campanella, 1994) Managers have a responsibility to ensure that the cultural behavior of their organization is positive although their control over certain workplace behaviors. This is subject to factors such as the organizational size, work overload, manager’s attitude towards change and the perceived importance of the issue to the organization. For management to avoid more sexual harassment and bad organizational behaviors, they can practice the following measures; Management have to evaluate the cost/benefits of keeping such members in the organization and fire them if possible They should provide counseling services to employees Ensuring that leverage work schedules is carried out so that interaction between bad individuals and the rest is minimized. Effect of the law and the culture The law highly prohibits sexual harassment at the workplace and also in all the spheres of life. This is a Muslim nation and the laws are also based on the Muslim religion. In the year 1999, there was a new legislation that that defined sex based harassment as discrimination. The culture in this nation is based on the Muslim religion. The Muslim religion is very much against sexual harassment especially of women. For instance, in the case of rape, the person who commits this act is stoned. (Bargh, 1995) Conclusion Sexual discrimination is unlawful in all the areas of employment. Sexual harassment defined as an unwanted demeanor of sexual nature that highly affects women and men at work. As the integration of women at the workplace increases, incidents of sexual harassment also increase. There are different perceptions that exist in the world concerning sexual harassment. Surveys carried out reveal a strong correlation between age and perceptions on sexual harassment. Younger women may not term sexually toned behavior as sexual harassment as older women above the age of forty would term it. Sexual harassment has got various negative effects on employees and the organizations at large. This includes loss of job on employees’ part and organizations can incur financial losses. Employment law in Australia is against discrimination issues, and any form of harassment including sexual harassment. Organizations need to put in place policies that will implemented by employers to guide every worker in the organization on the expectations of the employer. This is regarding employees’ conduct and other appropriate behavior expectations at the workplace. Reference: Abbey, A. (1982): Sex differences in attributions for friendly behavior; do males misperceive females’ friendliness? Journal of personality and Social Psychology 42; 830-8 Adler, N. 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