Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Sexual Harassment in the workplace gives rise to organizational inefficiency whilst facilitating an unprofessional workplace environment. The stance of organizations on the issue of Sexual Harassment is a ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY. Sexual Harassment causes structural organizational issues throughout the firm when addressed inappropriately.

Approximately 1/3 of women in the healthcare executive role whom elected to participate in a new study have claimed to be the victims of sexual harassment at the workplace. (Burda 1996) Such is an unexpected and alarming finding of the study. The study's lead sponsor is the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), did pass an emergency resolution penalizing sexual harassment and provided recommendations to prevent additional issues. (Burda, 1996)

"Sexual Harassment -- developing a consistent operational definition of it is problematic because the term refers to a heterogeneous group of behaviours. Mild forms of sexual harassment include behaviours such as remarks of a sexual nature, repeating requests for dates, whistles, staring, and sexual propositions that are not directly linked to job enhancement or job threat" (Charney & Russell, 1994).

"Although researchers often agree on the extreme cases of sexual harassment and define them as such, researchers do not always clearly identify the milder, more ambiguous forms of sexual harassment as sexual harassment. There are also gender differences in perceptions of sexual harassment, with women perceiving a broader range of behaviours as harassing (DeJudicibus & McCabe, 2001; Rotundo, Nguyen, & Sackett, 2001) than do men. Yet there is some debate about the extent of these gender differences" (Blumenthal, 1998; Gutek & O'Connor, 1995; Hurt, Wiener, Russell, & Mannen, 1999).

Security is the critical element to preventing acts of sexual harassment by engaging the workforce as the enforcer of complaints in a judicious and expeditious manner. Sexual harassment is often of a serious nature and warrants attention as a legal matter for adjudication in the circuit court. When a sexual harassment case goes into litigation, there are no winners and only losers.

Organizations must enact a structured, detailed, and comprehensive sexual harassment policy within the framework of a code of ethics. Contents will include a demonstration of how to act, a conceptual vision of the type of employee that comprises the ethics imbued by an employee or executive, and how early communication with security can prevent the escalation of issues to the boiling point. The code of ethics is to be electronically signed by every employee, by reporting directly to human resources at their earliest convenience.

Often times, victims of sexual harassment are fraught with shame and/or guilt for actions that are not incumbent or indicative of their responsibility in the accountability of the violation. In certain vocations, the likelihood for harassment is greater than in others, and the stigma and likelihood for guilt, shame, or a 'old boy's network' to suppress complaints or to casually dismiss objections can exist in the culture.

"Shame is a strong negative experience that leads to lowered self-esteem, shrinkage of the body and a potent motivation to hide or escape from any further need to cope with the undesirable characteristic of the self that caused the outcome" (Tangney and Bearing, 2002). "This reaction is expected to be even stronger if the person believes that others are aware of one's deficiency" (Smith et al., 2002; Tangney and Bearing, 2002). "In contrast, guilt focuses on one's responsibility for an undesirable action and the act that s/he could have prevented what had happened" (Weiner, 1986). "Consequently, guilt is more likely than shame to lead to thoughts and actions that are centered on the potential for restoring the situation" (Hartz et al., 1995).

"In the world of law enforcement, sexual harassment is an increasing problem as well as discrimination in its many forms. There has been widespread harassment and discrimination against female employees within the LAPD. For example, the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Police Department officials agreed to pay $165,000 to Suzanne Campbell, a former female officer raped by a male colleague on Police Academy grounds in 1990 in a case that represents persistent sexual harassment and gender equity shortcomings in the LAPD. This is the 5th case that dealt with sexual discrimination and harassment within the LAPD. " (Williams, Kleiner, 2001)

Examples of Power Relationships & Sexual Harassment

The specific engagements between physician and nurses or between clinical and non-clinical staff may involve a power relationship. Such relationships involve work-related interaction between two organizational members of differing responsibilities. Interaction between a physician and a nurse is a power-based relationship where the nurse is subordinate professionally to the physician. Though the professional world is 'silent' about this truth, the evidence is in the number of personal relationships that develop between physicians and nurses.

The guidelines for such interaction remain under the auspice of the framework for the Code of Ethics. However with power relationships, there must be a subset of protocols that identify the range of appropriate behaviour of interaction between these organizational members. Physicians, male or female, are often unaware of the effect the power relationship has on their ability to manipulate the other member in a non-professional manner. This same issue often arises between sports athletes and the interns of the organizations the athletes are employed for.

Physicians whether aware or not aware, possess a rather profound magnetism within the professional workplace that can disrupt the professional flow of work and responsibility. Certainly, such activity can cause a decrease in health outcomes, which is going to be found by Performance Specialists down the line. Greater Healthcare wishes to avoid issues that need process redesign unnecessarily by avoiding the power relationship issue altogether through awareness.

Awareness is the key ingredient to avoiding unprofessionalism between members engaged in power relationships. Such relationships can go beyond physician and nurse. Relationships can involve administrative management and clinicians or non-managerial staff. There are numerous combinations of power relationships that can exist within the organizational scope.

Senior executives have an enormous level of power within the organization. Such power can corrupt men into bad decision-making that is against the better judgment of the senior executive and against the organizational interest. Senior executives are required to understand their power is granted due to the inherent level of responsibility the senior executive has with the organization. The power is a function of the responsibility and is to be used to enhance the organization's standing in the community and to facilitate a positive financial operating environment.

Strategies to deal with Sexual Abuse

The Code of Ethics for senior executives is to act as a leader in a leadership role. To not ingratiate and pursue with personal romantic or financial objectives while on the premises and certainly not conduct in a manner subject to organizational ethics and policy violations. Each senior employee must as themselves the following: "Will this decision cost me or the company?" 99% of sexual harassment cases will be avoided by senior executives should they ask themselves this question before acting.

Often times, senior executives will engage an employee at the same level in what commences as a professional relationship. Over time, 'something just happens' and a romantic relationship ensues. The relationship is now a function of the job environment and can possibly create a conflict of interest between the senior executive and Greater Healthcare Medical Center. Should the relationship terminate, jaded parties can create havoc for each other professionally and slander/libel the career of the individual untruthfully.

The aforementioned ethical violations that have occurred are also legal violations and subject to court proceedings. The objective is to avoid such circumstances and monitor the behaviour accordingly.

Personnel interacts with a large number of organizational members on a daily basis. There is plenty of opportunities for sexual misconduct and harassment received from individuals at the workplace whom are unbeknownst to the victim. Such is the result with personnel that travels from location to location and is subject to a large number of interactions per day. The Greater Healthcare Medical Center has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy on harassment issues subject to personnel members, either from personnel to personnel or personnel to other organizational groups, including physicians, clinicians, etc.

Managers & Supervisors have line management control over their direct reports. Often times, there is a large number of sexual harassment reports from employees regarding treatment from their manager or immediate supervisor. These cases are of the most concern, especially given the proximate contact a supervisor may have over a report, including personal one-on-one contact and communication at the workplace.

The Code of Ethics conduct for such interaction is always professional. Matters arising from complaints in this realm will be subject to intensive investigation and scrutiny of contact regarding the nature and location of the harassment. Interaction between the parties may be monitored by a third party in-house team member from security or human resources.

Prevent Sexual Harassment

The Code of Ethics is a two-pronged tenet that requires organizations to protect the employee within the work environment, and the clinician/staff/employee to adhere to a comprehensive policy of a higher moral code. The Code of Ethics, expected to be understood by all internal staff members including all new hires at orientation, is critical to establishing the rights of our organization within the framework of daily interaction. At all times, a compliant organization will provide the following to all/each staff/employee:

A non-hostile work environment

An anonymous and secure system for staff to report sexual harassment/ethical concerns

Quick and responsive, unbiased, comprehensive & objective investigation into all claims

A safe and courteous atmosphere for our patient population and for our staff

An environment void of preferential treatment or discrimination based on gender

An environment void of preferential treatment

Interim & annual training sessions conducted by the ethics committee for each employee to assess knowledge and judgement in possible sexual harassment situations.

A human resources staff with specialists in sexual harassment emotional support

Security personnel with investigative training in sexual harassment procedure

An in-house syndicate dedicated to preventing further cases of sexual harassment

As an organization, each staff member, and each employee must read, comprehend, and acknowledge the following ethical behavioural model for expected behaviour while at the workplace. This is to mean, on duty or off duty, while on the premises.

The Code of Ethics is similar to a Code of Conduct such that the ethics provide the guiding principle to the tenets listed in a Code of Conduct. Conduct is expected to be becoming of a responsible member of society that is acting in a role critical to successful organizational outcomes.

Amiable behaviour is encouraged and the corporate body does understand the nature of sexual attraction and interaction at the workplace. The expected level of behaviour regarding personal conversation is not expected to go beyond what is considered to be 'reasonable terms of expression' when speaking about endearment or attraction.

Organizational members are expected to remember, at all times, professionalism supersedes personal, non-work or family related goals. Romance at the workplace is considered a non-urgent and personal matter. As organizational members are hired to perform a specific duty, task, or responsibility, ethical violations that include sexual harassment, issues of embezzlement, or other acts of a questionable nature will be investigated accordingly.

The Code of Ethics for organizational members is to protect each member's right to a safe and harassment-free work environment. Professionalism is the paramount quality of our member organization and is the guiding quality of character expression we seek from each member.

What to do if being sexually harassed

Sexual harassment is to be avoided. All staff and employees are to adhere to the following ethical code of the organization. Staff will include all administrative personnel with no clinical responsibilities. Employees will include all non-clinician and all non-administrative personnel, and will include all non-critical personnel such as operations and maintenance workers, and ground security.

The following Code of Ethics is expected to be followed by all staff and employees, while on the premises... At ALL TIMES.

Exhibit a professional level of respect for all employees at all times

There is to be no cursing at any organizational member or patient, or derogatory slander

Our organizational members are educated individuals, exemplary communication is expected

Language that is sexually charged is prohibited.

Language that causes a female employee to feel 'cheap' and less than her capable of fulfilling her organizational role and job responsibility is prohibited

Confirmed lewd or insidious comments toward organizational members or patients will be addressed with ZERO-TOLERANCE

Interaction between male and female organizational members is expected to be professional, tasteful, and resulting in positive emotional response and a positive work related outcome

Considerate behaviour and mannerisms are to be used on the floor and on the premises at all times

However, should sexual harassment violations arise, the victim of sexual harassment must make critical decisions regarding the next steps of the reporting process. The human resources or security office are the prime centers to report sexual abuse activity. If the organization has a human resources office and a security office, it is best to file a complaint with each. A written complaint to the direct manager and the union representative is also necessary. Filing complaints internally is necessary prior to including a personal injury attorney to represent further litigation on harassment claims.

Unwelcomed sexual advances may come in multiple forms. Physical touching from areas including the arm and shoulder may advance to the buttocks, or thigh/inner thigh, which may cause alarm and a sexual harassment report. Often times, the male will say the action was warranted as he is attracted to the female and his initial touching was not deemed inappropriate. This excuse is not a rationale for the behaviour exhibited by the male in this example.