Sexual Harassment in a Workplace Organization

Personal incident that I witnessed at work was a case of sexual harassment on the part of one employee towards another. The behavior was ethically questionable at best and the incident was in line with ethical issues regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. This paper will describe the incident, define the ethical issues inherent in the incident, and discuss the ethical principles associated with the behavior. I was working in a library when I witnessed a male employee sexually harass a female employee in the library's stacks.

He was commenting on her choice of a top and telling her lewdly that he could see part of her anatomy through the top. He was not doing this in a sensitive manner but rather in a suggestive manner and even in a hostile way that I found to be aggressive. It was obvious that he was hurting the feelings of the girl and making her feel bad by his comments. She even told him to stop and he persisted, continuing his remarks about her body.

After a while, she did not seem to know how to respond, as repeated requests for him to stop made no impression on him and he continued his harassment of her. So she ignored him, and when the male employee walked away, I told the female employee that I would support her if she wanted to report the incident as sexual harassment, as I witnessed it and heard the exchange.

My co-worker thanked me and said she did not know what she would do, whether she would report it or not. I did not feel comfortable with the situation as it was and reported to my manager my own feelings on the matter, as I was unsure of what I should do -- whether it was my co-worker's place to report the incident or whether I had a responsibility to report it as I had witnessed it.

My manager, for her part, was also unsure of what policy to follow and seemed to indicate that she did not want to have to deal with any such situation at all unless the worker who was harassed actually came forward and made a statement. While I could understand this position, it did not feel completely ethical to me. Having become aware of ethical principles in this class, I now know why my manager's position did not feel completely ethical.

From the perspective of stakeholder theory, I had a right and responsibility to report what I saw as sexual harassment, even though I was not the party harassed. Because I was a worker in the organization, I was impacted at least indirectly by the harassment and could see how such behavior, if tolerated, could lead to a decline in morale and a feeling of hostility and instability in the workplace.

As a worker there, I could report the incident based on the concept that I was a stakeholder in the organization and thus could take action against such behavior if I witnessed it. As a stakeholder, I could say that this was a social responsibility issue -- something that "deals with concerns that affect the welfare of our entire society, associated with the common good" (The Importance of Business Ethics: Chapter 1, n.d. p. 22).

The ethical principles that made me feel compelled to take action in this case were based on the ethics I had learned through a variety of channels -- reflections of social values, family, school, and religious beliefs. In every one of these circles, I had always been taught that women deserve respect and not harassment. Therefore, I felt that the source of my ethical values was aligned with the society around me, which also taught that sexual harassment should not be tolerated.

Likewise I knew from training that the ethical culture of the library did not support sexual harassment. So if my manager was not going to address the situation, I felt that I should report it to the Human Relations department and see if I could get any assistance that way. So, in the end, that is what I did. The male co-worker was formally reprimanded for his behavior and an example was made to indicate that such behavior was not tolerable in the workplace.

Because I had followed through with what is called a "behavior of high integrity" and maintained "concern for the greater good," I was pleased to see a higher ethical standard enforced in the workplace than the one being shown by my male co-worker and even by my manager who did not want to deal with the situation (Ethical Decision Making: Chapter 5, n.d. p. 3).

I felt that the normative approach that my manager was taking towards the issue was unsatisfactory and fortunately HR was willing to step in to resolve the situation. Since sexual harassment is defined as.