Managing Incidences of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Civil Rights and Sexual Harassment in Criminal Justice

Sexual harassment forms a critical issue affecting almost all the organizations in the current organizational environment. Among the organizations affected, include the criminal justice organizations held with the responsibility of ensuring equal treatment of individuals in the society and different organizations. Employees working in the criminal justice organizations are highly vulnerable to sexual harassment from their supervisors and coworkers. While many people consider sexual harassment as the forcing an individual into a nonconsensual sexual act, other behaviors displaying sexually implicit photographs, posters and magazines are forms of sexual harassment in the workplace. It is highly recognizable that irrespective of the measures adopted to curb the vice such as protection of the employees and members of the society by the constitution, the cases of sexual harassment in the workplace continue to rise (Collins & Vaughn, 2004).

Sexual harassment affects one's ability to perform according to the expected workplace standards. Sexual harassment has significant psychological implications to the victims in the workplace. The inability of an individual to remain productive and increase in the cases of social isolation and rejection from the other employees attest to the psychological influences of sexual harassment in the workplace. The occurrence of sexual harassment incidents in the workplace must be treated as signs of hostile work environments failing to recognize the importance of protecting the rights of employees. As such, it is highly advisable that proper investigations be launched to ensure proper management and prevention of future occurrences (Publications, n.d.).

Events of sexual harassment affect the society and the criminal justice agencies in a variety of ways. Firstly, it exposes the agency to significant liability of the employees in its position as an employer that should protect the needs of its employees. Secondly, events of sexual harassment act as a source of loopholes that other rival organizations might use to gain advantage over the agency. For example, rival organizations can use the occurrence of sexual harassment to gain a competitive edge in the industry. Publications (n.d) concur with Collins and Vaughn (2004) that the magnitude and pervasiveness of the harassment influences the liability of an organization. Aside from this, sexual harassment lowers the visibility and reputation of the agency. Such events reduce the public trust towards its services resulting in the diminished performance of an organization.

The social construction of sexual harassment and lack of proper response mechanisms make the employees vulnerable to sexual harassment. As such, the author recommends the need for the adoption of strategies that aim at empowering them to adopt the desired behaviors that minimize sexual harassment in the workplace. As such, organizations should strive to develop clearly defined grievance procedures that are communicated clearly to the employees to ensure minimization of the events of sexual harassment in the workplace. Similarly, embracing strategies such as the provision of counseling services prove effective in ensuring positive well-being of the employees affected by the vice. Cumulatively, the two articles show that adopting proactive approaches towards sexual harassment will ensure safety and well-being of the employees in the agency (Collins & Vaughn, 2004).