Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

As the United States continues its march on the road to become a highly multicultural society, the need to recognize the importance and value of diversity in the workplace has assumed new relevance. Unfortunately, while much progress has been made over the years in outlawing many discriminatory practices, the sad fact remains that some groups of Americans continue to experience the negative effects of such practices in the workplace. One of the more difficult of these practices to eliminate has been sexual harassment, which has actually increased in recent years. For instance, in their recent study, "Organizational Sexual Harassment Investigations: Observers' Perceptions of Fairness," Elkins, Phillips and Ward (2008), report that statistics provided by the U.S. government indicate that the number of sexual harassment claims that have been filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and state and local Fair Employment Practice agencies increased from 10,532 in 1992 to 12,679 in 2005. In addition, there has also been an increase in the amount of benefits that have been ordered by these agencies for the victims of sexual harassment in the workplace during this same period of time (Elkins et al.).

The increase in benefit awards is only part of the larger picture concerning sexual harassment in the workplace today, though. Overall, when sexual harassment occurs in the workplace, it can have a dramatic impact on the financial performance of a company and it is not surprising that many companies are searching for ways to eliminate these behaviors simply to improve their profitability (Elkins et al.). A growing number of organizations are using methods such as diversity and sensitivity training to help their employees understand where the line in the legal sand is concerning sexual harassment. In this regard, Elkins and her associates also report that employees tend to view their organizations more favorably when these types of training are provided. Complicating these efforts, however, is the fact that many sexual harassment behaviors take place in private and if disputed, come down to a "he said-she said" type of conflict. Further, despite the efforts of many companies to eliminate sexual harassment from the workplace by providing diversity and sensitivity training, people are just people and these behaviors can reasonably be expected to continue to take place to some extent no matter what (Elkins et al.). This is especially true since American men and women tend to hold dramatically different views concerning what types of behaviors equate to sexual harassment, making the management of this issue even more challenging (Elkins et al.). There remains a lack of research, though, concerning what types of actions are most effective in reducing the number of sexual harassment claims in the workplace, as well as how employees actually feel about organizations that take actions against sexual harassers.