Reporting Sexual Harassment: The Importance of Organizational Culture and Trust

Abstract

Few victims of sexual harassment at work file complaints. The current study looks at ways in which the organizational climate, including trust in the system and fear of reprisal, impacts victim decisions to file complaints. A military sample offers the advantage of a work context with formalized reporting processes and a highly segregated and gendered work environment. The findings indicate that fear of coworker backlash keeps victims from seeking organizational relief. Such non-formal consequences of reporting should be addressed in future workplace sexual harassment policies. The findings also suggest that widespread mishandling of complaints erodes trust in the grievance process, which may in turn influence future responses to sexual harassment. The discussion highlights the limitations of current cross-sectional research designs for identifying the causal order of this trust-filing relationship and suggests ways in which future quantitative studies may be designed to gain a broader understanding of the dynamic relationship between organizational context and victim response.

Sexual harassment training effectiveness: An interdisciplinary review and call for research

“…Studies investigating internal reporting behavior (vs. the willingness or intention to report SH) have consistently found that SH training is associated with increased internal reporting (Magley et al, 2013, Study 2;Reese & Lindenberg, 2003;U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 1995;Vijayasiri, 2008), although in two studies, the association was limited to specific types of internal reporting (Fried et al, 2012;Meloni & Austin, 2011).…”

Developing a framework of effective prevention and response strategies in workplace sexual harassment

“…In a study on employee voice, Harlos (2001) recommended including communication and emotional skills training to ensure managers demonstrate empathy, actively listen and probe effectively, helping them to deal with tendencies to become defensive or to deny the legitimacy of complaints. Training managers in conflict management is also thought to successfully address not only the fears of SH targets about retaliation after making a complaint, but also negative outcomes that may not be anticipated (Vijayasiri 2008).…”

“…Indeed, there is strong evidence to suggest that employees often perceive grievance processes to be: adversarial and hostile (Marshall 2005;Vijayasiri 2008); lacking confidentiality (Marshall 2005); risky in terms of isolation or reprisal from the workgroup (Bowen and Blackmon 2003;Vijayasiri 2008); and likely to fall on deaf ears (Harlos 2001). In SH, organizational grievance procedures are the most common mechanism through which employee rights are enacted.…”

“…A study of US management personnel who handle EEO complaints found that discrimination complaints were frequently recast by managers as personality clashes or interpersonal difficulties (Edelman, Erlanger and Lande 1993), eroding employee trust in grievance procedures (Vijayasiri 2008). Limited work on investigations in harassment complaints suggests that individuals dealing with the complaint should be neutral and experienced and that they should document all steps taken from the point of first contact, prepare a written report using guidelines to weigh credibility, and communicate the determination to all parties (McQueen 1997;Oppenheimer 2004).…”

Sexual Harassment: The Nexus Between Gender and Workplace Authority: Evidence from the Australian Public Service

“…On the contrary, formal and informal feedback reduces the probability of experiencing sexual harassment. This is to be expected; the existence of an open culture has been found to positively affect the work environment (Vijayasiri, ) leading to a lower likelihood of sexual harassment.…”