Harassment: it's still a problem

Communication World, April-May, 1998 by James P.T. Fatt

Many businesses are scrambling to spell out guidelines for proper behaviour of men and women in the work place. Indeed, learning to manage sexuality on the job can be crucial to career survival and success. The healthiest work place is one in which men and women respect one another and learn to work together as members of the same team.

Definition of Sexual Harassment:

Sexual harassment can include the following actions:

* Deliberate or repeated verbal comments of a sexual nature, suggestive remarks and offensive jokes.

* Unsolicited and unreciprocated physical contact such as touching, pinching, patting, hugging and brushing against another person's body.

* A display of offensive or erotic pictures.

* Sexual teasing, jokes, remarks or questions.

* Treating someone as a sex object rather than as a coworker.

* Sexually suggestive looks or gestures such as leering, ogling and staring.

* Focusing on a person's physical attributes rather than his or her skill and experience.

Unwelcome verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when any of the following happens:

* Submission to such conduct is made an explicit or implicit term or condition of an individual's employment.

* Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions.

* Such conduct unreasonably interferes with work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

The complexity of sexual harassment arises because men tend to respond intensely to what women wear while women tend to react strongly to what men say. Generally, women are more likely to define sexual harassment to include verbal and nonverbal language, and physical action, while men tend to restrict sexual harassment to physical acts.

Regardless of the differing views of the sexes toward sexual harassment, we must understand that the golden rule of doing unto others as you would like them to do unto you does not always work. Rather, we should treat others the way they like to be treated.

Management may harbour the archaic male notion of "innocent, so no harm intended." As a result, sexual harassment is treated as a less serious management problem. Besides, the management may be unaware of the problem of sexual harassment. Top executives generally have little knowledge of sexual harassment and may even project their own attitudes toward harassment upon the organisation as a whole. Thus, there is the lack of executive perception. Executives generally do not believe that sexual harassment is happening or that it is significant enough to warrant their attention.

This problem is compounded when victims do not report sexual harassment cases because of the following reasons:

1. Fear of retaliation as it may affect the "terms and conditions" of the job and promotional prospects and even the victim socially.

2. Lack of confidence in the management to handle such complaints because of management's embarrassment and reluctance to involve a stranger.

3. Fear of a transfer out of the work place, so the victim may decide to endure the humiliation rather than change the work environment.

4. Ignorance concerning sexual harassment as the victim may not have received any formal or informal training or exposure.

Hence, the management may not even receive any feedback from the victims of sexual harassment.

Down the line, supervisors may mishandle the sexual harassment problems. They may appear to listen, but fail to take any action. This may cause the victims to believe that the management or employer is not serious about handling the problem.

When the supervisor or manager is the offender, the employer is automatically liable. The employer can become liable for sexual harassment based on the "known or should have known" principle. Thus, to protect oneself, the employer must make the effort to investigate and take appropriate action once he or she has knowledge of any sexual harassment problem in the work place.

What Should Management Do?

First, management should develop a policy that is legally binding upon the employees. It can be a very general statement of disapproval or a detailed description giving examples of each type of behaviour and its offensive nature. The following are two possible versions of such a policy:

Public Version

Section one defines sexual harassment. Section two states the employer's disapproval of such actions and indicates the penalties to be meted. Finally, section three describes where and how a victim should file a complaint.

Manager's Version

This also has the three sections of the public version. In addition, it includes the legal responsibilities of managers as agents of the employer and describes the investigative procedures to be followed upon witnessing a sexual harassment incident or receiving such a complaint.

Second, executives should do the following when initiating a program to halt sexual harassment:

* Eliminate lopsided policies that have a deterrent factor in them. A complaint of sexual harassment is a formal legal accusation. Complainants need not be reminded of the importance of the charge and its far reaching effects on the accused and complainants.