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Why Sexual Harassment Is Bad for Business-and What HR Should Do About It Created by

- Veritude

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Sexual harassment is a major issue for businesses. Studies show that between 40 percent and 60 percent of women have experienced sexually harassing behaviors, and these women suffer distressing consequences - low job satisfaction, psychological distress, anxiety, and depression. The behavior has also been shown to contribute to job loss, career interruption, increased turnover, and absenteeism. Still, as much as we know about how sexual harassment affects its victims, little is known about its impact on how the entire team performs when sexual harassment is taking place. 
 
Professors Jana Raver of Queen´s School of Business in Ontario, Canada, and Michele Gelfand of the University of Maryland delve into this relationship in a new study. Veritude´s Workforce Insights spoke with Professor Raver about the study findings and what HR professionals can do to prevent sexual harassment in their organizations.

 

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WI: You surveyed more than 200 employees across 27 teams in a large mid-Atlantic food services company. What did your research tell you about the link between sexual harassment and performance?

 
JR: We found that teams with high levels of sexual harassment had high team conflict, low team cohesion and poor financial performance compared to teams with low levels of sexual harassment. 
 
WI: If sexual harassment is so rampant and damaging, why don´t we hear more about it?

 
JR: There´s a wide gap between the number of women who experience sexually harassing behaviors and those who label the behaviors "harassment." An even wider gap exists between those who label it harassment and those who report it. So, a lot of sexual harassment goes on behind closed doors. 
 
WI: You distinguish between three different kinds of sexual harassment. Why?

 
JR: The legal world distinguishes between "hostile environment" and "<a href="http://www.abanet.org/publiced/practical/sexualharassment_quidproquo.html">quid pro quo</a>." The kinds of sexual harassment we investigated are slightly different. We differentiate, because the impact on teams differs greatly according to the type of harassment. 
 
WI: Please describe these three types of harassment.

 
JR: The first, sexist hostility, consists of derogatory remarks about gender. Comments like, "women are not smart," or "men are jerks." It discriminates based on a person´s gender but has nothing to do with sex itself, or sexuality. 
 
Sexual hostility, on the other hand, consists of insulting verbal or nonverbal behaviors that are clearly about sexuality. For example, it includes telling sexual stories or jokes, trying to get someone to talk about their sexual activities, making offensive comments about a person´s body with sexual connotations or making sexual gestures. The behaviors are clearly, overtly hostile and are usually intended to make someone uncomfortable. 
 
Lastly, unwanted sexual attention involves someone trying to establish a romantic sexual relationship, even though a person has discouraged them. For example, one might repeatedly ask for a date, or continually touch a coworker in a way that makes her uncomfortable. It is different from flirting in that it is clearly unwanted. 
 
These three fall into the legal category of "hostile environment." 
 
There is a fourth form of sexual harassment, sexual coercion. It´s when someone is offered a reward in return for sexual cooperation, or someone is threatened with punishment or blackmail, and it is similar to the legal definition of "quid pro quo." We had to drop this type of harassment from our study, however, because it happens so rarely. Only five percent of the women in our study had experienced it. 
 
WI: Which form of harassment is most damaging?

 
JR: Sexual hostility had by far the strongest relationship with every negative team outcome we studied (low levels of team cohesion, high levels of team conflict and poor team financial performance). Ultimately, teams with high levels of sexual hostility made less money than teams with low levels of this behavior. 
 
Sexist hostility didn´t harm the team as a whole. Prior research has shown that it harms individual team members, but we found that it didn´t affect teamwork overall. 
 
Unwanted sexual attention was related to conflict, but not overall team performance. When people on a team were experiencing high levels of unwanted sexual attention, it made them uncomfortable, but it didn´t harm financial performance. 
 
WI: What do you make of this discovery?

 
JR: There is no prior work or theory that would explain this. But previous research has shown that people talk about their experiences with sexual harassment informally. They try to make sense of it and figure out how to handle it. 
 
One of our theories is that when people within a team are experiencing high levels of sexual hostility and they have these discussions, they come up short. There is no other good explanation for the behavior except that the person is trying to harm you in some way. 
 
With sexist hostility, the group might decide that person is old fashioned, the behavior is part of his religious beliefs or there is some other explanation. 
 
With unwanted attention, team members might decide that the harasser is clueless or simply doesn´t know how to get a date. The reasons for this are more ambiguous. 
But sexual hostility has no other explanation other than that the person is trying to make you uncomfortable, harm you and harm the team. 
 
WI: Of the women you interviewed, far more had experienced sexist hostility (26%) than sexual hostility (17%) or unwanted sexual attention (10%). Is this fairly typical of what is found in the rest of the business world?

 
JR: Yes, it is in keeping with other research. 
 
WI: What is your take-home message for HR professionals, with regard to strategies for preventing and monitoring sexual harassment?

 
JR: The most important thing is to be proactive. It´s not enough to offer sexual harassment training, check the box, and sit back and do nothing. A lot of companies offer sexual harassment training at the beginning of an employee´s tenure. Often an organization thinks that´s all they have to do. 
 
Companies have to create a climate in which all unwanted types of sexually harassing behavior are regarded as forms of disrespect and unfair treatment. In other words, they have to create a culture of respect that doesn´t permit some individuals to dominate and harass others. 
 
One way to create such a culture is to offer managerial training. Train managers - especially team leaders - to build a climate of respect and fair treatment, to model respectful behaviors themselves and to take harassment very seriously if it should ever occur.

WI:What are the implications for the design of sexual harassment training programs in general?

 
JR: I would like to see HR people build the notion of team dynamics into sexual harassment training. Many people don´t recognize that there are other parties involved who see team members being harassed. The programs often address it as if it´s only experienced by one person who then has the responsibility to tell an authority in the organization about the incident. I would like to see training involve issues of what other people can do when they witness sexual harassment. The protocol is very vague in many organizations. 
 
Also, educate team members so they understand that sexual harassment is not one person´s problem and that the entire team is going to suffer. If they realize that letting it go on means they won´t work together as effectively - that they will have conflict and won´t perform as well - they may feel inclined to stand up and say something. 
 
More than that, if team members are aware that everyone suffers from sexual harassment, it should help prevent the behavior from happening in the first place. That is the best-case scenario. 
 
WI: What´s the bottom line for managers?

 
JR: I want managers to be aware that sexual harassment is not just one woman´s problem, it´s not just a legal issue, it´s not just a moral issue. It´s a business issue. It´s in managers´ best interest and the company´s best interest to do everything they can to prevent it. 
 
For more, interesting questions and answers, visit the <a href="http://veritude.com/ResourceCenter/ResourceArchive.aspx#WIQA">Workforce Insights Q&A archive</a>.

Jana L. Raver, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and E. Marie Shantz Research Fellow in organizational behaviour at Queen's School of Business in Kingston,Ontario,Canada.

About Veritude

The article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.veritude.com/ResourceCenter/Home.aspx">Workforce Insights</a> on <a href="http://www.veritude.com/">Veritude.com</a>. Veritude provides strategic human resources - the talent, technology and tactics that growing firms need in order to anticipate and adapt to changes in the workplace. Veritude is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity Investments Company. Headquartered in Boston, the company serves clients throughout the United States and Canada and is part of Fidelity´s ongoing investment and leadership in outsourced HR services. To review other articles, research and expert analysis relevant to HR professionals seeking to stay informed, please visit <a href="http://www.veritude.com/">www.veritude.com</a>. For more information, contact: <a href="mailto:inquiry@veritude.com">inquiry@veritude.com</a> or call:1-800-597-5537. 

 ©2005 Veritude,LLC. Reprinted with permission.

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