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1 – 10 of over 2000Kathrina Robotham and Lilia Cortina
Despite organizational policies aimed at harassment prevention, harassment based on gender and ethnicity remains pervasive in places of work. Although previous research has…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite organizational policies aimed at harassment prevention, harassment based on gender and ethnicity remains pervasive in places of work. Although previous research has identified other antecedents such as harassment climate, the purpose of this paper is to consider whether a climate of respect leads to reductions in identity-based harassment.
Design/methodology/approach
In a military sample of active duty men and women (Study 1) and a sample of working adults (Study 2), the authors use survey methods to test whether a climate of respect predicts the occurrence of two forms of identity-based abuse: sexual harassment (Study 1) and ethnic harassment (Study 2).
Findings
The authors find that a climate of respect uniquely predicts harassment based on sex and ethnicity, above and beyond effects of climate for harassment.
Originality/value
These results suggest that, while traditional harassment prevention efforts remain important for deterring identity-based harassment, promotion of a respectful work environment is also an effective tool.
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Donna Chrobot‐Mason, Belle Rose Ragins and Frank Linnehan
Like “second hand smoke,” the harmful repercussions of racial harassment may extend well beyond the target to impact others at work. This study seeks to examine the “second hand…
Abstract
Purpose
Like “second hand smoke,” the harmful repercussions of racial harassment may extend well beyond the target to impact others at work. This study seeks to examine the “second hand smoke effect”, or ambient racial harassment, which involves exposure to racial harassment aimed at others. The paper examines race differences in awareness of racial harassment and explored work and health‐related outcomes associated with exposure to racial harassment. It also examines organizational tolerance for harassment as a moderator of these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A diverse sample of 245 employees from three data sources were surveyed. One data source involved White and Black employees in the same organization; the others worked in a variety of organizations across the USA.
Findings
Whites were less likely than Blacks to be aware of racial harassment, even when employed in the same workplace. However, awareness of racial harassment predicted negative job attitudes and psychological strain for both Whites and Blacks. These relationships were amplified by perceptions of organizational tolerance for racial harassment.
Research limitations/implications
The study documents ramifications of ambient racial harassment and illuminates a racial divide in awareness of harassment at work that may exacerbate racial conflict and prevent needed organizational change.
Originality/value
The paper extends the construct of ambient racial harassment by measuring a range of overt and subtle forms that vary in type and intensity, and by examining the role of organizational tolerance for racial harassment as a moderator of the relationship between ambient racial harassment and work and health‐related outcomes.
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William Obenauer and Shafagh Rezaei
Replication is essential to science for the purpose of (1) updating previously accepted knowledge and (2) testing the boundary conditions of this knowledge. Although Bader et al…
Abstract
Purpose
Replication is essential to science for the purpose of (1) updating previously accepted knowledge and (2) testing the boundary conditions of this knowledge. Although Bader et al.’s (2018) impactful paper on gender harassment experienced by expatriates was only published five years ago, there have been two relevant exogenous shocks to the environment since they collected their data, making this study an excellent target for replication.
Design/methodology/approach
Three-hundred ninety-one expatriates who were currently working in 79 different countries completed an electronic survey that included scales for gender harassment, ethnicity harassment, general stress, frustration and job satisfaction. Data were analyzed using partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in Stata17.
Findings
Consistent with prior research, gender had a significant relationship with workplace gender harassment (ß = 0.228, p < 0.001) such that males experienced lower levels of harassment than other expatriates. The relationship between race/ethnicity and experiences of ethnicity harassment was dependent upon model specification. Workplace harassment had a negative relationship with job satisfaction (gender harassment, ß = −0.114, p = 0.030; ethnicity harassment; ß = −0.146, p = 0.002) and a positive relationship with frustration (gender harassment, ß = 0.231, p < 0.001; ethnicity harassment, ß = 0.213, p < 0.001).
Originality/value
Using a larger, more diverse sample than that used in prior research, the authors were able to test the generalizability of accepted knowledge. While the authors replicated many findings identified in prior research, they failed to replicate the effects pertaining to the relationship between macro-level variables and experiences of harassment. Given that macro-level variables play a key role in status construction theory (SCT), this research raises important questions for future work.
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Paul Bowen, Peter Edwards and Helen Lingard
The discrimination/harassment experiences of survey respondents in different construction professional groups in South Africa is compared, and the relationship between harassment…
Abstract
Purpose
The discrimination/harassment experiences of survey respondents in different construction professional groups in South Africa is compared, and the relationship between harassment/discrimination and perceived work stress is examined.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was administered and 626 responses (ca. 6.5 per cent of target population) received. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the response data.
Findings
Harassment and discrimination on ethnic grounds are experienced in all of the South African construction professions included in the survey. Respondents also indicated that they felt underpaid and that their job security was adversely affected by their ethnicity. Sexual harassment and gender-based harassment and discrimination were more frequently reported by architects than by other professionals. Harassment and discrimination were found to correlate with higher perceived levels of work stress.
Research limitations/implications
Harassment and discrimination, on ethnic and on gender-based grounds, constitute a significant stressor for many construction professionals in South Africa, particularly among architects.
Practical implications
Strategies designed to address and counter harassment/discrimination in the South African construction industry should be implemented or reinforced as part of broader stress management programmes. Employers have a major role to play in this, but unions and professional associations should also take part.
Originality value
Previous research into work stress has focused on the experiences of workers in developed countries. The paper provides insight into the problem of harassment and discrimination in the unique situation of post-apartheid South Africa. It supports the link between harassment and discrimination and perceived levels of personal stress in this context.
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Based on an ethnographic study of a restaurant called the “Hungry Cowboy,” I examine how servers make use of sexual harassment claims within a sexually overt work culture…
Abstract
Based on an ethnographic study of a restaurant called the “Hungry Cowboy,” I examine how servers make use of sexual harassment claims within a sexually overt work culture. Focusing on the dynamics of a specific case, I explore how participation in sexual talk and touch provides positive rewards for some workers, operating as a source of craft pride, while laying the groundwork for exclusion of other workers. This study reveals how intersectionality plays out in the day-to-day behaviors and practices that make up workplace cultures, how white workers use a gendered tool to filter racism, the intentional manipulation of workplace culture by workers, and the unintended outcomes of sexual harassment laws.
Benjamin Bader, Sebastian Stoermer, Anna Katharina Bader and Tassilo Schuster
The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace gender harassment of female expatriates across 25 host countries and consider the role of institutional-level gender…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace gender harassment of female expatriates across 25 host countries and consider the role of institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition. Further, the study investigates the effects of workplace gender harassment on frustration and job satisfaction and general job stress as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample is comprised of 160 expatriates residing in 25 host countries. The authors test the model using partial least-squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results show that female expatriates experience more workplace gender harassment than male expatriates. This effect is particularly pronounced in host countries with strong institutional-level gender discrimination. Moreover, the authors found significant main effects of gender harassment on expatriates’ frustration and job satisfaction. Further, the authors identified a significant association between frustration and job satisfaction. No significant moderation effect of general job stress was found.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s data are cross-sectional. Future studies are encouraged to use longitudinal research designs. Further, future studies could center on perpetrators of harassment, different manifestations of harassment, and effective countermeasures.
Practical implications
The study raises awareness on the challenges of harassment of female expatriates and the role of the host country context. Further, the study shows the detrimental effects of gender harassment on female expatriates’ job satisfaction which is a central predictor of variables crucial to international assignments, for example, performance or assignment completion.
Originality/value
The study is among the first endeavors to include institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition of workplace gender harassment of female expatriates, and therefore puts the interplay between macro- and micro-level processes into perspective.
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Haryanti Muliawan and Brian H. Kleiner
Outlines the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission’s definition of sexual harassment before looking at the reactions and effects of being sexually harassed. Considers why men…
Abstract
Outlines the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission’s definition of sexual harassment before looking at the reactions and effects of being sexually harassed. Considers why men harass and in particular the African‐American perception of harassment. Covers the issue of race as a barrier and the Title VII regulations of the Civil Rights Act 1964. Concludes that there are a disproportionate number of African‐American cases of sexual harassment and proffers some suggestions for this situation.
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Jennifer Berdahl and Barnini Bhattacharyya
The purpose of this paper is to identify promising themes of the papers in the special issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion dedicated to advancing scholarship on sex-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify promising themes of the papers in the special issues of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion dedicated to advancing scholarship on sex-based harassment.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual overview of the research pertaining to these themes and an analysis of the special issues papers' contributions to these themes.
Findings
Four themes that represent important but relatively neglected lines of inquiry into sex-based harassment are identified. These are (1) the psychology of harassment, (2) organizational culture and networks, (3) the invisible majority and (4) the importance of collective action.
Originality/value
The paper offers an expert perspective on the state of research related to sex-based harassment and four themes that are important to moving it forward.
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The purpose of this study is to test whether organizational justice (i.e. fair treatment) can mitigate the harmful effects of a “masculinity contest culture (MCC)” (i.e. norms…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to test whether organizational justice (i.e. fair treatment) can mitigate the harmful effects of a “masculinity contest culture (MCC)” (i.e. norms, rituals and belief systems valorizing social dominance, work above other parts of life, physical strength and the avoidance of weakness).
Design/methodology/approach
Through an analysis of secondary survey data collected from a Canadian police organization (N = 488), this study tested the moderating effects of organizational justice on the relationship between employee perceptions of their workplace as a masculinity contest, and a negative outcome variable, harassment.
Findings
The results of this study suggest that a MCC was significantly related to harassment, which in turn contributed to lower psychological wellbeing and increased turnover intentions. Independently, organizational justice moderated the effect of a MCC on harassment, suggesting that harassment is less prevalent in the workplace when there is a greater focus on treating all employees fairly.
Originality/value
Despite the increase in both scholarly and practitioner interest in the effects of organizational cultures in which employees seek to maintain their own status at all costs, there has been little research examining the interactions of these harmful workplace cultures and the factors that might counter them. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is one of the rare studies to investigate possible interventions for harmful workplace cultures.
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Ho Kwan Cheung, Eden King, Alex Lindsey, Ashley Membere, Hannah M. Markell and Molly Kilcullen
Even more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination toward a number of groups in employment settings in the United States, workplace…
Abstract
Even more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination toward a number of groups in employment settings in the United States, workplace discrimination remains a persistent problem in organizations. This chapter provides a comprehensive review and analysis of contemporary theory and evidence on the nature, causes, and consequences of discrimination before synthesizing potential methods for its reduction. We note the strengths and weaknesses of this scholarship and highlight meaningful future directions. In so doing, we hope to both inform and inspire organizational and scholarly efforts to understand and eliminate workplace discrimination.
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