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Sexual harassment is a major concern in today's work environment. Employee sexual harassment complaints have increased substantially year after year. This issue is at the forefront of today's most sensitive topics in American business. Progressive employers are taking steps towards preventing sexual harassment to increase morale and reduce legal costs.

Although sexual behaviour in the workplace is not a recent phenomenon, only within the past ten years have companies began to understand the implications of sexual harassment in the corporate environment. In a 1988 study, Working Woman magazine stated that 90 per cent of Fortune 500 companies had received sexual harassment complaints; and these sexual harassment problems cost the average Fortune 500 company approximately $6.7 million per year in legal costs, employee absenteeism, turnover and lack of production [4, p. 67].

The purpose of this literature review is to provide an intervention model, which can be used by organisations to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment has been somewhat ignored over recent years, with much of the academic literature focusing on harassment specifically on workplace bullying, or psychological harassment of a generic nature. For the purpose of this review, the authors have specifically reviewed individual and organisational antecedents, particularly focusing on the organisation's culture and training programmes.

A review of the sexual harassment literature has been conducted to examine primary, secondary and tertiary interventions to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.

There are a variety of antecedents of sexual harassment which can be examined; these cover three main categories: groups and individuals; organisational and situational; and societal. Sexual harassment should be seen as an issue which needs to be addressed by the organisation, rather than simply increasing and improving an individual's skills in order to deal with harassment (Fitzgerald and Shullman).

This paper provides an up‐to‐date review of the sexual harassment literature and from this provides a model, which organisations can utilise when attempting to tackle the problem of sexual harassment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connections between sexual harassment and ostracism both before and after the modern day #MeToo movement. It outlines how the birth of the #MeToo movement lessened the impact of ostracism, empowering victims to report their abusers.

This paper provides an overview of the ostracism literature, and discusses why ostracism has historically prevented individuals from disclosing workplace abuse. It also examines recent and historical cases of sexual harassment where ostracism has both inhibited targets of sexual harassment from reporting and harmed those who stood up for their right not to be harassed.

Both purposeful and non-purposeful ostracism have negative impacts on employees and organizations as a whole, and the fear of ostracism prevented many from disclosing harassment and abuse in the workplace. The #MeToo movement, by nature, is antithetical to ostracism by building community and freeing people to seek justice. This paper makes practical recommendations for organizations that wish to help prevent ostracism as a response to workplace sexual harassment disclosure.

Both purposeful and non-purposeful ostracism have negative impacts on employees and organizations as a whole, and the fear of ostracism prevent many from disclosing harassment and abuse in the workplace. The #MeToo movement by nature is antithetical to ostracism, building community and freeing people to seek justice. This paper makes practical recommendations for organizations that wish to prevent ostracism as a response to workplace sexual harassment disclosure. Additionally, it provides future research directions to explore the empirical link between the disclosure of sexual harassment and ostracism.

This paper analyzes a crucial barrier to reporting sexual harassment. It both examines the consequences of ostracism and highlights how the threat of ostracism can be overcome through intentional organizational efforts.

Concentrates on gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. Outlines the definition of sexual harassment in law and the types of sexual harassment which can occur. Covers the Ontario human rights code and the Disability Discrimination Act. Gives some statistics to reflect the current state of the problem. Provides some examples of current good practices within the industry. Concludes with recommendations of policies which employers should adopt if they wish to avoid litigation.

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.

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).

The authors find that a climate of respect uniquely predicts harassment based on sex and ethnicity, above and beyond effects of climate for harassment.

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.

A group of men are gathered around an office work station. On the computer screen an animated, anatomatically correct woman says, “Hello, I'm Maxie, your date from MacPlaymat. Would you like to take off my clothes? I'll guide you. Start with my blouse.” The employee at the keyboard removes Maxie's clothes and then selects “sex toys” from the “tool box.” Maxie can be handcuffed, gagged, shackled, and made to perform a variety of sex acts. The excellent graphics and digitised sound of the computer allow Maxie to writhe and moan. A woman enters the office and finds her colleagues engaged in this “entertainment.” Has a computer game set the stage for a complaint of sexual harassment?

We reviewed U.S. federal and state sexual harassment court cases involving a prior workplace romance between the plaintiff and alleged harasser. Results of our content analysis show that, unlike employees’ decisions, judges’ decisions can be predicted from legal but not ethically salient extralegal case features. Hence, when compared to prior research, our study reveals the following discrepancy: judges follow a traditional legal model, whereas employees follow an ethical model when making decisions about romance‐harassment cases. Our study also reveals that the mere presence (versus absence) of a prior romance reduces the likelihood of a plaintiff’s success in a harassment case. We discuss implications for management practice and research from the perspective of legal and ethical decision making.

Defines sexual harassment and discrimination in law before covering the effects which these issues bring. Considers the traditional culture of the fire service and the barriers the industry may still possess. Gives recent examples of discrimination in today’s service and outlines steps for prevention covering areas such as education and training, recruitment, and policy. Looks at ways to combat issues when such procedures fail.

This study aimed to examine the relationships among discriminary culture against women, hierarchical culture, sexual harassment and work–family conflict in the workplace.

Data were collected from female employees in South Korea. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze 202 responses obtained through a self-report survey.

The findings indicate that (a) discriminatory culture against women and a hierarchical culture were positively related to sexual harassment, and (b) sexual harassment positively affected work–family conflict. Additionally, both a discriminatory culture against women and a hierarchical culture had indirect effects on work–family conflict, which were mediated by sexual harassment.

This study can help researchers better understand the relationship between organizational culture and the work experience of female employees by examining the mechanisms that influence their work–family conflict.