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This paper aims to focus on compliance of workplace sexual harassment-related provisions under Indian companies and securities law, based on an empirical analysis of companies’ sexual harassment-related disclosures contained within their directors’ annual reports (ARs). Specifically, sections devoted to sexual harassment-related disclosures, inbuilt within directors’ ARs for the financial year 2019–2020 for a selected sample of companies listed under the National Stock Exchange, have been analysed.

To examine the nature of companies’ disclosures to demonstrate their compliance with statutory requirements under the POSH law, aligned with the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014 and Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulations, an empirical-based, descriptive content analysis of ARs of 200 listed companies were used.

This study primarily finds that the majority of companies from the sample have disclosed to have prepared a corporate-level policy, as required under the POSH law. As also required under the POSH law, companies, reportedly, have constituted an Internal Complaints Committee to adjudicate and dispose of incidents related to sexual misconduct reported at their workplaces. However, companies lack in disclosing qualitative information, with sufficient detail, on many important aspects related to prevention and resolution of reported cases of workplace sexual harassment.

This paper adds to the broader narrative of the lacunae within the disclosure and reporting requirements on enhancing the liabilities of the companies to prevent and address sexual harassment under India’s corporate and securities regulations.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether a gap exists in student perceptions of sexual harassment in the workplace as compared to the realities. Over 20 years following the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the US Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a cause of action under Title VII. However, despite the developing law and public awareness of the same, sexual harassment persists in today's workplace, and its presence and effects continue to be underestimated by relevant stakeholders, including university students.

College students (n = 1,373) provide perceptions on sexual harassment of self, sexual harassment of others, potential career impact of sexual harassment on self, and demographic information. Descriptive statistics are used to evaluate research questions, while t‐tests determine if differences exist by race and/or gender.

The paper's findings suggest that the majority of respondents believe sexual harassment is not a serious risk in the modern workplace, especially in relation to its impact on their own careers.

College students (and potentially members of the workforce) need ongoing training and education in order to minimize discrimination or harassment. This misalignment between perception and reality poses the risk of negative consequences to both business organizations as well as to individual employees and raises the issue of how education may be used to minimize these consequences.

This paper provides college students with a definition of sexual harassment, then inquires as to whether or not they believe it happens (to them or others), and if so, would it affect their careers. The findings suggest the rose colored lenses may adversely impact their ability to see realities of the workplace.

The #MeToo movement has brought questions of sexuality and power in the workplace to the forefront. The purpose of this paper is to review the research on hierarchial consensual workplace romances and sexual harassment examining the underlying mechanisms of power relations. It concludes with a call to action for organizational leaders to adopt fair consensual workplace romance policies alongside strong sexual harassment policies.

This paper represents a conceptual review of the literature on consensual workplace romance, sexual harassment, passive leadership and power relations. Passive leadership leads to a climate of incivility that in turn suppresses disclosures of sexual harassment (Lee, 2016). Consensual workplace romances across hierarchical power relations carry significant risks and may turn into harassment should the romance turn sour.

Two new concepts, sexual hubris and sexploitation, are defined in this paper. Sexual hubris, defined as an opportunistic mindset that allows the powerful to abuse their power to acquire sexual liaisons, and its opposite, sexploitation, defined as a lower-status member using sexuality to gain advantage and favor from an upper-level power target, are dual opportunistic outcomes of an imbalanced power relation. Sexual hubris may increase the likelihood for sexual harassment such that a mindset occurs on the part of the dominant coalition that results in feelings of entitlement. Sexploitation is a micromanipulation tactic designed to create sexual favoritism that excludes others from the power relation.

Sexual hubris and sexploitation are conceptualized as an opportunistic mechanisms associated with imbalanced power relations to spur future research to tease out complex issues of gender, sexuality and hierarchy in the workplace. Sexual hubris serves to protect the dominant coalition and shapes organizational norms of a climate of oppression and incivility. Conversely, sexploitation is a micromanipulation tactic that allows a lower-status member to receive favoritism from a higher-power target. Four research propositions on sexual hubris and sexploitation are presented for future scholarship.

Most organizational leaders believe consensual romance in the office cannot be legislated owing to privacy concerns. Passive leadership is discussed as a leadership style that looks the other way and does not intervene, leading to workplace hostility and incivility (Lee, 2016). Inadequate leadership creates a climate of passivity that in turn silences victims. Policies concerning consensual workplace romance should stand alongside sexual harassment policies regardless of privacy concerns.

The #MeToo movement has allowed victims to disclose sexual misconduct and abuse in the workplace. However, the prevalence of sexual harassment claims most often can be traced to a leadership problem. Employers must recognize that sexual hubris and sexploitation arise from imbalances of power, where sex can be traded for advancement, and that often consensual workplace romances end badly, leading to claims of sexual harassment. Consensual romance policies must stand alongside sexual harassment policies.

Sexual hubris and sexploitation are offered as novel concepts that provide a mechanism for conceptualizing the potential for abuse and manipulation from unbalanced power relations. These are original concepts derived from the arguments within this paper that help make the case for consensual workplace romance policies alongside sexual harassment policies.

The advent of the #MeToo movement has brought forth increased national and global attention to sexual assault, abuse, misconduct, discrimination and harassment in the workplace, especially by prominent executives against subordinate female employees. Accordingly, in this article, we are thoroughly analyzing one aspect of office romance and sexual conduct in the workplace, mainly sexual favoritism in the era of the #MeToo movement.

This is a legal and case-based human resource policies paper. It reviews actual workplace romance cases, policies and court-based decisions to create practical recommendations that can be used by managers, entrepreneurs and corporations for their organizations. One delimitation of this paper is the fact that it focuses on the US context. Another is that, while organizational behavior researchers have empirically studied various workplace romance policies and practices, the paper is a case-by-case analysis of sexual favoritism. “Specifically, the legal research for this article was conducted on the law database, Nexis Uni Legal, in the Cases (both federal and state) and Law Reviews and Journals sub-databases, using the direct key words in quotations “workplace romance,” “office romance,” “sexual favoritism,” and/or “paramour preference,” as well as the indirect key words “appearance discrimination, “preferring the pretty,” and/or “lookism.” As the authors' intent was to examine the legal and practical consequences emanating from the #MeToo Movement, the authors concentrated their search on cases and law reviews from 2012 to February 2021.

Research shows that about 35–42% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment or sex discrimination at work. Many of the high-profile sexual cases that generated the #MeToo movement involved powerful executives asserting that their romantic relationships with subordinates in the workplace were “merely” consensual office romance or sexual favoritism. As a result of the #MeToo movement, employers have been compelled to reconsider how they should respond to sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, office romance and sexual favoritism in the workplace. This article offers best practices for policymakers and human resources professionals.

This article's recommendations are limited to workplaces in the US and may not be relevant in other countries as the local laws might vary.

There are policy and behavioral implications for companies, managers and employees regarding workplace romance and sexual favoritism. As such, we provide policy recommendations to human resources department and management on how to provide a healthy work environment for all employees and avoid liability for sexual harassment cases pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

The awareness of policies and laws regulating office romance can help educate managers and employees in local communities as to their rights regarding relationships with coworkers and those who report to them. When people are able to date whomever they desire outside of the workplace, employers can regulate some aspects of sexual relationships in the workplace.

This is an original paper by the authors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the causes, forms, extent, and consequences of sexual harassment and sexual violence at public sector workplaces in Tanzania.

A total of 1,593 civil servants participated in the survey, which was conducted in the Mtwara Region of Tanzania. The quantitative data were complemented with the results from eight focus group discussions.

The study revealed that 21 percent of women and 12 percent of men had experienced sexual harassment personally. Overall, rural-based public servants had less knowledge of relevant policies, and experienced more sexual harassment than their urban colleagues. The majority of perpetrators were identified as men in senior positions; the majority of victims were recognized to be young female employees. Frequently reported behaviors included sexual bribery with regard to resource allocation, promotions, allowances, and other benefits.

Despite the existence of conducive legal and policy frameworks aimed at protecting employees from sexual harassment and violence, their implementation and effects were found to be limited. Only half of the study population was aware of the existing regulations. The study found that the majority of public servants who had knowledge on the issue had learned about sexual harassment in the context of an HIV/AIDS workplace program. This finding indicates that well-designed workplace interventions can play an important role in creating awareness, addressing gender stereotypes, and informing employees about their personal rights and responsibilities.

Sexual harassment and gender-based violence at the workplace has never been studied before in Tanzania. The study provides practical recommendations for future preventive interventions.

Sexual harassment against female employees in the workplace is one of the topics that have gained the serious attention of various segments of the Sri Lankan society. More than 50% of the female population in Sri Lanka is employed today. Many of them have experienced sexual harassment at least once in their workplace. Since sexual harassment is recognized as a criminal offence in Sri Lanka, this paper intends to investigate whether the prevailing penal laws of the country are sufficient to prevent and deal with these cases and punish the perpetrators. Furthermore, this paper investigates the other possible legal response in the civil law regime to provide a safer legal environment for the victims of sexual harassment. This paper also discusses the relevant international standards in improving the existing laws in the country. This study engages in the field research including interviewing relevant stakeholders (200 women employees including skilled, unskilled and managerial level from government and private sector institutions situated in the Western Province, Officer In Charge of Police of 6 Police Divisions in Colombo District as the highest industrialized District in the Western Province and 3 Commissioners of Labour Department of Sri Lanka) in addition to the desk review of the literature.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether observed hostility mediates the link between passive leadership and sexual harassment. The study also investigates how workplace gender ratio might moderate this mediated relationship.

This study used online survey data by recruiting full-time working employees in various US organisations and industries.

Results suggest that when working under a passive leader, both men and women are more likely to experience sexual harassment. Furthermore, the positive association between hostility and sexual harassment is stronger for female employees who work in a male-dominated organisation (low gender ratio). However, the moderating effects of workplace gender ratio were not significant for male employees.

Organisations seeking to reduce or prevent sexual harassment should monitor and screen out managers who display passive leadership behaviour and create a work environment where collegial and civil interactions are encouraged and valued.

This research advances our knowledge regarding the organisational factors of sexual harassment by examining passive leadership, hostile work context, and workplace gender ratio. Theoretically, the study contributes to the sexual harassment literature by incorporating evidence on passive leadership from a broader field of workplace aggression into sexual harassment research. Practically, the study offers important implications for organisations that seek to minimise 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.