Journal article
Organizational emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value and third-party response to sexual harassment
Employee relations, Vol.41(1), pp.52-66
01/07/2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124151
Abstract
Purpose: Reliance on third-party judgments are common in efforts to identify and reduce workplace sexual harassment (SH). The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is related to third-party labeling of and response to an exchange between a male manager and his female subordinate. Design/methodology/approach Participants (n=308) in an online survey experiment were randomly assigned to a workplace that emphasized inclusion or one that emphasized individual achievement as a cultural value. They read a vignette describing a workplace interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate and responded to a series of questions. Findings Organizational emphasis on inclusion is unrelated to third-party labeling of the interaction as SH, but positively associated with labeling the female's intention to pursue harassment charges as an overreaction, and support for the female subordinate in a claim of SH against her manager. Culture is unassociated with willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim. Practical implications Identifying how workplace culture shapes third-party reaction to harassment can help employers use third-party witnesses and cultural value statements as tools to reduce SH. Social implications A workplace's cultural emphasis on inclusion is positively related to third-party support for SH victims implying the importance of workplace context in the fight against workplace SH. Originality/value The paper presents the first experimental analysis of how a workplace cultural emphasis on inclusion affects the third-party observers' reactions to SH.
Metrics
13 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Organizational emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value and third-party response to sexual harassment
- Creators
- Jose Luis Collazo - Washington State Univ, Dept Sociol, Pullman, WA 99164 USAJulie A Kmec - Washington State Univ, Dept Sociol, Pullman, WA 99164 USA
- Publication Details
- Employee relations, Vol.41(1), pp.52-66
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Publisher
- EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD
- Number of pages
- 15
- Identifiers
- 99900669108101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article