HARASSMENT

Harassment

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of “harassment” in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on “harassment” and the occurrence of different harassment acts in “business environment”. The research also analyzes many categories of “harassment” and tries to gauge its effect on “the corporate culture”. Finally the research describes enlighten the most prominent forms of “harassment” in business and enlightens “different actions of legislative authorities” against the culpable of harassment acts.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion and Analysis5

Sexual Harassment at Workplace5

Discrimination (Harassment on the Basis of Race, Gender and Ethnicity)6

Harassment: An Unethical Activity8

Legal Action9

Fines/Penalties10

Other Reparations11

Conclusion12

References13

Harassment

Introduction

Harassment is one of the most critical issues in corporate culture that has a significant impact on the organization and its goodwill. Harassment can be categorized in to different forms due to its diverse nature. There are several forms of harassment in the business; however, the most frequently observed are: harassment on the basis of race (racial harassment), harassment on the basis of race (racial harassment), psychological harassment, religious harassment, sexual harassment, sociological harassment and bullying. The impact of harassment is not limited to the victim who experienced it; in addition, harassment affects the organization in which the process in executed. Harassment influences the internal and external customer of an organization; it affects the morale of an employee and lowers his productivity and diminishes the goodwill of an organization due to which organizations lose their external customers.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the literature obtained through various studies conducted on harassment and discrimination in order to enlighten different categories of harassments in business. This categorization can assist the strategic decision makers of organizations to construct effective strategies through which a corporation can actively cope with the issue of harassment. In addition, this paper aims to explore different approaches used by organizations to address the issue of harassment. This paper discusses how organizations declare harassment as an unethical activity and take subsequent actions (legal actions, penalty/fines, reparations to the victims) in order to maintain their goodwill in the market.

Discussion and Analysis

According to different studies, harassment in United States is considered as an extreme violation of human rights and ethics. Nevertheless, there are different scenarios in which acts of harassment are executed. Majority of the harassment cases have been found in large multinationals and huge corporate environments; however, the acts of harassment are not limited to those cultures (Pryor, LaVite, Stoller, 1993). The government of United States along with the corresponding legislative authorities has constructed different acts in order to address the issue of harassment. There are diversified forms of harassment; but, the most commonly observed in business environment are illustrated below:

Sexual harassment

Discrimination (Harassment on the Basis of Race, Gender and Ethnicity)

Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Sexual harassment is the most frequently studied form of workplace harassment or discrimination. A widely accepted definition of sexual harassment is that it represents a latent behavioral construct composed of three dimensions. A conservative estimate would be that about 50% of women will experience sexual harassment in the workplace ...