Power Differentials within the Workplace
Power is at the heart of workplace sexual harassment, whether it be authority differentials or an assertion of dominance. Sexual harassment is about the control and the threatening of an individual. Sexual harassment in the workplace can be understood when analyzed in the terms of power. Most often, sexual harassment is due to an unequal distribution of power; a supervisor-employee dyad [1]. Supervisors are in control of resources that employees desire, such as performance evaluations, salary increases, promotions, and similar. Power is not solely through leadership, but coworkers also engage in these behaviors by exerting power over other coworkers [2]. Coworkers exert their dominance by withholding information, cooperation, and support in team efforts. Additionally, female supervisors are common targets for workplace harassment, this is accomplished by a male employee devaluing the woman by highlighting traditional gender stereotypes, such as inability, passivity, and lack of career commitment that reflect negatively on the woman in power [3]. The below figure shows the characteristics of harassers and their targets in order to give a visual to accompany the evidence that sexual harassment is associated with personal dominance and power, not simply authority.
Sexual harassment is an ethical and legal issue. Sexual harassment has a negative impact on women’s job satisfaction, mental health, and stress levels. Victims of workplace harassment are known to become withdrawn from their job by often being absent, tardy, avoiding certain tasks and people, and some even begin searching for other jobs [4]. The harassed also tend to have negative attitudes towards supervisors and other coworkers. Sexual harassment within the workplace, whether individuals had experienced it themselves or not, tended to lower group productivity [5]. Organizations have a legal and ethical to protect their employees and prevent workplace sexual harassment, which has been determined to occur in all levels of an organization. There are many ways in which organizations can prevent sexual harassment: establish a no-tolerance policy and widely spread the policy, make it easy for employees to file complaints and investigate said complaints promptly and objectively, lastly, take appropriate corrective action to
prevent reoccurrence [6].
Notes:
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Mclaughlin, Heather, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone. “Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power”. American Sociological Review 77, no. 4 (2012): 625–47. doi:10.1177/0003122412451728.
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Ibid., 625-47.
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Lunenburg, Fred C. “Sexual Harassment: An Abuse of Power.” International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, Volume 13, no. 1 (2010): https://neverokayproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Lunenburg-Fred-C-2010-Sexual-Harassment-An-Abuse-of-Power.pdf.
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Mcdonald, Paula. “Workplace Sexual Harassment 30 Years On: A Review of the Literature”. International Journal of Management Reviews 14, no. 1 (2012): 1–17. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00300.x.
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Lunenburg, Fred C., “Sexual Harassment: An Abuse of Power.”, no. 1.
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Mclaughlin, Heather, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone. “Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power.”