Sexual harassment in the workplace is an unwelcome request for sexual favors, sexual advances, or any other sexually-oriented behaviors that may have devastating effects like causing humiliation to a victim and cumulative underperformance within an organization when it becomes pervasive. Sexual harassment in the workplace is condemned internationally and regarded as a violation of human rights. According to Joni Hersch, sexual harassment increases absenteeism of employees, lowers their job satisfaction and general productivity. This outcome is linked to the causative effect that makes a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace deter their focus and attention, work under worry of intimidation, especially if they are against sexual advances from colleagues, initiates health complications like depression among others (Doyle, 2020). When such an issue remains unreported, the perpetrator may take advantage to continue with the behavior, which may lead to more devastating effects like resignation by the victim. This essay will address an ethical issue scenario, by referring to the parties involved and the place where the issue occurred. The essay will further to explain what ethical issue is addressed in the scenario and explain why it is an ethical issue. There are many issues that can be related to the identified ethical issue, and the essay will highlight one of these issues, and explain the gaps in research about the same issue.
James is a unit head and Lucia is an employee who falls directly in line under James’s authority. Lucia writes to James, and in her letter explains that she has been receiving a series of negative performance reviews from her supervisor, Joseph. Joseph, like Lucia reports to James, only that with different ranks. Kristen gets involved as a third party and confesses that Joseph’s actions have a hidden motivation that revolves around extreme sexual desires, especially for female employees. The female employees involved in such scenarios that “play the Joseph’s’ game” are lucky to be given credit where it is not due, as a way for repayment for their compliance. Upon reviewing Lucia’s performance reports, James finds out that Lucia has been given a lower score unlike what she deserves. James spend an hour to interrogate Lucia to determine if the rumor is realistic. James learns that Lucia has been receiving unwarranted nude photos from Joseph via mail, being spanked or held inappropriately against her will, and receiving threats of repercussions if she did not accept Joseph’s sexual advances.
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Based on all these hints from both Kristen and Lucia, James determines that Joseph is a notorious perpetrator and Lucia is a victim of sexual harassment. The scenario does not offer the reader an opportunity to know what Joseph felt, or what ideologies she has about sexual life. Sexual harassment is an ethical issue, and this can be explained in relation to the negative impacts it causes not only for an individual but also for the organization they work for. Employees who become victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, suffer debilitating health issues like sleep disorder, stress reaction, lowered self-esteem, high blood pressure, nausea among others. Employees who are mentally traumatized are likely to lose their focus at the workplace. Rather than thinking about how to improve their performance at work, they try to work through stressful situations pondering over them regularly. Unfortunately, they shift in focus leads to poor performance of an employee, which also lowers the income margin of the organization due to poor productivity of employees who are victims of sexual harassment. Very few or close to zero employees would love to stay in an unhealthy environment, especially those with pervasive sexual harassment issues. Some may speak out or not, while other may choose to resign and seek employment terms. The reason for such a resort is the nagging behavior of colleagues who are perpetrators. Finally, when the public gets wound of such a matter, they are likely to spread the word further, which in turn destroys the organization’s brand.
The crossover between sexual harassment and bullying at the workplace is very slight, such that either issue might be confused for the other. Bullying at the workplace can be described as the unwelcome disrespect for other individuals that makes them feel intimidated at the workplace. The definition is almost similar but the mode of disrespect differ somehow. Under bullying, an individual is likely to be criticized unfairly, denied credit when they deserve it, berated, excluded from others among other aspects. It is evident that the characteristics are almost the same only that under sexual harassment, the victim endures behaviors such us unwarranted flirting, indecent body touching, among other aspects (Gordon, 2020). The repercussions are almost similar, and this is the justifying reason for the relationship between the two. An employee who undergoes bullying at the workplace, like one who has suffered sexual harassment is likely to suffer from health risks like anxiety, lose focus, perform poorly, and quit the job when the behavior becomes pervasive. The organization which is prone to reporting sexual bullying cases is also likely to tarnish its reputation.
Research on sexual harassment and its impacts in the workplace has knowledge gaps specifically in relation to the reporting of cases and preventive measures. Sexual harassment is a pervasive behavior that escalates at the workplace because the victim in most cases is shy to come out and share their discontent. The reason behind the restrained attitude toward reporting sexual harassment has not been researched extensively to determine the actual causative factors on various situations. Besides, information about the prevention of sexual harassment is scanty. This has caused the haphazard nature of handling sexual harassment cases at the workplace even after the victim has come out to report the case (a rare thing). This issue is important to me because I have witnessed my sister become a victim of sexual harassment at the workplace. She would complain about the same to my mum but feared to report her supervisor. She was always a depressed person. The behavior escalated to a point where she had to write a resignation letter because she could take in no more.
In conclusion, sexual harassment in the workplace is the unwelcome sexual advances and behaviors toward another individual. This essay has highlighted an unethical scenario where an employee (Lucia) reports to her boss about a series of unfair negative performance reviews, which turns out to be a repercussion of failure to embrace the sexual advances from her supervisor, Joseph. The issue is unethical because it causes devastating effects to both individual and organization involved. An individual may suffer from mental problems like trauma and depression, loss of job, and tarnishing of reputation. Sexual harassment in the workplace is closely related to bullying in the workplace because they have similar repercussions. There are knowledge gaps in terms of the preventive measures and reasons for failure to report such unethical behaviors. It is the responsibility of the individual to report incidences of sexual harassment like Lucia did in our scenario, and the organization should implement policies to prevent and handle sexual harassment cases in the workplace.
References
Doyle, A. (2020). Examples of Sexual and Non-Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/examples-of-sexual-and-non-sexual-harassment-2060884
Gordon, S. (2020, March 10). How Workplace Bullying Negatively Affects the Victim and Profits. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-the-effects-of-workplace-bullying-460628
Hersch, J. (2015, October 01). Sexual harassment in the workplace. Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://wol.iza.org/articles/sexual-harassment-in-workplace/long
