Why Sexual Harassment is a Business Issue

Why Sexual Harassment is a Business Issue

Well, you have to ask - what is it with these men? Russell Brand publicly assaulting women on recorded TV. Bigwig Spanish Football Man grasping footballer firmly round the head to prevent avoidance of his unwanted smackeroo. Surgeons being touched up while scrubbed up. Kevin Spacey, the thinking women’s actor, revealed as a predator of young men? And on and on. Maybe rather than thinking this is aberrant behaviour we should just accept that...

Men + Power + Opportunity = Possibility of Sexual Abuse (That is, abuse, of power, of women, of men, of children, of position, underlings and on and on)

Are women exempt? Of course not, power is power. As Naomi Alderman’s fantastic book The Power makes clear. But, unlike in that science fiction, here on earth, in the main, men still hold the power.

So, very unpleasant for the abused, assaulted, shamed, harassed etc. person. But does it do any further damage?

The research answer is clear. Yes, it does.

What does it mean for business?

First some facts and figures. 60% of women report workplace sexual harassment. But an estimated 90% of incidents go unreported. Meanwhile approximately 94% of organizations have a policy about this in place. Hmm the maths is beyond me but, put these figures together, and I would say the policies just aren’t working.

There are psychological explanations for this, but common sense reveals them just as well. Speak up and you open yourself to other dangers. Danger of victim-shaming. Danger of job loss. Danger of escalation of the problem. Equally unhappy witnesses can find it too risky, too hard to find their voice for similar reasons. This isn’t individual aberrant men, or individual cowardly women, this is a workplace culture matter.

As for all change, first the business case needs to be made.

Business case for tackling workplace sexual harassment

Here are the costs of creating, allowing, facilitating or ignoring an environment where targeted and opportunistic sexual harassment is the norm.

Effects on the individual

While recognising that these vary person to person, these are common consequences...

·      Decreased psychological wellbeing.

·      Increase in depression and anxiety.

·      Social identity threat, the devaluation of a person’s social identity in a specific context (let’s call this not being taken seriously at work or being treated like a child).

·      Feeling silenced, unable to speak up about the abuse. This is associated with higher depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion. Burnout in other words.

For the business this means health costs, possibly employment costs if people quit, and decreases in performance. And I’d hazard that all those other things that help organizations excel, commitment, citizenship behaviour, being unpaid ambassadors of the brand, suffer.

Effect on the team

·      Decreased workgroup productivity and performance

·      Increased task conflict

·      Increased interpersonal conflict

·      Decreased team cohesion

For the business this all adds up to a loss of team functioning, productivity and performance

Effect on the organization can be Increased workplace withdrawal

·      Absenteeism

·      Failure to complete work

·      Avoiding other people at work

·      Not attending meetings

·      Not meeting deadlines that others rely on

·      Skipping work altogether

·      Failing work relationships

·      Avoiding certain areas at work

·      Avoiding certain people

·      Not joining certain project teams

·      Quitting

The business costs are clear to see

All of these survival-in-a-hostile environment behaviours have an effect on organisational social capital, goodwill reserves, productivity, profitability and general effective functioning.

In this way, sexual harassment at work effects everyone at work. Your bonus is at risk because of your colleague’s harassing behaviour. Your ability to shine at work is adversely affected if you can’t get stuff done, or you can’t attract a star to your special project. Your future reputation may be at risk when your association with an abuser later comes to light.

Protect your assets, learn how to intervene effectively. This is known as bystander intervention.

Effective Bystander Behaviour

I called out some unwanted touching when I was running a three-day workshop one time. The guy in question was ‘handsy’ with the young women on the course. Arms round shoulders, many hugs etc. It didn’t look right. I asked the young women about it. No, they didn’t like it, but he was a manager, and they weren’t, what could they do but grin and bear it? My male co-facilitator backed me, as did our employer, to do something.

We spoke to the man, just asking him to cease and desist. He vehemently denied there was a problem, he was just a touchy-feely friendly guy, everyone knew that! He chose to leave the training rather than change his behaviour. We spoke to the women in Human Resources at the company. Yes, they said, he’s well-known for this. They were glad we had called it.

What happened to the man after that I don’t know.

For myself, I do know it wasn’t a comfortable thing to do. I do know I couldn’t have not noticed it, felt uncomfortable about, felt compelled to try to stop it, because of my strong sense of right and wrong in this area. And I also know it went a whole lot better, and I felt a whole lot safer taking him on (he was a big chap) with another big man sitting beside me. And I was lucky to be working for a company that backed me.

A supportive culture

We could call this a supportive culture I was working in. One that was willing to take the risk of upsetting a client, a colleague who was willing to take the risk of disrupting the workshop, evoking emotional discomfort. The workshop went fine after that, by the way, and we didn’t lose the client. And I felt good about what I’d done.

This is known as bystander behaviour. With all those conditions in place I felt able, as a bystander (from memory he didn’t try it with me, but then, I was in a relative position of power), to call him out.

Eli Kolokowsky and Sharon Hong, from whose article the factual information in this one is gleaned, recommend training in effective bystander intervention as the way forward in this area. But along with the training in ‘how’ to intervene, people need everything in place that I had

·      A set of values that doesn’t see causal harassment as acceptable behaviour

·      Supportive colleagues

·      Supportive employer

To give them the courage to intervene.

Causal sexism, sexual harassment and abuse is everywhere. On the streets, on the buses, and for many in their homes. All we want is for women to be able to feel safe and to be able to give their best to work, and to themselves.

Maybe the workplace could become a safe space for women?

With many thanks to

Kolokowsky, Eli, and Sharon Hong. "Bystander Intervention: A Positive Approach to Sexual Harassment Prevention." Positive Organizational Psychology Interventions: Design and Evaluation (2021): 141-157.

Other Resources

Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.

APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP

Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.

For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.

If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.

More blog posts categorised as ‘Diversity/Equality’ 

How Appreciative Inquiry Supports Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

The words are easy: we want to create a diverse and inclusive culture, that promotes equality of access and opportunity. The business case for creating a work environment that is inclusive of difference, that honours and makes good use of diversity, and that manages itself in such a way that all employees feel they are fairly treated, has long been made. The challenge is how to achieve such an environment. I want to briefly consider how using Appreciative Inquiry can support the development of such a culture.

Appreciative Inquiry can be seen to support the development of inclusive, diverse and equitable cultures in two ways. Firstly, there is the method itself.

The Whole System in the Room

The core appreciative inquiry summit process is predicated on inclusion, on getting the whole system in the room. This means that lots of people who might not usually get invited to ‘change planning’ events are included, right from the beginning. From very early in the process they have the opportunity to contribute ideas, participate in discussions and to influence outcomes; in effect, to have a voice.

Conscious Make Up of Groups

This propensity towards inclusion can be further activated by conscious actions and decisions. For example, care can be taken when assembling the event planning group to bring together a group that reflects the diversity of the organization. Similarly, when selecting individuals for preliminary interviews can be taken to ensure the views of a wide range of people are heard.

Including Those On The Periphery

In addition, inclusion is enhanced by drawing the organization’s attention to groups that are on the periphery of the organization, and who might normally be discounted as part of the organization. This can include groups like teachers’ assistants, temporary, contract or agency workers, part-time staff or those who work offsite or remotely. Making efforts to expand the manager’s sense of the boundaries of the organization to include such groups helps with inclusion, diversity and equality. These actions often positively diversify the race and gender mix in the room.  However, while presence is a predeterminant of the possibility of inclusion, it is another thing to ensure that all those involved have a voice at the event or during the process.

Creating Psychological Safety With A Positive Atmosphere Of Engagement

From research in this area, we know good quality conversation is more likely to happen in a positive atmosphere. A positive atmosphere is one where people are focussing on finding commonality, where they appreciate each other’s strengths and are focused on learning together and sharing successes. This can be seen as creating a sense of psychological safety  which is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that there is a shared belief held by members of a group working together that it is safe for individuals take interpersonal risks.

By contrast, people are less likely to feel safe to speak out in an atmosphere focused on competitive idea pitching, destruction of the ideas of others, and the establishment of the superiority of the intellectual apparatus of one person over another. This latter atmosphere tends to create a high degree of compliance to the dominant idea expressed by the most powerful person in the room. In such an atmosphere dissent is dangerous and can unleash a highly critical dismantling of opposing positions, a huge disincentive to further engagement for many. Those of equal power to the speaker may relish this, but others are likely to be silenced, even just by witnessing another being attacked in this manner. In this way difference and variety in the group is diminished.

The Appreciative Inquiry process, however, is interested in difference, which is seen as bringing value and resource to the group. Within appreciative inquiry processes there is no pressure to all ‘sing from the same hymn sheet,’ indeed, exploration of difference is seen as key to the process of discovering attractive ways forward. This means that the tacit knowledge of the world brought by people with different backgrounds, experiences and cultural understanding from the dominant group can be brought to bear on the challenge. Rather, than is so often the case, being a level of difference that needs to be minimised to enable ‘fitting in’ at work, an experience dramatically brought to life in the recent novel ‘Assembly’ by Natasha Brown.

Culture Change Rather Than Individual Change

Saiyyidah Zaid, a consultant in the area of diversity, inclusion and equality points out that a purely person-centred approach to improving diversity, equality and inclusion practice and culture has been tried and tested in academia, organizations and community arenas and has had limited effectiveness. In other words, trying to change the behaviour of particular individual’s rarely works to promote a fully inclusive environment. Appreciative inquiry works to create change at a group or cultural level.

The second way we can use Appreciative Inquiry to enhance diversity, inclusion and equality is through a project focused on enhancing this culture. In other words, the affirmative topic might be something like: A Voice for All; Respect in Action; I, We, Us. Or some other phrase that resonates with the diverse, equal and inclusive culture the organization wants to create. The discovery phase would focus on the best experiences people have had of feeling seen, valued and heard. The dream would imagine a future where the desired culture already exists and explore how it operates, how it feels, what it creates, releases, allows and so on. The design phase would consider what the organization needs to change about its current way of being or operating to make those futures more likely. And the destiny phase would incorporate a new orientation towards a more inclusive, diverse and equitable future, and actions to move towards it.

In this way, I believe Appreciative Inquiry has a lot to offer those wishing to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace.

Other Resources

Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.

APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP

Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.

For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.

If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.

More blog posts categorised as ‘Positive Organisational Culture’