Modern Workplace Discrimination: Subtle but Costly - Essay Sample

Introduction

The modern forms of discrimination in the workplace are subtle. Discrimination at the workplace is therefore hard to identify when they occur. The different kinds of discrimination at the workplace include discrimination against race, color, and religion and sexual harassment. Workplace discrimination have been reported to be expensive for any business. Personal biases against a worker or potential employee based on their age, ethnicity, genders or other prevailing differences have been reported to have the potential to shape workplace relationships as well as hiring decisions even in situations of working will a less productive individual (Shaw, Hegewisch & Hess, 2018). The existence if antidiscrimination rules protect workers experiencing unfair treatment at the workplace based on their differences such as gender, religion and national origin. Discrimination based on these differences can occur in different settings such as in school's admission and in deciding on marriage between people of different backgrounds or religions. However, this research study will aim to examine sexual harassment at the workplace in the United States and examine the impact it has on productivity and employees.

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The prevalence of discrimination for the different racial groups has much-received attention over the past. Sexual harassment remains a recurring global problem. Different states have taken measures to address the consequences of the problem and companies are either reacting or pro acting to the salient situation (Hejase, 2015). The different organization has remained active in the campaign against sexual harassment such as the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA) adopted in 1995 and called on the international community, governments, and civil society to develop and implement strategic actions in critical areas including violence against women especially the prevention against sexual harassment at workplace. Harassment alongside sexual harassment is a form of discrimination based on sex and hence are therefore against the general principle of equal treatment between all genders (Hejase, 2015).

Sexual harassment has been defined as a discrimination form which violates the 1964 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Shaw, Hegewisch & Hess, 2018). Rostamzadeh and Mehregan (2016) defined sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, other verbal or physical conduct that requests for sexual favors. Although the behaviors do not necessarily have to be sexual, they can include offensive remarks towards a person's sex. The US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) also defines sexual harassment at the workplace as any form of unwelcome sexual advances or any act of sexual nature that interferes with a person's job performance or otherwise creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile work environment (Rostamzadeh & Mehregan, 2016). Workplace sexual discrimination is not only prevalent among the females but also men and can range from inoffensive sexual jokes that are persistent to inappropriate touching and posting offensive materials online or on a bulletin board. Other examples of sexual harassment behavior in the workplace include unwelcome touching, sexually explicit text messages, starring or leering, sexually explicit physical contact, suggestive comments or jokes, unnecessary familiarity, sexually explicit posters, intrusive questions on a person's personal life, requests for sex, and uninvited requests for a date.

Title VII as federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, the nation of origin and applies to employers who have more than 15 employees. The federal law prohibits retaliation against a person when they file a complaint about discrimination, complained about discrimination or otherwise participated in employment discrimination investigations (Rostamzade & Mehregan, 2016). Title VII applies to federal, state and local governments and also to labor organizations and employment agencies.

Despite having such laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,1964, many people in the US still face sexual harassment at their workplaces. Although the different form of harassment makes it hard to identify when discrimination occurs, people must be made aware concerning the various types of discrimination and steps they can take in complaining about discrimination, filing a charge of discrimination and taking part in discrimination lawsuits. Surprisingly, even men fall victim of sexual harassment in their workplace. A workplace culture that is hostile or sexually permeated equates to unlawful sexual harassment. According to Hejase (2015), the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recorded more than 13867 sexual harassment charges. Between 1990 and 2009, there was an increase in the percentage of sexual harassment claims by male employees from 8% to 16% (Hejase, 2015). Some of the identified risk factors for sexual harassment in the US include working for tips (accounts for 14 percent of harassment charges to EEOC), working in an isolated context, working in a male-dominated career, and working in professions or settings with significant power differentials (Shaw, Hegewisch & Hess, 2018).

There are different consequences for sexual harassment at the workplace. Valiente (2013) suggested that the existence of sexual harassment in the workplace acts as a hurdle that hinders women's advancement to the top positions in an organization. Although in the modern world female are perceived to be aggressive enough to avoid sexual abuse by men, their working environments remain tolerant with sexual harassment such as in cases when sensitive jokes relating to female body parts as well as sex are perceived and believed to be normal and funny and unwanted touching is treated acceptably. Victims of sexual harassment often keep silent, and harassers escape unpunished (Valiente, 2013). Cultural, individual, institutional and social characteristics are the interconnected contexts which reinforce the long decade tolerance for sexual harassment (Valiente, 2013). Tolerance poses a significant impediment for women promotion since they are stuck in a dilemma. If abused employees publicly blame harassers in the workplace, they are often perceived as unfriendly which contributes to potential loss of their promotion chances. On the contrary, they are often labeled at set to get advancement when they accept unexpected abusiveness such as sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment in the workplace also affects employee effectiveness. McLaughlin, Uggen, and Blackstone (2012) reported that sexual harassment has a direct effect not only on persons experiencing the harassment but also fellow employees, the management and the harassers are also unproductive. Sexual harassment may lead to more costs for an organization as they go through lawsuits in defending complains of sexual harassment. Again, the claims of sexual harassment at the workplace taint the image of the organization, and some employees may leave since they would no longer want to be associated with the organization. As a result, the organization may lose its most talented workforce which leads to reduced productivity and increased costs due to high employee turnover. The management at any organization should promote and develop a harassment-free work culture from the perspective of increasing the organizational effectiveness. McLaughlin, Uggen, and Blackstone (2012) also reported that features of modern organization structure such as structural differentiation, formalization, decentralization, and social integration indirectly control employees through increasement in their job satisfaction and commitment and ultimately increase productivity and reduced turnover. Although there has been no intention in reducing sexual harassment using the modern organizational structure, (McLaughlin et al., 2012), proposed and found that they have the unintended consequences in doing so. Also, McLaughlin et al., (2012) also found out that the context-harassment linkage enhances the understanding of the relationship between sexual harassment and job satisfaction, job stress and intention to quit.

Beside the enormous financial loses associated with sexual harassment, other implications for sexual harassment in the US include: decreased productivity and increased team conflict; failure to meet business goals; decreased job satisfaction; undermining ethical standards in an organization leasing to employee disrespect; bad organization image; high turnover rate; and increased absenteeism (Hejase, 2015).

Sexual harassment in the workplace can be prevented. Hejase (2015) highlighted that every employer regardless of the organization size has the responsibility to prevent sexual harassment to avoid liability at the workplace. Employers must, therefore, implement precautionary measures actively to minimize the risk of sexual harassment occurring and must also respond to cases of harassment appropriately when they occur. Employers ought to have a sexual harassment policy in place, implement and monitor its effectiveness. Again, they should have appropriate procedures to handle complaints. The employee also has a role to play in the issue of sexual harassment. As cited by Hejase (2015), USAjobs.g4s.com (2012) indicated that employees who experience sexual harassment in the workplace should immediately report to their supervisor for appropriate action. Upon request, a management representative of the same gender as the complaining person should be available to receive the complain and ensure that the employee reporting the sexual harassment is comfortable. Further, complaints are to be investigated promptly and kept confidentially.

Conclusion

In conclusion, sexual assault is considered a criminal offense and also viewed as a form of sexual harassment. It is a global issue and affects both males and females. The different types of discrimination hinder easy identification of the occurrence of discrimination in the diversifying workplace. However, there are laws which protect and prevent employees from sexual harassment at the workplace, both employers have, and employees have the responsibility to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace as it is associated with severe consequences such as employee productivity.

References

Hejase, H. J. (2015). Sexual harassment in the workplace: An exploratory study from Lebanon. Journal of Management Research, 7(1), 107-121.

McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review, 77(4), 625-647.

Rostamzadeh, E., & Mehregan, R. T. (2016). Perspective on sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Mediterranean journal of social sciences, 7(2), 69.

Shaw, E., Hegewisch, A., & Hess, C. (2018). Sexual Harassment and Assault at Work: Understanding the Costs.

Valiente, C. (2013). Sexual harassment in the workplace: Equality policies in post-authoritarian Spain. In Politics of Sexuality (pp. 185-195). Routledge.