Workplace harassment is belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.
Workplace harassment has gained interest among practitioners and researchers as it is becoming one of the most sensitive areas of effective workplace management. A significant source of work stress is associated with aggressive behaviors at workplace. In Asian countries, workplace harassment is one of the poorly attended issues by managers in organizations. ISSN: 2223-4543. PDF However, it attracted much attention from researchers and governments since the 1980s. Under occupational health and safety laws around the world,Concha-Barrientos, M., Imel, N.D., Driscoll, T., Steenland, N.K., Punnett, L., Fingerhut, M.A., Prüss-Üstün, A., Leigh, J., Tak, S.W., Corvalàn, C. (2004). Selected occupational risk factors. In M. Ezzati, A.D. Lopez, A. Rodgers & C.J.L. Murray (Eds.), Comparative Quantification of Health Risks. Geneva: World Health Organization. workplace harassment and workplace bullying are identified as being core psychosocial hazards. Overbearing supervision, constant criticism, and blocking promotions are all considered workplace harassment.
Definition Workplace harassment is known by many other names. "Mobbing", "workplace bullying", "workplace mistreatment", "workplace aggression", "workplace molestation" and "workplace abuse" are all either synonymous with or belong to the category of workplace harassment. Text. Workplace harassment includes different types of discrimination and acts of violation that are not confined to one specific group. The wide-ranging types of workplace harassment can be loosely categorized into emotional and physical abuse. All of these forms of workplace harassment target various groups, including women, men, racial minorities, LGBT people, people with disabilities and immigrants. In essence, workplace harassment requires a pluralistic understanding, because it cannot be delineated in one coherent and concrete definition. Pdf.
Acknowledging the difficulty of formulating a universal definition of workplace harassment, Ezer broadly defines workplace harassment as "irrational repeated behavior towards an employee or group of employees, which represents a health and security risk. Pdf. Any act of discrimination or assault that systematically disadvantage the employees is considered workplace harassment. Workplace harassment can contribute to deterioration of physical and emotional health.
According to Rosa Brook, the concept of workplace harassment is based on two premises. First, regardless of gender, race, sexuality or any other defining characteristic, every person should be given the right to be "free from abusive treatment in the workplace". With freedom from abuse given as a basic human right, any form of discomfort or discrimination in workplace becomes labeled as an act of harassment. Second, the issues caused by workplace harassment affect the victims in harmful ways. Discrimination in the workplace hinders victims from successful advancement in their careers, limiting the capabilities of the victim.
A common misconception about workplace harassment is that workplace harassment is simply sexual harassment in the context of a workplace. While sexual harassment is a form of workplace harassment, the United States Department of Labor defines workplace harassment as being more than just sexual harassment. "It may entail quid pro quo harassment, which occurs in cases in which employment decisions or treatment are based on submission to or rejection of unwelcome conduct, typically conduct of a sexual nature. Workplace harassment may also consist of offensive conduct based on one or more of the protected groups above that is so severe or pervasive that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as being fired or demoted/reducing salary)."
By country
In the United States
Types The varying harassment imposed on the victims can be categorized into two different types, physical abuse and emotional abuse. Physical abuse refers to sexual assault and violence on body, while emotional abuse refers to imposing stress and bullying. Anderson and Militello found that often managers exhibiting harassing behavior were allowed to maintain their jobs because their behavior was seen to increase productivity in the short term. A study done by Kathleen D. Ryan and Daniel K Oestereich, Driving Fear Out of the Workplace, found that many of these behaviors can range from subtle emotional cues to outward physical threats and can include; silence, direct insults and even angry outbursts. Whether these actions are intentional or brought on by stress, the result can cause the employee to feel humiliated, isolated and may cause them to lash out at others. In 2017 and 2021, nineteen percent of Americans suffered abusive conduct at work, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute. Workplace harassment takes many forms.
Sexual harassment Sexual assault is one form of widely known physical harassment. Sexual assault in the workplace has gained media and academic attention mainly in the 1990s after a series of famous sex scandals. "Among the most notorious are the 1991 congressional hearings on the alleged sexual harassment of Anita Hill by Clarence Thomas, nominee to the Supreme Court; the sexual assault on female officers at a party during the 1991 annual convention of Navy fighter pilots; the dismissal of Air Force pilot Kelly Flinn for adultery in 1997; the 1998 trial and acquittal of the top ranking Army enlisted man on charges of sexual harassment; and the independent counsel investigations of President Clinton's sexual affairs with subordinates." With this cascade of sex scandals, the media and scholars have focused on developing more studies on sexual harassment in workplaces. Sexual assault becomes difficult to define, as the distinction between sexual harassment and consensual sexual behaviors is not finely delineated. Some occupations require a higher tolerance to sexual behaviors, such as waitresses and tour guides. More specifically, the employers for these occupations expect the workers to comply with the level of sexual interactions the workers would have with the customers. This unquestioned expectation from the employers then pushes the workers to see only two options. The workers would have to accept the sexual harassment from customers as "part of the job", or report the sexual harassment to the manager and get fired. Adding onto the pressure, reporting sexual assault comes with criticism from co-workers, as they see the sexual assault as part of the job requirement.
The prevalence of sexual harassment at work is high. For example, a study by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board in 1981 shows that among the female government employees, 33 percent experienced sexual comments, 26 percent had unwanted physical touching, and 15 percent was pressured for dates. Moreover, "Nearly 10% had been directly pressured for sexual cooperation, and a similar percentage described repeated telephone calls and unwelcome letters or notes." Other than this example, Fitzgerald states that "the enormity of such figures is difficult to grasp, indicating as they do that virtually millions of women are subjected to experiences ranging from insults to assault—many on an ongoing or recurrent basis— as the price of earning a living."
Workplace violence Another form of physical harassment at work is workplace violence. Workplace violence is defined as physical threats and assaults targeted at employees. There are two main perpetrators for workplace violence: criminals who approached as clients, and co-workers. The criminals assert violence through the forms of robberies and homicides, and the rate of homicides in the workplace has risen significantly over the past 20 years. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), 9,937 workplace homicides happened in the time period of 1980 to 1992, which averages out to about 800 homicides per year. "In 1989, homicide was the third leading cause of death in the workplace for all employees. Pdf. By 1993, homicide had become the second-leading cause of death on-the-job for all employees and had become the leading cause of death for women." Most of these homicides are by criminals, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that only 59 of the 1,063 were co-worker-related homicides, and the rest were made by criminals.
The workplace violence perpetrated by co-workers tends to be less obvious. The Northwestern National Life (1993) study showed 15 percent of respondents experienced physical attack at work, and 14 percent of respondents reported being physically attacked in the past 12 months. The acts of violence in workplace consist of pushing or shoving, fistfights, and rape. The SHRM study that interviewed 1,016 human resource professionals, "22% reported incidents of pushing or shoving, 13% reported fist fights, and 1% reported rape or sexual assault." Much of the physical violence on workers is preceded by physiological aggression, hinting that emotional harassment may be the cause for workplace violence. Pdf.
Emotional harassment Unlike physical harassment, emotional harassment is unnoticeable and also viewed as being more socially acceptable. Naturally, emotional harassment in the workplace gets less attention than physical harassment in the workplace, which perpetuates the issue of emotional harassment in the workplace. According to Keashly, emotional harassment can be defined as "the hostile verbal and nonverbal behaviors that are not explicitly tied to sexual or racial content yet are directed at gaining compliance from others." In short, emotional harassment is manipulation of people's actions through social behaviors.
One common form of emotional abuse in workplace is bullying. Also known as mobbing, workplace bullying "is a long lasting, escalated conflict with frequent harassing actions systematically aimed at a target person." Specific actions of workplace bullying include the following: false accusations of mistakes and errors, hostile glares and other intimidating non-verbal behaviors, yelling, shouting, and screaming, exclusion and the "silent treatment," withholding resources and information necessary to the job, behind-the-back sabotage and defamation, use of put-downs, insults, and excessively harsh criticism, and unreasonably heavy work demands designed to ensure failure. New Workplace Institute: promoting healthy, productive, and socially responsible workplaces. Pdf. The 2014 Workplace Bullying Institute/Zogby national survey shows that 27 percent of the total amount of Human Beings on the Planet Earth have experienced workplace bullying in the past, and 70-seven percent of employees are currently suffering with workplace bullying. In addition, "more than 97% of nurse managers reported experiencing abuse, whereas 60% of retail industry workers, 23% of faculty and university staff, and 53% of business school students reported abuse at work." Pdf. The areas of industry in which emotional abuse happens are not limited to one, but rather they range from hospitals, universities, manufacturing plants, research industries, and social service agencies.