NCJ Number
162506
Date Published
1996
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Building on broad theories of organizational climate and culture, this chapter examines the hypothesis that an organization's climate for sexual harassment is a critical antecedent to sexually harassing behavior and may be a direct contributor to negative outcomes beyond the personal experiences of sexual harassment.
Abstract
Using a facet analysis approach, the authors describe scale development of the Organizational Tolerance for Sexual Harassment Inventory (OTSHI), which measures the extent to which respondents perceive that sexually harassing behavior will be associated with negative consequences in their organization. Data from graduate students at a midwestern university (n=263) and employees at a West Coast public utility (n=1,156) provide evidence of the scale's reliability and validity. Moreover, the OTSHI not only predicted occurrences of sexual harassment, but was found to be a stronger predictor of negative work-related, psychological outcomes than were direct experiences of sexual harassment. Implications for the role of sexual harassment climate on general well-being of employees and for creating harassment-free workplaces are discussed. 2 figures, 3 tables, and 44 references