Managing Sexual Harassment More Strategically: An Analysis of Environmental Causes

Despite the growing prevalence of sexual harassment across industries, the majority of research has focused on the frequency of harassment and the associated outcomes. While this situation provides strong justification for strategies such as policy development, grievance handling procedures and training to be implemented within organisations, it does not help business leaders adopt a strategic orientation to eradicating the problem. A shift away from a reactive response once a claim is made towards initiatives geared at prevention is required. Operationalising this argument requires an understanding of what heightens a person's vulnerability to being harrassed.This paper reports the results of a project on the environmental factors that contribute to incidents of sexual harassment. Data for this study was collected from 538 nurses working in a sample of Australian hospitals. A model is introduced that examines organisational variables and correlations to sexual harassment. The model was tested via SEM and revealed that an unbalanced job gender ratio, a nurses' negative perception of their manager's leadership style and no prior socialisation are all positively associated with sexual harassment.