Understanding Sexual Harassment: Contributions From Research on Domestic Violent and Organizational Change (From Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Perspectives, Frontiers, and Response Strategies, P 217-240, 1996, Margaret S Stockdale, ed. - - See NCJ-162499)

• NCJ Number: 162510
• Author(s): J N Cleveland; K McNamara
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Literature Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This chapter draws from two literatures to further understanding of and potential to intervene in sexual harassment situations: domestic violence and organizational change.

Abstract

Both of these areas provide suggestions for intervention to address problems that share essential features with sexual harassment. Common themes that cut across sexual harassment and domestic violence include victim responses, power differentials between perpetrators and victims, social isolation, and perpetrator characteristics. The domestic violence literature provides parallels with sexual harassment at the individual level, and the organizational change literature shares common contextual features with sexual harassment, including formal and informal power differentials and the need to focus on multiple levels for intervention. The authors conclude that interventions selected to address sexual harassment, similar to those used in domestic violence and organizational change, must be a coordinated series of multilevel interventions that hold the more powerful participants responsible for their actions. 65 references