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Workplace: Sexual Harassment

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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management

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Definitions

Workplace sexual harassment is a type of workplace aggression that is defined as “conduct as unwanted or unwelcome, and which has purpose or effect of being intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive” (McDonald 2012, p. 14).

Introduction

The phenomenon of workplace sexual harassment was first identified as an occupational problem in the 1970s, and it has received a great deal of attention from researchers, practitioners, and the media ever since. Although there has been a decrease in the number of formal complaints of workplace sexual harassment in the last decade (Quick and McFadyen 2017), it continues to be a significant problem for both organizations and individuals. Victims of workplace sexual harassment suffer from a wide range of mental health problems that are difficult to treat. Similarly, organizations face a significant amount of productivity loss on top of costs associated with litigation and human rights complaints.

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Future Readings

  • McDonald, P. (2012). Workplace sexual harassment 30 years on: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(1), 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quick, J. C., & McFadyen, M. (2017). Sexual harassment: Have we made any progress? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 286–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willness, C. R., Steel, P., & Lee, K. (2007). A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of workplace sexual harassment. Personnel Psychology, 60(1), 127–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Duygu Biricik Gulseren & E. Kevin Kelloway

Authors
  1. Duygu Biricik Gulseren
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  2. E. Kevin Kelloway
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Correspondence to E. Kevin Kelloway .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA

    Lauren R. Shapiro

  2. Dept. of Security, Fire & Emergency Mgmt, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, USA

    Marie-Helen Maras

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Gulseren, D.B., Kelloway, E.K. (2019). Workplace: Sexual Harassment. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_110-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_110-1

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