How Organizational Responses to Sexual Harassment Claims Shape Public Perception

Danqiao Cheng*, Serena Does, Seval Gündemir, Margaret Shih

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
68 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Sexual harassment remains pervasive in the workplace. Complementing past research examining the intra-organizational effects of sexual harassment, this paper investigates its extra-organizational consequences by considering reputational damage organizations can suffer from sexual harassment claims. Four experiments (NTotal = 1,534) show that even a single sexual harassment claim can damage public perception of gender equality of an organization, which reduces organizational attractiveness. However, an organizational response characterized by proactive consideration of the claimant (compared to no mention of sexual harassment, mention of sexual harassment with no response, or a minimizing response to a sexual harassment claim) fully restores, and sometimes even increases, public perceptions of the organization’s commitment to due process and gender equality. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)169-186
Number of pages18
JournalBasic and Applied Social Psychology
Volume46
Issue number3
Early online date14 Feb 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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