Physical and emotional injuries may be caused to an employee or a customer based on the harassment behavior. The physical injuries can include those in the genital areas or all over the body. There are some of the other possible injuries, which are rape, psychological problems including depression, anxiety, and trauma. To stop or prevent harassment within the workplace, it requires it to be addressed in a comprehensive manner. There are different approaches to raising awareness and teaching about such topics, each of which is effective depending on the individual case.
Pedagogical Approach
Raising awareness about the topic of harassment and conducting pieces of training should be based on a pedagogical approach. At the introductory stage, it is important to convey information to company employees. The andragogical approach at this stage can lead to the fact that employees will study information from different sources, in different formats, or interpret it in their way. In a pedagogical approach, employees will perceive information from the words of the presenter.
Legal Side of Harassment
First of all, employees must always understand the consequences of such behavior, which include not only dismissal but also possible problems with the law. Sexual harassment can cause certain lawsuits including rape referring to the sexual assault initiated by an employee without the interest or permission of the client or another employee (Hemel & Lund, 2018). Any unwanted physical attack or physical contact towards an individual can be legally suited.
Raising Awareness
Education about harassment should be provided on a regular basis to the employees based on the training and awareness of all the staff present within a company. Real-life examples should be included in the training, as they help employees feel the reality of the problem based on the consequences that have already occurred. Including any facts or information from the personal experience of employees will also increase engagement and understanding of the essence of the topic of harassment.
Contact Person
In addition, all employees should be informed where and how they can apply if there is such behavior on the part of other employees or clients and it is impossible to resolve the issue on their own. In this case, a relationship of trust must be built between the employees of the company and the department or individual employee to whom they can turn since sexual harassment is a very personal and intimidating topic (Freedman-Weiss et al., 2020). Having such a relationship can help to notice the problems that exist in the company and eliminate them at an initial or already serious stage.
Additionally, there should be a policy of zero tolerance for such behavior, if it is proved that the employee’s behavior was harassment in any of its manifestations, the employee should be removed from work in the company and, if necessary, brought to legal proceedings. Employees should not assume that they will not be able to express harassment towards other people one day and will have a chance of correction. Tolerance to such manifestations should be completely absent.
Comprehensive Approach
The fight against harassment in a company must be comprehensive. Primarily, preventive measures should be developed, and these are the main measures since they allow preventing the problem at the initial stage or before it appears. Preventive measures are a set of measures starting with an analysis of the situation in the company and its needs, and further including trainings for employees, the development of anti-harassment policies, job descriptions, as well as the appointment of a person in the company responsible for carrying out such training, and collecting appeals from employees, if any.
Equality
Every employee of the company must follow the role model of non-harassment behavior. It is not acceptable for some employees to deviate from the norm in this direction. In the event of harassment, the rules must apply to any employee in any position and each of them must equally obey the guidelines. All employees must attend the pieces of training, including the company’s management. Separate pieces of training can be conducted for subordination, but the norms of behavior must be conveyed to all.
Defining Harassment
In job descriptions and policies, it is important to prescribe the specifics of behavior that is considered harassment. Otherwise, there may be a difference in the interpretation of such behavior (Smith & Coel, 2018). Clear norms should consider any touching without the consent of the other person, verbal harassment, intimacy, and similar manifestations. Training on these topics, firstly, will reduce the number of people who do not know what is included in harassment, as well as those people who unknowingly apply such behavior in practice.
Andragogical Approach
After all these stages, the andragogical approach should come into force. It will allow employees to independently observe the existing manifestations of harassment in the workplace and inform supervisors about it, if any. On the contrary to the pedagogical approach, employees should be self-motivated to follow these policies, due to their necessity, consistency, reasonableness, and optimal existence. This stage is permissible without strict control since adults will be able to coordinate independently their actions while acting within the framework of pre-developed behavioral policies.
In conclusion, harassment is a hot topic in the twenty-first century including its presence in the workplace. Fighting harassment involves a number of approaches, including pedagogical and andragogical ways to deliver the information and raise awareness, which together can prove to be most effective when used at different stages of implementation. Harassment requires an integrated approach, including training, policy development, the presence of a responsible officer, and monitoring.
References
Hemel, D., & Lund, D. S. (2018). Sexual harassment and corporate law. Columbia Law Review, 118(6), 1583-1680.
Freedman-Weiss, M. R., Chiu, A. S., Heller, D. R., Cutler, A. S., Longo, W. E., Ahuja, N., & Yoo, P. S. (2020). Understanding the barriers to reporting sexual harassment in surgical training. Annals of surgery, 271(4), 608-613.
Smith, F. L., & Coel, C. R. (2018). Workplace bullying policies, higher education and the First Amendment: Building bridges not walls. First Amendment Studies, 52(1-2), 96-111.