Managing Workplace Sexual Harassment: The Role of Manager Training

Abstract

Sexual harassment remains a persistent problem for businesses. Indeed, employers spend millions annually in sexual harassment litigation and liability costs. Furthermore, current U.S. law effectively makes it management's responsibility to implement programs to prevent and correct harassment, or else face heightened liability. A common element of prevention programs is training, especially for employees in positions of authority. Several states have gone so far as to mandate sexual harassment training. However, little research exists to demonstrate the efficacy of such training programs. It is known that training sensitizes people in recognizing harassment. However, no research has indicated that training enables managers to accurately identify harassment and respond appropriately. This exploratory study addresses this issue by examining whether training quantity (i.e., cumulative training hours), training variety (i.e., the number of training methods employed), and training recency (i.e., the elapsed time since training) predict a manager's ability to (a) accurately identify sexual harassment and (b) recommend an appropriate response. Results suggest that, while training increases sensitivity, training is associated with decreased accuracy in identification of sexual harassment. No relationship was found among the predictor variables and manager accuracy in recommending an appropriate response. Implications concerning these results are offered along with directions for future research.