Preventing Sexual Harassment at Workplaces – the Legal and the Spiritual Perspective

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the spiritual trajectories of promoting harassment-free workspaces. The paper develops a bilateral model of individual and organizational spirituality about both the intentionality and outcomes of spiritual modes of thinking, decision-making, and performance. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper follows the case analysis method. It draws upon the experiences of an NGO working as an external change agent for instituting the spirit of the PoSH Act, 2013 in organizations. The authors have shortlisted 10 case studies from more than 100 sexual harassment cases handled by the NGO for addressing the larger issues of spirituality in organizations. The paper is interspersed with anecdotal and ethnographical references to continually juxtapose the letter and spirit of the legislation preventing harassment in India. Findings: As evangelists of harassment-free workspaces, the authors find that realization of this goal will not be possible with only passive, mechanistic compliance with the letter of law or the rules of the organization laid down in this regard. Research Limitations: The major limitation of this paper is that it only accounts the secondary information, the empirical investigation is missing. Managerial Implications: The aim of harassment-free workspaces as a building block of a harassment-free world is a collective journey of individuals, Internal Complaint Committees, organizations, and society as a whole. That organization where the spirit is given more importance than just the letter, and the closer an organization is to the principle of equality, as expected of us by the universe, the closer it is on its spiritual path to creating harassment- free workspaces. Originality/Value: The paper draws on the first-hand experience of the NGO and is an original contribution to the further development of research in this area.