Sexual harassment training: explaining differences in Australian and US approaches

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) is an increasingly prominent issue for organisations across the Asia Pacific. However, despite the costs of SH, there has been little consideration of why approaches to SH training vary so widely across countries. We report findings from two national surveys that document the prevalence and characteristics of SH training in Australian and US organisations. Results indicate that training was more prevalent in US organisations. We also examined whether differences in provision and type of training across the two countries was a function of differences in practitioner knowledge about training (a knowing gap) or the ability to use training best practices (a doing gap). There was some evidence of a doing gap reflecting differences in resource availability across the two countries. Findings suggest that practitioners in US organisations have access to more training resources, and are more likely to devote those resources to SH training.