There’s a Policy for That: A Comparison of the Organizational Culture of Workplaces Reporting Incidents of Sexual Harassment

Abstract

It has been more than 25 years since the Equal Employment Opportunity Council first published guidelines on sexual harassment. In response, many companies developed policies and procedures for dealing with harassment in their workplaces. The impact of sexual harassment policies on changing workplace culture has been met with mixed findings. The current study investigates the environmental differences or organizational cultures of companies holding formal sexual harassment policies using organizational level data (2002 National Organization Survey). Logistic regressions compared organizations with and without formal complaints on organizational structure, worker power, and interpersonal climate variables. Findings indicated the importance of negative interpersonal climate variables (threatening, bullying, and incivility) in differentiating companies who experience formal complaints of sexual harassment from those that do not.