Discuss about the ‘Allegations of serious sexual misconduct at Dubois Industries’.
Dubois Industries is one of the most prominent names in the manufacturing industry of Australia. The international firm has almost 1000 employees in Australia. Recently, the firm has been making headlines due to a severe HR issue, that is, sexual harassment. It has been highlighted that the incidence of sexual harassment is quite widespread in all levels of the company including the Board member level. The HR department of Dubois Industries is interested to conduct a thorough investigation to look into the matter and eliminate that to establish a healthy working environment and employee safety. The research proposal by Young Consultancy will address the issue of sexual harassment in Dubois Industries and how to eliminate that.
Problem statement
Sexual harassment is a burning issue in today’s world. Organizations that have this problem in the workplace ultimately experience a fall in the reputation and business overtime. Employees leave the organizations as they do not feel comfortable in such environment, which affects the productivity and performance of the organization (McDonald, 2012). Dubois Industries in Australia has been facing this challenge for quite some time, for which they have lost reputation. A research should be conducted to explore the root and nature of the problem within the organization, its impact on the employees and to find out the ways to solve the issue. With the solution, the organization can focus on designing and implementing the measures to reduce problem of sexual harassment in the company and establish a safe working environment for all.
The research questions are:
The research objectives are:
The expected outcome of the research is to get an insight about the existing problem in the company and to find out ways to solve that. Given the constraints of the research, that is, time and budget, some basic questions are framed to explore the specific aspects of the research issue. These questions will help to fulfill the objectives of the research. Data on these questions can be addressed by using two different methods of data collection, which are survey questionnaire and focus group. Both of these will save time and cost of data collection, required for the research. Hence, the researcher will frame the questionnaire and focus group themes accordingly to find out the answers to these research questions.
Sexual harassment has become one of the major concerns for many organizations across the world. Sexual harassment refers to a wide range of activities that involve the harassment of an individual due to his or her sex. The actions include various forms, such as, verbal or written abuse, unwelcoming gestures, requests for sexual favor, threats, and creating hostile environment, which would make an individual feel uncomfortable, offended, intimidated or humiliated (HerscH, 2015). It is not consensual or mutually agreed upon. There have been many instances of sexual harassment in the workplace across the world. In majority of the cases, power plays a vital role. The management or the person with a high position in the company often exploits the power of the seat to harass a subordinate for personal pleasure (McLaughlin, Uggen & Blackstone, 2012). On the other hand, it is also seen that, many people have taken undue advantage by placing a false claim to satisfy personal grudges or power. Thus, the issue of sexual harassment is highly controversial as well as sensitive.
Banerjee and Sharma (2011) highlighted in their paper that men and women have different level of awareness regarding the elements that cause sexual harassment in a workplace. They have also found that men mostly lack the knowledge regarding the harassment issue. Thus, it can be inferred from the study that women mostly face the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace and that is the reason, women are more aware of it. In this regard, the example of Susan Fowler and Uber can be mentioned. Fowler was an Uber engineer, who helped to unveil the events of sexual harassment happening in one of the largest start ups of the world. The women employees were mistreated, which made the female employees leave the organization within a short time span and the higher authority threatened Fowler not to report such things. However, Fowler divulged many incidents and advocated for the unethical actions to stop. Later the CEO of Uber resigned and the era of sexual harassment in Uber ended (Dowd, 2017). From this incidence, it can be said that, in many organizations, the higher management and the HR department do not take any measure in case of sexual harassment reporting due to the risk of hampering of reputation of the company. Employees can speak up for such instances only when the company ensures zero tolerance policy. Thus, organizational human resource policies often influence people to take actions against sexual harassment in the workplace.
Charlesworth, McDonald & Cerise (2011) showed in their paper that, there are various benchmarks to define sexual harassment behavior in a workplace. The characteristics outlined in the legal definition may not always categorize a particular behavior or gesture as sexual harassment, but nonetheless, that might affect the concerned individual mentally. The features can also be different in different countries and cultures. Toker (2016) showed in his paper that, cultural differences often distinguish perceptions regarding the behaviors leading to harassment in the workplace. For example, the nature of sexual harassment is starkly different in the USA and Turkey. Hence, there is a very thin line between the behaviors and the organizations must consider the situations and take appropriate measures very carefully.
According to Galinsky et al. (2006), there is a pattern that says the type of organizations that can be prone to instances of sexual harassment. Organizations that are male dominated, and highly hierarchical are prone to ignore or forgive the bad behavior. Men are more aggressive than women and when they feel that their position is threatened, then they start following such practices. On the other hand, degree of power imbalances is another cause of sexual harassment. Many men take advantage of their position in the company and exploit their power while harassing women employees.
Birinxhikaj & Guggisberg (2017) showed the impact of sexual harassment on the mental health of the employees of an organization. Less number of reporting makes it difficult to count the actual number of harassment instances in the workplace. They showed that, there is a very poor understanding of the concept of sexual harassment in workplace and the perpetrators are male and female colleagues and superiors and the individuals, who suffered sexual harassments at some point in their lives, often carry deep emotional scars. Victims suffer from low confidence, self-blame, mental health problems, and loss of job satisfaction. This affects their family also. Thus, it was said that the organizations should formulate strict zero tolerance policies and implement those so that, an efficient and supportive work environment can be established and none of the employees suffer from such mental stress.
Ammerman & Groysberg (2017) state that, sexual harassment is majorly an issue of leadership. Women do not need to be protected from such misbehavior from the male workers in the workplace, rather they need their managers and leaders to be vocal about the mistreatment and foster a culture in which sexual buying is seen as a threat to the organization.
Research methodology will represent the stages of research study, that is, research design, approach and logic behind the data collection and its approach, sampling method, ethical implications and data analysis process. The research study will be conducted on the employees of a particular organization, that is, Dubois Industries in Australia. The research will explore the sensitive issue like sexual harassment in Dubois Industries and its impact on the employees. Thus, the study will take exploratory research approach. In the explanatory approach, the researcher needs to explain the research issue against some established theories. In this given research, the aim is to examine the presence of sexual harassment in the organization and its nature, cause and impact, which would be addressed most appropriately and precisely by using exploratory method.
The answers to the research questions will be deducted from analyzing the data collected directly from the field of study. In this regard, primary data will be collected by the researcher from the employees of Dubois Industries. Since, this is a problem of organizational culture and so data on it have been published, hence, primary data should be considered for research. The researcher will follow both the survey and interview method for data collection. Survey method will enable the researcher to get answers from a large set of employees, which would be helpful to throw a light on the extent to which the issue is spread or about the awareness of the employees on the occurrence of the incidence. The survey form will contain 10 close ended questions, focusing on the demographic and research topic. The answers will be collected using a five point rating scale, such as, Likert scale, where 1 represents strongly agree and 5 represents strongly disagree. The researcher will also collect data through focus group. That will be conducted on few managers and board members of Dubois Industries. A small sample will be taken and focus group discussion, specific to the research topic will be conducted. This will help to throw light on the humanitarian aspects and thought process of the management of the company regarding the issue by using a cost and time saving way.
The research issue is highly sensitive and bears a significant implication for the organization. Hence, ethical considerations should be followed. Since, human participants will be involved in the data collection process, ethical checklist should be followed and informed consent should be taken from participants before conducting the survey and focus group. None of the participants should be forced to participate or harmed during data collection. None of them should be given any bait or bribe. They should be informed clearly that the data would remain confidential and will be used only for educational purpose. Their names or any other sensitive personal data will not be collected in the survey form (nhmrc.gov.au, 2009).
Data analysis process will involve both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The survey responses will be analyzed using quantitative analysis process. The response data will be converted into numeric values and statistical tools will be applied to find out the pattern or trend in the data, and causal relationship between the variables. The findings from the focus group will be analyzed qualitatively, using thematic analysis. Few themes related to the subject of the research will be chosen and the observations and findings from the focus group will be analyzed under each theme.
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From analyses of the pros and cons of the research issue, in consideration of the constraints of the research, that is, budget and time, it can be said that, the research study should be conducted. The issue of sexual harassment is a very sensitive issue as well as matter of concern for any organization and it should not be prevailed. Every organization should ensure that incidences of sexual harassment should not happen and if it happens, strict penalties should be imposed. As Dubois Industries has been facing this challenge, they must take measures to eliminate this problem and provide a safe and secure working environment to all the employees. Hence, this research should be conducted to explore the depth of the problem, to find out the ways to eliminate those and to make policy recommendations.
Ammerman, C., & Groysberg, B. (2017). Why Sexual Harassment Persists and What Organizations Can Do to Stop It. Retrieved May 17, 2018, from https://hbr.org/2017/12/why-sexual-harassment-persists-and-what-organizations-can-do-to-stop-it
Banerjee, A., & Sharma, B. (2011). Gender differences in perception of workplace sexual harassment among future professionals. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 20(1), 21-24. DOI: 10.4103/0972-6748.98410
Birinxhikaj, M., & Guggisberg, M. (2017). The wide ranging impact of sexual harassment in the workplace: an Australian pilot study. International Journal Of Employment Studies, 25(1), 6-26.
Charlesworth, S., McDonald, P., & Cerise, S. (2011). Naming and claiming workplace sexual harassment in Australia. Australian Journal Of Social Issues, 46(2), 141-161. DOI: 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2011.tb00211.x
Dionisi, A. M., Barling, J., & Dupré, K. E. (2012). Revisiting the comparative outcomes of workplace aggression and sexual harassment. Journal of occupational health psychology, 17(4), 398. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029883
Dowd, M, (2017). Susan Fowler: The Uber whistleblower that spoke out about sexual harassment in Silicon Valley. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/uber-sexual-harassment-silicon-valley-susan-fowler-whistleblower-experiences-taxi-app-us-a8018016.html.
Galinsky, A., Magee, J., Inesi, M., & Gruenfeld, D. (2006). Power and Perspectives Not Taken. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1068-1074. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01824.x
HerscH, J. (2015). Sexual harassment in the workplace. IZA World of Labor.
McDonald, P. (2012). Workplace sexual harassment 30 years on: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(1), 1-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00300.x
McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2012). Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review, 77(4), 625-647. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412451728
nhmrc.gov.au (2009). National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) – Updated May 2015 | National Health and Medical Research Council. Retrieved May 17, 2018, from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/e72
Nielsen, M. B., & Einarsen, S. (2012). Prospective relationships between workplace sexual harassment and psychological distress. Occupational medicine, 62(3), 226-228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqs010
Toker, Y. (2016). Perception differences in ambiguous forms of workplace sexual harassment: a comparison between the United States and Turkey. The Journal of Psychology, 150(5), 625-643. DOI: 10.1080/00223980.2016.1154810
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