Passive leadership and sexual harassment. Roles of observed hostility and workplace gender ratio
| Published date | 03 April 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2016-0169 |
| Pages | 594-612 |
| Date | 03 April 2018 |
| Author | Junghyun Lee |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Passive leadership and
sexual harassment
Roles of observed hostility and workplace
gender ratio
Junghyun Lee
Department of Management, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn,
Michigan, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine whether observed hostility mediates the link between
passive leadership and sexual harassment. The study also investigates how workplace gender ratio might
moderate this mediated relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –This study used online survey data by recruiting full-time working
employees in various US organisations and industries.
Findings –Results suggest that when working under a passive leader, both men and women are more likely
to experience sexual harassment. Furthermore, the positive association between hostility and sexual
harassment is stronger for female employees who work in a male-dominated organisation (low gender ratio).
However, the moderating effects of workplace gender ratio were not significant for male employees.
Practical implications –Organisations seeking to reduce or prevent sexual harassment should monitor
and screen out managers who display passive leadership behaviour and create a work environment where
collegial and civil interactions are encouraged and valued.
Originality/value –This research advances our knowledge regarding the organisational factors of sexual
harassment by examining passive leadership, hostile work context, and workplace gender ratio.
Theoretically, the study contributes to the sexual harassment literature by incorporating evidence on
passive leadership from a broader field of workplace aggression into sexual harassment research. Practically,
the study offers important implications for organisations that seek to minimise sexual harassment.
Keywords Quantitative, Sexual harassment, Incivility, Moderated mediation, Hostility, Passive leadership,
Gender ratio
Paper type Research paper
Sexual harassment is a form of workplace deviance or discrimination that is based on
biological sex (O’Leary-Kelly et al., 2000). The US Equal Employment Opportunities
Commission (Sexual harassment) defines sexual harassment as “unwanted conduct of a
sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of women and men at
work which include physical verbal and nonverbal conduct”. Although sexual harassment
complaints declined to 28.5 per cent from 1997 to 2011 (EEOC, 2012), sexual harassment is
still prevalent in organisations. A Recent study shows that over 50 per cent of women and
over 30 per cent of men experience sexual harassment (McLaughlin et al., 2012), and the
popular press often covers high-profile sexual harassment charges (e.g. cases of Department
of US Homeland Security and Yahoo executive; Fuchs, 2012; Linshi, 2014). Given that sexual
harassment causes negative consequences for victimized individuals (e.g. decreased job
satisfaction, anxiety, depression; Hershcovis and Barling, 2010; Munson et al., 2000;
Willness et al., 2007) and the organisations (e.g. absenteeism, turnover, lower organisational
commitment; Kelloway et al., 2006; Sims et al., 2005), it is important to understand what
factors contribute to sexual harassment.
With regard to antecedents of sexual harassment, the seminal work by Fitzgerald et al.
(1997) has served as the most widely used theoretical model in the literature.
This framework, which regards sexual harassment as a work stressor, suggests that
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 3, 2018
pp. 594-612
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-07-2016-0169
Received 21 July 2016
Revised 22 June 2017
Accepted 6 January 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
594
PR
47,3
sexual harassment is a function of organisational factors –organisational tolerance
(i.e. employees’perceptions of their organisation as tolerant of sexual harassment) and
job-gender context (i.e. proportion of women in the immediate setting). In organisations
characterised by strong perceptions of organisational tolerance, employees believe that
sexual harassment complaints are not taken seriously and per petrators would fa ce few
penalties (Hulin et al., 1996). More recently, O’Leary-Kelly et al. (2009), in their
comprehensive review article, pointed out the lack of empirical evidence for the specific
aspects of perceptions of sexual harassment tolerance (i.e. exactly what conditions
compose a tolerant climate?, p. 528). They further argued that sexual harassment research
must incorporate accumulated evidence within a broader field of the workplace
aggression literature to advance the sexual harassment literature. Bridging sexual
harassment research and workplace aggression literature is particularly important
because sexual harassment is a sub-type of workplace aggression, and thus incorporating
evidence from the broader field of workplace aggression would benefit sexual harassment
research (Dionisi et al., 2012; O’Leary-Kelly et al., 2009). To date, however, sexual
harassment has often been regarded as a distinctive form of harassment from other types
of aggression. As a result, the sexual harassment literature has progressed separately,
impeding more integrative approaches to studying antecedents of sexual harassment
(Barling et al., 2001; Dionisi et al., 2012; McDonald, 2012).
Having said that, the present study centres on organisational factors of sexual
harassment by incorporating evidence from workplace aggression into sexual harassment
research. Prior research has examined the relationships of different types of leadership with
various forms of workplace aggression (e.g. abusive supervision on workplace deviance:
Mitchell and Ambrose, 2007; structure and consideration leadership and counterproductive
workplace behaviour: Holtz and Harold, 2013; Laissez-Faire leadership and bullying:
Skogstad et al., 2007). In the sexual harassment literature, by contrast, although a few
scholars have acknowledged that the absence of guardians constitutes a condition leading
to sexual harassment in the organisation (e.g. De Coster et al., 1999; Quick and McFadyen,
2016), there has been a lack of empirical studies on particular leadership styles associated
with sexual harassment (Hunt et al., 2010). To fill the void in the literature, this paper
examines passive leadership (i.e. avoiding responsibilities and hesitating to intervene until
serious issues arise; DeRue et al., 2011; Kelloway et al., 2005) as an important organisational
factor contributing to the proliferation of sexual harassment. Although leaders are expected
to set the tone for the organisation and to provide social cues for employees regarding (in)
appropriate conduct, passive leaders do not meet such expectations (DeRue et al., 2011;
Robinson and O’Leary-Kelly, 1998). Moreover, these apathetic and indifferent leaders are
unlikely to punish or correct problematic behaviours (e.g. sexually harassing acts) of their
followers, which will not only silence the victim but also let the perpetrator avoid detection.
For these reasons, the current study proposes that passive leadership behaviours displayed
by managers will positively relate to sexual harassment.
Evidence also suggests that passive leadership is associated with increased levels of
interpersonal conflicts, workplace incivility, and bullying (Holtz and Harold, 2013; Hoel and
Salin, 2003; Skogstad et al., 2007). Harold and Holtz (2015) have shown that passive
leadership is related to employees’frequent experiences of incivility (e.g. yelling, ridiculing,
and intimidating) as well as their own engagement in incivility towards others. That is,
employees who work under a passive manager are more likely to observe and perceive
hostile interactions among coworkers (Miner-Rubino and Cortina, 2004; Tepper et al., 2015).
According to the theory of workplace incivility (Andersson and Pearson, 1999), observing
hostility may foster more aggressive types of interpersonal interactions such as sexual
harassment because employees often look to how their coworkers are treated for
information about behavioural norms at work and display similar behaviours according to
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Passive
leadership and
sexual
harassment
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