Reconceptualizing the Role of Climate in Sexual Harassment
Sims, Carra S.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/82103
Description
Title
Reconceptualizing the Role of Climate in Sexual Harassment
Author(s)
Sims, Carra S.
Issue Date
2005
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Drasgow, Fritz
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Industrial
Language
eng
Abstract
Climate for sexual harassment is well-established as an antecedent to the occurrence of sexual harassment in organizations. However, when climate is viewed as an embodiment of leader behaviors related to sexual harassment, and when sexual harassment is viewed as a process, it becomes apparent that there are actually multiple potential roles for climate. Various theoretical rationales offer support for climate as a mediator of harassment-outcomes relationships, a moderator of harassment-outcomes relationships, and involved in a dynamic interplay with sexual harassment. These three new perspectives, as well as the traditional perspective of climate as an antecedent only, are compared via structural equation modeling. Two military samples drawn from survey administrations seven years apart, and a subset of individuals who participated in both survey administrations, were used in modeling. Results indicate that, of the four roles for climate examined, only its role as moderator of the harassment-outcomes relationship did not receive empirical support. Although models positioning climate as an antecedent fit very well, nonrecursive models in which climate, primary appraisal, and sexual harassment were modeled as part of a feedback loop provided the most interesting results and more closely approximated the likely organizational reality. This suggests that the establishment of sexual harassment policy is not sufficient to control harassment, and that the day-to-day behaviors undertaken by leaders to enforce the policy are also essential.
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