University Name: Sexual Harassment Case - Critical Incident Report

This report analyzes a critical incident involving a CEO accused of sexual harassment by former subordinates. The report explores the background of the case, the legal and ethical implications, and the impact on the organization's work culture and employees. It provides recommendations for the board, including conducting an audit, establishing a confidential reporting hotline, and ensuring a thorough investigation process. The aim of the report is to recommend actions to mitigate the negative effects of such incidents and prevent future occurrences. The report emphasizes the importance of addressing sexual harassment to maintain a positive work environment and protect the organization's reputation and financial stability.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES
CONTEMPORARY MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Description.................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations..................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Sexual harassment can be defined as a heinous crime encompassing implicit or
explicit overtones of sexual nature, making inappropriate promise to give in return of sexual
favors (Gutek, 2015). Sexual harassment is a wider term whose circumference ranges from ill
verbal comments to sexual assault or abuse. It is a hot topic of discussion in today’s world
where more and more such cases have cropped up recently. This situation demanded urgent
intervention of the government authorities and law making bodies around the world as well as
private organizations and social associations to step in and fight against such heinous crime.
Sexual harassment has no fixed place and may occur at any places like school, colleges, and
churches; however, the major complaints are lodged to have happened in workplace (Spector,
Zhou and Che, 2014). The law and statute strictly condemns such unlawful act especially at
workplace and all the major countries around the world has codified heavy punishment for
the offenders. In Australia, sexual harassment at workplace is governed by “Sex
Discrimination Act 1984” under “1.2.4 of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Code of
Practice for Employers.” In Europe it is governed by a “Directive 2002/73/EC that works on
the principle of equal opportunities and treatment of men and women in workplace. In the
Peoples Republic of China the sexual harassment is governed by “Law on Women’s Right
Protection” and further explained in “Shanghai Supplement.” In the United States, the cases
of sexual harassment at workplaces are governed by the “Civil Rights Act” of 1964 where,
“42 U.S.C. 2000e-2” now covers both men as well as women which was covering only
female earlier. This shows that it is not the women alone who is a victim of such heinous
crime but also the men too are susceptible to such crime at their work place. It should also be
kept in mind that it is not only the corporate offices where such crimes stimulates but also
there is record of such crimes among the armed forces as well as the military. In 2018, the

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margin of sexual assault within the U.S. armed forces has reached an all-time high of 20,500
people where 13,000 were female and 7,500 people were male (Morral, Gore & Schell,
2015).. According to the earlier studies made on this topic, majority of those topics have
demonstrated the risk factor within the armed forces to be the young age of the personnel and
is less common among the matured personnel. They also point out that the child cadets are
more exposed to sexual harassment risk and during war situations such risk multiplies even
further.
In the present scenario, CEO has been accused of sexual harassment by two his earlier
subordinates from the company he was serving as a COO. The case has become a hot topic
for debate and support by the participants of social media. Mr. CEO has denied of such
accusations however separate statements recorded from two subordinate’s shows uniformity
in such statements. The aim of the study is to elucidate the burning issue of sexual
harassment which is recent time the most debated topic in social media. This study covers the
background of what sexual harassment is really is and how it has cropped up multiple times
in modern workplaces recently. This study encompasses the main assessment of the situation
thereby giving recommendations to the board on the consequences that such crimes have on
its workplace, work culture and the employees relating to the overall working of the
organizations. However, it should be kept in mind that the aim of the study is to recommend
the board about sexual harassment at work place along with its consequences and ways to
eliminate such offence in future and not comment on the punishment it should inflict on the
accused.

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Description
The indiscriminate sexual harassment in different organizations may it be private,
public and in some cases, involved the most sophisticated entertainment industry, led to the
development of major campaigns around the world against such crime (Jagsi et. al., 2016).
The principal movement against this crime is “Me Too” movement which started as an online
campaign way back in 2007; however, it started to spread around the world post October
2017 when more and more women came forward in social Medias as well as physically
before media to protest against this crime. The need of the situation was to make new laws as
well as make the existing laws on sexual harassment more stringent. The legal procedures
against such crime has become swifter and at the same time imposed harsh consequences on
the individuals committing such heinous crime. Modern laws condemns sexual harassment at
workplace; however it does not cover minor teasing, some isolated incidents and comments.
The law comes into effect only when such offences are severe in nature. In Australia sexual
harassment is covered under the “Sex Discrimination Act 1984” This act condemns such
heinous crimes and inflicts heavy punishment on the individuals and group of persons
committing such crimes.
In today’s world most of the corporate organizations have their own plans and
policies to combat sexual harassment at workplace (Mitchell, Ybarra & Korchmaros, 2014).
If not they should design the investigation of sexual harassment cases in such a way that it is
kept confidential to respect the integrity and safety of the victim bringing such matters onto
the notice of management.
Harassment of this nature may occur anywhere; however, the burning issue in today’s
world is such harassment in work places. In a work place, a perpetrator can be any body, a

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friend, colleague, boss, or any other superior in the management (Nauman & Abbasi, 2014).
It may be that such heinous act may occur in presence of other persons but in most cases
there are no witness to such crimes. Such crimes hampers the normal working of the
employee as such events hampers his/her mental steadiness peace of mind which in turn
affects and is shown through their reduction in production and also hampers the normal
productivity of the organization as well if such cases come up in the public (Conte, 2019).
If the organization do not pay proper attention to this growing problem of sexual
harassment and are not interested in taking satisfactory measures at workplace, the following
things could happen:
 The productivity of the organization can be hampered to a great extent (McDonald &
Charlesworth, 2016).
 This situation may cause conflict among the different teams within the organization.
 It may stimulate the feeling of job dissatisfaction among few or many employees
within the organization (McLaughlin, Uggen & Blackstone, 2017).
 This situation will enhance the labor turnover in the organization, where the existing
staffs will want to move out of the organization and join some other organizations
which have a better work environment and work culture.
 If this situation persists then there could be increased absenteeism among the
employees thereby hampering the overall production of the organization.
 This will not allow the organization to meet its long-term strategic goals in an
effective manner thereby hampering its financial status and if such situation persist for
long can hamper the firm’s market standing and reputation (Mushtaq, Sultana &
Imtiaz, 2015).

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 The health-care as well as treatment cost of the harassed person will increase the
expenses of the organization.
 Such harassment news may undermine the discipline and ethical standards within the
organization and decrease the face of the organization to the outsiders.
 Such issue may invite more litigation for the organization and also enhance the cost
relating to legal procedures not only on behalf of the victim as well as for clearing its
image in the market.
Recommendations
Based on the above study it is evident for the board to take improved decisions and
judgments in matters relating to sexual harassment happening within the organizations. The
following recommendations would be of material importance to the board:
 The board should order an audit on the present case of sexual harassment and also
order for periodic audit of all the previous cases to draw attention on the failures to
stop the cases before its occurrence in the first place (McDonald, Charlesworth &
Graham, 2015).
 The board should make arrangements for a hotline number managed by an outside
part who will bypass HR and will directly report then cases to the board.
 When the accusation is formally made, the employee who is accused, should not be
allowed to join office before the completion of the enquiry.
 Careful scrutiny should be done relating to all matters that cropped up in the enquiry
(Buckner et. al., 2014).
 Finally the board has to take the prudent decision whether the accused is really
convicted or nota and share the results with the parties concerned seeking their views
on it and if needed has to inform the government authorities.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion it is evident that sexual harassment is the most heinous
crime and the most debated topic in today’s world. The cases of sexual harassment mainly
crops up in the corporate buildups however some cases are also been reported from the
government buildups especially from the armed forces. It is a crime which is condemned by
laws made by all major nations of the world. In the study above, proper recommendations
have been given to the board concerning its ill effects on the organization as a whole and
steps to be taken by the board for eradication and minimization of such heinous crime in the
first place.

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References
Buckner, G. E., Hindman, H. D., Huelsman, T. J., & Bergman, J. Z. (2014). Managing
workplace sexual harassment: The role of manager training. Employee
Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 26(4), 257-278.
Conte, A. (2019). Sexual harassment in the workplace: Law and practice. Aspen Publishers.
Gutek, B. A. (2015). Sexual harassment. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, 1-1.
Jagsi, R., Griffith, K.A., Jones, R., Perumalswami, C.R., Ubel, P. and Stewart, A., 2016.
Sexual harassment and discrimination experiences of academic medical
faculty. Jama, 315(19), pp.2120-2121.
McDonald, P., & Charlesworth, S. (2016). Workplace sexual harassment at the
margins. Work, employment and society, 30(1), 118-134.
McDonald, P., Charlesworth, S., & Graham, T. (2015). Developing a framework of effective
prevention and response strategies in workplace sexual harassment. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, 53(1), 41-58.
McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C., & Blackstone, A. (2017). The economic and career effects of
sexual harassment on working women. Gender & Society, 31(3), 333-358.
Mitchell, K. J., Ybarra, M. L., & Korchmaros, J. D. (2014). Sexual harassment among
adolescents of different sexual orientations and gender identities. Child abuse &
neglect, 38(2), 280-295.
Morral, A. R., Gore, K. L., & Schell, T. L. (2015). Sexual assault and sexual harassment in
the US military. Volume 2. Estimates for department of defense service members from

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the 2014 RAND military workplace study. RAND NATIONAL DEFENSE
RESEARCH INST SANTA MONICA CA.
Mushtaq, M., Sultana, S., & Imtiaz, I. (2015). The trauma of sexual harassment and its mental
health consequences among nurses. Journal of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons Pakistan, 25(9), 675-679.
Nauman, B., & Abbasi, A. S. (2014). Sexual harassment at workplace… A case of banking
sector in Lahore. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 20(5), 558-566.
Spector, P.E., Zhou, Z.E. and Che, X.X., 2014. Nurse exposure to physical and nonphysical
violence, bullying, and sexual harassment: A quantitative review. International
journal of nursing studies, 51(1), pp.72-84.