Critical Incident Report: Addressing Sexual Harassment in HRM, MGT811

This report critically analyzes a case where a company's CEO faces sexual harassment allegations from previous subordinates, causing media attention and impacting the company's image. It examines the need to enhance management abilities to address unethical practices in the workplace. The report explores the challenges, leadership perspectives, and key personal competencies required to manage such situations, focusing on the implementation of human relation theory, fostering a supportive team environment, and the importance of employee rights and background checks. It also emphasizes the significance of a diversified working culture, training and development initiatives, and the adoption of anti-harassment policies to prevent future incidents. The report concludes with recommendations for improving management capabilities and fostering a more ethical and inclusive workplace.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
In this study, it has been identified that sexual harassment has become the common concern in
the workplace, which is impacting on the management practices. It is true that facilitating the
growth as well as development opportunities in the workplace, leadership practices in the
company can help to enhance the skills of management. Avoiding discrimination as well as
harassment in the workplace, enhancing the skills of management through training and
development process can be beneficial. In terms of enhancing management capabilities and
avoiding such situation in the workplace, diversified working culture needs to be introduced so
that the acceptance ability of individuals, can get improved. In order to enhance the management
capabilities for dealing with such situation, proper adoption of administrative management
theory can be beneficial.

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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Executive summary
It has been identified that in order to deal with unethical practices in the workplace, management
abilities need to be enhanced. In the case study, New CEO of the organization has faced
allegation of sexual harassment from two subordinates in the previous organization. After
separately publishing the news on media platforms, it has got viral. In responds to the above
scenario, it can be said that through the implementation of human relation theory, introducing a
supportive team in the workplace, people desires can get fulfilled.

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Introduction
Sexual harassment has become one of the important critical concerns of managers in the
workplace environment (Budden et al., 2017). It cannot be denied that due to excessive
influences of media platforms, these incidents get easily highlighted to the people, which not
only impacts on the management capabilities, but also it negatively affects the career graph of
the particular person. By continuing this it can also be said in order to deal with such unethical
practices in the workplace, management abilities need to be enhanced. The aim of this study is to
critically analyze the case scenario and identify the managers’ abilities as well as skills, which
are needed for managing such situations. In this study, identifying challenges in case scenario,
recommendations have been provided which can help to deal with the future management
challenges. The scope of this study is here analyzing the leadership perspectives, key personal
competencies have been recommend based on the current scenario. The report will not cover any
personal details of the employees.
Findings
Analyzing the case scenario, it has been identified that the New CEO of the organization
has faced allegation of sexual harassment from two subordinates in the previous organization.
After separately publishing the news on media platforms, it has got viral. Although the CEO has
repeatedly denied the allegation, however, both the stories have published separately on the
media platforms, which has impacted on the Image of the CEO. Sexual harassment can be
considered as unwanted welcome of sexual behavior that makes the person offended (McDonald,
Charlesworth & Graham, 2015). It can also be considered as the part of sexual discrimination
and also the major obstacle for women in the workplace. The report published in the year 2013
by the Law council, it has mentioned that four women have got victimized in the workplace due
to sexual harassment (Hemel & Lund, 2018). Analyzing the report it can be said that workplace
environment is one of the important key factors that influences such activities. In respond to this
incident, most of the women have left their jobs. In order to reduce the sexual harassment related
activities in the workplace, the managers have focused on enhancing the morale in the
workplace.
In the recent interview arranged by The New York Times, in which the sexual
discrimination related issues in global sport brand Nike has got highlighted. As its impact, the
#Me too movement in this organization has got raised. In order to deal with the situation, Nike
has actively focused on improving its workplace culture for avoiding the women discrimination
related challenges. In order to address the issue, the management acted swiftly and decisively in
case of protecting the interests of stakeholders and employees on this matter (Hemel & Lund,
2018). Analyzing the working culture in Nike, It has been identified that the diverse working
culture as well as increasing numbers of allegation has impacted on the employee turnover rate.
In this situation, understanding the behavioral perspectives of employees, the company has
focused on enhancing its capabilities for opposing the discriminative practices in the workplace.

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In this situation, formalizing the administrative power, the company has implemented the
theoretical aspects of Administrative management (Thompson, 2017). Analyzing the case
scenario it can be said that improper administrative structure is the major reason for creating
such situation. In order to enhance the management capabilities for dealing with such situation,
proper adoption of administrative management theory can be beneficial. By supporting this
Caiden (2017) stated that it can help to share the responsibilities of management for
understanding individuals’ perspective for maintaining the proper infrastructure in the
workplace.
In responds to the above scenario, it can be said that through the implementation of
human relation theory, introducing a supportive team in the workplace, people desires can get
fulfilled (Waldo, 2017). It is true that facilitating the growth as well as development
opportunities in the workplace, leadership practices in the company can help to enhance the
skills of management. In the words of Noe et al., (2017), it is true that with the effective
implication of human relation theory, proper behavioral perspective in the workplace can be
introduced that can help to enhance the leadership capabilities of the management authorities.
Analyzing above situation in the organization, it can be said that in order to avoid such situations
in future, it is important for individuals’ to know their own employment rights. In the words of
Noe et al., (2017), employees can be considered as the backbone in an organization, in that
situation, before recruiting a leader, the management should be aware of the background of the
particular person. CEO is an important post in an organization, who can easily impact on
workplace environment. Employee engagement as well as employee retention is the two
important components, which highly gets affected depending on the management capabilities in
the workplace. As an example, it can be said that Wesfermers, which is a popular retail chain in
Australian market has also adopted various initiatives for introducing effective management
initiatives through people development activities (Lindebaum, 2016). The company has
introduce training and development initiatives for maintaining the ethical practices in the
workplace. According to Shamim et al., (2019), diversified working culture can be considered as
one of the important contributors for avoiding the employee dissatisfaction in the workplace. It
can be said that introducing the diversified working culture, behavioral acceptance among the
employees gets improved. The increasing behavioral acceptance in the workplace can help to
avoid discrimination in the workplace (Lindquist & McKay, 2018). In respond to the above case
scenario, it can be said that in the previous organization employee discrimination was the major
issue, which has influenced such situations.
According to Shamim et al., (2019), in the analysis of repeated management issues in
Australia, it has been identified that most of the management related issues occur in the
workplace due to not following the legal framework of employee management, it negatively
impacts on the organizational culture. It has been identified that the age group between 18 to 64,
have complained about sexual harassment in the workplace. In this situation all the small,
medium and large sized organizations have adopted different training development strategy for
increasing awareness among the employees regarding such unethical practices (Thomas, 2015).

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On the other hand, enhancing the management capabilities, anti-harassment policy, Zero-
tolerance and others employee safety and wellbeing related policies can play an important role.
In respond to the above situation, it can be said that due to harassment related controversies of
CEO, it can be tough for the employees to accept the CEO. It is also true that sexual harassment
is one type of element which cannot be ignored in the workplace as it related to the safety of
women employees.
Leadership perspective in an organization plays an important role for ensuring both the
personal and professional development of the employees. In that case, leader is the role model
for employees, who not only influences the organizational culture but also helps to encourage
people to achieve their individual goals. In the response to the situation in the organization, if the
company will not take any drastic action against the particular situation, it will not only impact
on workplace culture, but also this allegation can impact on the employee turnover rate in this
company. On the other hand, it is true that CEO is the important position in an organization, who
can be considered as the true leader who can inspire others towards achieving their goals.
However, in this case, due to negative image of the leader can impact on the mind, which can
create dissatisfaction among the employees.
Conclusion
In this study, it can be concluded that sexual discrimination can be considered as the
important concern in the current business enviri9nbment, due to such unethical practices
employees’ dissatisfaction directly influencing the turnover rate, improper management practices
as well as ineffective leadership approach in the workplace drags such situations. In order to deal
with the situation, development of employee morale and ethics is important.
Recommendations
In this study, it can be recommended that in terms of enhancing management capabilities
and avoiding such situation in the workplace, diversified working culture needs to be introduced
so that the acceptance ability of individuals, can get improved (McDonald & Charlesworth,
2019). On the other hand, training and development has become necessary in terms of
developing the employee morale. Analyzing the above situation, it can be said that leadership
practices are very important in the workplace. Effective leadership practices in the workplace
can help the managing authority to understand the needs and demands of the employees (Budden
et al., 2017). The company can also focus on introducing an auditing team, which will not only
analyze the performance off individuals, but also the team will look after if the company is
following all the employment development related regulations or not. It can be assumed that with
the strict introduction of anti-discrimination regulation, unethical practices can get avoided.

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References
Budden, L. M., Birks, M., Cant, R., Bagley, T., & Park, T. (2017). Australian nursing students’
experience of bullying and/or harassment during clinical placement. Collegian, 24(2),
125-133.
Caiden, G. E. (2017). Administrative reform. Routledge.
Hemel, D., & Lund, D. S. (2018). Sexual harassment and corporate law. Columbia Law
Review, 118(6), 1583-1680.
Lindebaum, D. (2016). Critical essay: Building new management theories on sound data? The
case of neuroscience. human relations, 69(3), 537-550.
Lindquist, C., & McKay, T. (2018). Sexual harassment experiences and consequences for
women faculty in science, engineering, and medicine. RTI Press, 9750.
McDonald, P., & Charlesworth, S. (2019). Academic evidence on the causes, manifestations and
responses to workplace sexual harassment: Initial submission to the Australian Human
Rights Commission's National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces.
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.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Shamim, S., Zeng, J., Shariq, S. M., & Khan, Z. (2019). Role of big data management in
enhancing big data decision-making capability and quality among Chinese firms: A
dynamic capabilities view. Information & Management, 56(6), 103135.
Thomas, A. (2015). Incidents of sexual harassment at educational institutions in India:
preventive measures and grievance handling. International Journal of Recent Advances
in Multidisciplinary Research, 2(03), 0317-0322.
Thompson, J. D. (2017). Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory.
Routledge.
Waldo, D. (2017). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public
administration. Routledge.