Organizational Sexual Harassment Investigations: Observers' Perceptions of Fairness

Human resource practitioners have recently suggested that in order to enhance the acceptability of he results of an investigation into alleged sexual harassment, organizations should use investigators who are the same sex as the alleged victim and who are external to the organization. The validity o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of managerial issues 2008-04, Vol.20 (1), p.88-108
Main Authors: Elkins, Teri J., Phillips, James S., Ward, Stephanie G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Bias
Distributive justice
Employees
Fairness
Female employees
Forecasts and trends
Gender bias
Harassment
Investigations
Justice
Litigation
Observational research
Perceptions
Perceptual organization
Procedural justice
Sexual harassment
Social aspects
Studies
Variance analysis
Women
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Summary:Human resource practitioners have recently suggested that in order to enhance the acceptability of he results of an investigation into alleged sexual harassment, organizations should use investigators who are the same sex as the alleged victim and who are external to the organization. The validity of these prescriptions was tested i n a 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 laboratory experiment. Results indicated that women viewed female investigators' treatment of victims as more fair and they were perceived to have rendered fairer decisions than their male counterparts. External investigators were perceived as less biased and more fair than internal investigators. Moreover, third-party observers held stronger beliefs that victims should pursue litigation against the organization when an internal investigator was used. Relationships among bias and fairness perceptions were, however, moderated by occupational gender context and by the decision itself. Finally, results indicated that perceptions of distributive justice mediated the re-lationship between the investigator's gender, outcome, occupational gender and observers' endorsement of litigation.
ISSN:1045-3695
2328-7470