Sexual Harassment: Unwanted, Intimidating, Unfair - Essay Sample

Introduction

Sexual harassment is an unwanted sexual advance; it can be verbal like sexually motivated remarks or physical, implied, or direct. In the workplace, sexual harassment can affect any employee; mainly, women are the most victims. It affects the productivity of workers as it alters the working environment because employees feel uncomfortable and intimidated. Organizations have to know that the act of sexual harassment lies within the broader context of inequality of opportunity and sex discrimination in the workplace (Nielsen et al., 2017). It is an unethical practice that needs a remedy to get rid of it and create a favorable working environment. Various alternatives act as a solution to eradicate sexual harassment. One of the practices is the implementation of a policy by the organization's management (Nielsen et al., 2017). The policy to be implemented should be well developed with suggestions gathered from every stakeholder in the organization to come up with a policy that addresses the whole issue and that respects the rights of all employees through the prohibition of sexual harassment in the workplace.

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After establishment and implementation, the policy has to be stated in the Company Code of Ethics so that each employee, when recruited to the organization, get a privilege to read through the policy and understand the stand of the organization in the case of sexual harassment (Johnson, 2018). The paper identifies the problem of ethical dilemmas in the act of sexual harassment in the workplace. It analyzes the ethical perspectives in the act and provides various alternative solutions to ethical practices presented in sexual harassment; then lastly, the best solution among the alternatives is selected.

Problem Identification

Sexual harassment is a problem in organizations that constitutes acts like unwelcome sexual advances that impacts individual employees in the workplace. Sexual harassment has an ethical implication that is concerned with the workplace questions of what is acceptable and unacceptable in an organization's working environment from the perspective of both men and women (Nielsen et al., 2017). The ethical dilemma arises when an employer refuses to do something right to a particular employee who declines his or her sexual advances resulting in workplace discrimination.

There is an ethical dilemma in sexual harassment as it is now known that approximately half of all working women in the United States are probably to be victims of some stage of their employment; the effects are negative or positively harmful. It is now the responsibility of employers to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and take action before it happens (Congress, 2017). Hence, there is an ethical problem in sexual harassment that needs to be solved in the workplace through identifying the stakeholders in a dilemma, the conflicting values, and outcomes to generate a reasonable solution to the dilemma.

Problem Investigation

The action of one perpetrator of sexual harassment can establish a sexually hostile environment for both male and female employees. It is practiced in the workplace by different individuals starting from employees to fellow employees or the employer to an employee. In a case where an employer or manager is the perpetrator, employees will worry about losing their jobs, which forces them to give in to sexual advances. The employees are faced with two choices, such as giving up for sex and retain a job or deny giving in for sex and losing the job.

The decision between the two choices is what raises the issue of ethical dilemmas, and it is always hard for employees to make a decision as about all of them will give in for sexual advances and retain their jobs. More so, employees who perpetrate the harassment against other employees usually put indirect pressure on them either to report the act, leave the job, or to tolerate the act; thus, the harassed workers are forced to choose either to take a wrong action that produces a good outcome or a right action that produces a negative outcome on the part of that employee. The stakeholders in a dilemma are the perpetrator and the employee under the harassment. The conflicting values are between right and wrong; then, the outcomes are positive or negative depending on the decision that will be made by the victim. The decision to be presented in a dilemma will be more of justice for the victim of sexual harassment.

Alternative Solutions

Taking, for instance, the ethical dilemma presented by the act of sexual harassment in the workplace, an employee or the victim has to make a decision. But, before concluding any decision, he or she has to consider various alternatives. The first alternative is to accept the sexual advance, which is a wrong act and save the job, which is good. The second alternative is to deny giving in for sexual advance, which is the right action and lose the job, which now becomes negative on the part of the employee. Then, the third possible alternative is for the employee to give up for sexual advances and later report the issue. But, in reporting the harassment, the employee is again faced with the dilemma of reporting and risks the job or keeps quiet and accept the accusation of condoning the acts. It is now a matter of choosing the best and right solution, which is well-reasoned and carefully considered.

Solution Isolation

After considering the alternatives, the last step is to choose a well-reasoned solution that its benefits exceed its harms where the codes of ethics in the organization should not be violated by the solution taken. Ethical judgment has to be used by the decision-maker to evaluate what is right and wrong in the solution concerning the victim's obligations in the organization (Congress, 2017). The ethical values in any organization mirror decision that is values-based and that focuses on rights and responsibilities. The employee faced with the ethical dilemma should not make a decision that takes his or her rights at the expense of the good of the perpetrator, instead decide a solution that supports personal rights and is ethical, and it is suitable for other employees.

It takes a lot of courage and perseverance for an employee experiencing the ethical dilemma of sexual harassment to overcome obstacles in making decisions that play and follow their conscience with use of steps such as examination of individual and professional values, thinking about relevant laws and ethical standards, and hypothesizing the possible consequences. With the three alternative solutions presented, the best solution that is well-reasoned is denied to give up for sexual advance and take action of reporting the case to the company management when the perpetrator is another employee. Then when the perpetrator is the employer or a manager, the victim has to do the same; deny and report to a court which will then assess if the perpetrator committed sexual harassment. The solution chosen from the alternatives is the best it is ethical and well-reasoned as after the attempted sexual harassment, the victim will get assistance from the organization's management if the perpetrator is a colleague, and from the court, if the perpetrator is employer or manager.

References

Congress, E. P. (2017). What social workers should know about ethics: Understanding and resolving practice dilemmas. Social work ethics, 1(1), 1909-35.

Johnson, C. E. (2018). Organizational ethics: A practical approach. Sage Publications.

Nielsen, M. B. D., Kjaer, S., Aldrich, P. T., Madsen, I. E., Friborg, M. K., Rugulies, R., & Folker, A. P. (2017). Sexual harassment in care work-Dilemmas and consequences: A qualitative investigation. International journal of nursing studies, 70, 122-130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.02.018