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Sexual harassment (SH) has been identified as one of the most damaging and ubiquitous barriers to career success and satisfaction for women. This study meta-analyzed data from 41 studies, with a total sample size of nearly 70,000 respondents, to examine several negative consequences of workplace SH as well as how situational factors may play a role in facilitating these occurrences. SH experiences are associated with negative outcomes such as decreased job satisfaction, lower organizational commitment, withdrawing from work, ill physical and mental health, and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, organizational climate for SH figured prominently in facilitating these occurrences.
Sexual harassment (SH) has been identified as one of the most damaging barriers to career success and satisfaction for women (Fitzgerald et al., 1988). Lengnick-Hall (1995) outlines a litany of potential costs to the organization, including legal fees resulting from litigation, unwanted publicity, negative effects on recruitment of new employees and retention of existing workforce, lower productivity, increased absenteeism, and increased sick leave costs. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (E.E.O.C.) recently reported that they received and resolved nearly 14,000 charges of sexual harassment, at a cost of over $37 million in monetary benefits over and above litigation (E.E.O.C., 2005). SH is therefore also an arguably common occurrence, with most American estimates indicating that 40-75% of women and 13-31% of men experience some form of SH in the workplace (e.g., Aggarwal & Gupta, 2000; United States Merit System Protection Board (USMSPB), 1988). Researchers have demonstrated that serious negative consequences of SH are evident in any socioeconomic group, at any level of education, and across cultures and countries, age groups, and vocations (e.g., Antecol & Cobb-Clark, 2003; Barak, 1997; Gelfand, Fitzgerald, & Drasgow, 1995). Some researchers conclude that the experience of SH may indeed be universal (Gruber, 2003).
Given that SH is a prevalent and costly occurrence in the workplace, it is fortunate that our understanding of this phenomenon has been greatly enhanced by the increasing amount of research conducted in the last 2 decades. Studies on the antecedents and consequences of SH have been widely conducted. However, to further advance the study of SH, we have conducted a meta-analytic summary. Meta-analysis provides several contributions and advantages incremental to qualitative reviews (Hunt, 1997;...