Clean the 4 Corners - Here I Grow… says Sexual Harassment!!
On Women’s Day today let’s peep into the 4 corners where Sexual Harassment grows dirty and the roots go unnoticed many times. We have been going through all the overflowing articles and failed Women Empowerment programmes. We see the factors for aggravating in incidences of Sexual Harassment in combination of 1) Organisational Issues and 2) Personal Issues. Rather than fighting with the Sexual Harassment happenings and condemning them later, we need to have a “Nip in the Bud” policy for any problem arising anywhere. Let’s find it how:
Culture
As is always said the actions of employees emerges from the Culture of the organisaion. Culture not only emerges from actions of the highest authority or the policies of the organisation but also from the decisions of Local leaders. In the Era where we are entering into Global Businesses or online marketing, more of culture is branched into the culture spread by the Local leader or Line Managers.
Target Practices - Leadership Development (at various levels), Awareness events, Communication Policies, Transparency, etc.
Diversity and Inclusion
A very easy question to be asked for explaining this concern is “How many Sexual Harassment cases happen where we have majority of Women Employees and vice versa?” This also invites a discussion on dimension of Women Leadership. According to a study, in the private sector, these numbers are comparable; in 2016 women held 19.7% of board seats on Fortune 1000 companies. Though the numbers are improving, it is still almost exclusively the domain of men, especially at the upper rungs of power. Mind it, not able to share their ideas due to lack of diversity is also a form of Sexual Harassment.
Adding on to it the Demographic Diversity brought in with a flush of Millennials and Generation Z coming in the operational cadre, the culture, openness, interaction, way/shifts of working, comfort level within peers all has undergone a drastic change.
Target practices - Normative Acceptance of Diversity, Team Building exercises, continuous monitoring on Grievance Redressal Policies, Awareness about D&I, Communication Policies, Focusing on policies for making the environment better than ignoring diversity, etc.
Education & Family Upbringing
Now, how does this affect the organisations? Though inculcating from the Layers of Social Culture, the Education and Family upbringing brings in obvious differences, such as its food, dress, culture’s shared and stated sense of acceptable behaviors—what is right and wrong or may be core beliefs about how the world is and ought to be. This may also result in an opinion that such kind of Harassment behaviours whether Sexual or Professional to be fine upto certain Levels.
Target Practices - Recruitment and Selection Processes, Onboarding, Psychometric Testing, Employee Relations, Behavioural Trainings, Cultural Surveys, Talent Management, inculcate Counselling and Feedback practices, etc.
?Self-Ambition to Selfish Ambition
It is long proven that Gender based Harassment is not only for Female Employees. It is prevalent for Men too. A basic thought behind Harassment is knowing the fact of Self Ambition by the Harasser. “Self-Ambition” is becoming “Selfish Ambition” in this commercialised and a professional world full of power struggle. The same being a base more in the “Quid pro Quo” kind of Harassment.
Target Practices - Workplace Structure, Performance Management Systems, Reward Strategy, Communication Practices, Transparency, etc.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*