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SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN IT INDUSTRY

IN HYDERABAD
SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
Sexual harassment happens when a persons gaze or behaviour makes someone else
uncomfortable.
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and
other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when either:

The conduct is made as a term or condition of an individual's employment, education,

living environment or participation in a University community.

The acceptance or refusal of such conduct is used as the basis or a factor in decisions
affecting an individual's employment, education, living environment, or participation
in a University community.

The conduct unreasonably impacts an individual's employment or academic

performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for that
individual's employment, education, living environment, or participation in a
University community.

More than 90% of women and girls experience sexual harassment. Commonly known as
eve-teasing, sexual harassment is not as minor as the word teasing may sound. Unwanted
comments and songs, leering and whistling, kissing noises, vulgar gestures, unwanted
touching, stalking, flashing, demanding sexual favours, or showing pornography against
ones will all constitute as instances of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment creates a
climate of intimidation and repression.
TYPES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
Generally speaking, there are two types of sexual harassment, quid pro quo and hostile
environment.
Quid pro quo is Latin for this for that or something for something and refers to an
exchange. In this case, the exchange is between employees, where one provides sexual
favors in exchange for something else, such as favorable treatment in work assignments, pay
or promotion.
A hostile work environment is one in which unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature
creates an uncomfortable work environment for some employees. Examples of this conduct
include sexually explicit talk, sexually provocative photographs, foul or hostile language or
inappropriate touching.
According to University of Oregon, Counseling and Testing Centre, The types of sexual
harassment include:

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Gender Harassment: Generalized sexist statements and behavior that convey

insulting or degrading attitudes about women such as insulting remarks,
obscene jokes
Seductive Behavior: Unwanted, inappropriate and offensive sexual advances
such as insistent requests for dinner
Sexual Bribery: Solicitation of sexual activity or other sex-linked behavior by
promise of reward
Sexual Coercion: Coercion of sexual activity or other sex-linked behavior by
threat of punishment
Sexual Imposition: Gross sexual imposition or sexual assault.

RECOGNIZING SEXUAL HARASSMENT:

The six levels of Sexual harassment:

Aesthetic Appreciation
Active Mental Grouping
Social Touching
Foreplay Harassment
Sexual Abuse
Ultimate Threat

WHO IS A HARASSER & WHO MAY BE HARASSED?

Peer to peer harassment
Subordinate harassment of supervisor
Men can be sexually harassed by women
Same sex harassment
Third party harassment
WHAT ARE THE FORMS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT?

Physical
a. Malicious touching
b. Overt sexual advances
c. Gestures with lewd insinuation
Verbal, such as but not limited to, requests or demands for sexual favors, and lurid
remarks
Use of objects, pictures or graphics, letters or written notes with sexual underpinnings
Other forms analogous to the foregoing.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT?

Proposition:
Sexual harassment is, above all, a manifestation of power relations
Underlying Causes:
Violence and Male Self-Perception

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The Economics of the Womens Work

Discrimination as a Form of Workplace Control
Brainstorming results:
Sexual harassment as a natural practice based on simple sexual attraction
(i.e. boys will be boys)
Sexual harassment as caused by the victims provocative dress or behavior
(i.e. she was asking for it)
Sexual harassment as justified because women were working in jobs
traditionally held by men (i.e. this is mens work - women dont belong
here)

WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT?

Physical and psychological health effects

Financial effects
Social effects

WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT:

Say No or Stop it firmly and loud enough for someone to hear.

Document the event/s.
Inform someone about what happened
File a complaint

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE:

Sexual harassment is covered in the workplace when it happens:

At work

At work-related events (i.e., company celebrations)

Between people sharing the same workplace

Between colleagues outside of work.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES IN INDIA'S IT INDUSTRY:

So what if software giants claim that they have a Prevention of Sexual Harassment
(POSH) committee? It does not mean they are free from sexual harassment cases.
According to a study of annual reports of 46 Nifty companies by the Economic Times in
September 2015, almost 38 out of 50 Nifty companies have 415 sexual harassment cases
against them.
IT companies listed in Nifty are Infosys Technologies Ltd., Tech Mahindra Ltd., Tata
Consultancy Services Ltd., HCL technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. The companies which did

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not have harassment cases against them according to ET were Reliance Industries, HDFC,
Larsen & Toubro, Lupin, Bajaj Auto, ACC, ONGC and Coal India.
With 100 cases, Wipro was on top of the list followed by ICICI Bank with 94.

OBSERVERS INVOLVEMENT IN SEXUAL HARASSEMENT:

POTENTIAL ROUTES TO OBSERVER INTERVENTION IN SEXUAL
HARASSMENT:
Does situation require action?
Observers response depends on:

Ambiguity of conduct
Moral intensity of the incident
Social influence effects
YES
NO

Is it my personal responsibility to act?

Observers response depends on:

Perceived actor-target relationship

Social appropriateness of intervention
Social identity categorizations

YES

Should I take action now?

Observers response depends on:

Intervention scripts
Emotional reactions

YES
What are the net costs of involvement?
LOW
High-involvementHigh-Immediacy
Intervention

HIGH
Low-involvementHigh-Immediacy
Intervention

NO

Observer
intervention
unlikely

NO

NO

Should I take action later?

Observers response depends on:

Recurrence beliefs
Perceived harm
Perceived welcomeness
YES
What are the net costs of involvement?

LOW
High-involvementLow-Immediacy
Intervention

HIGH
Low-involvementLow-Immediacy
Intervention

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A TYPOLOGY OF OBSERVER INTERVENTION BEHAVIOURS IN SEXUAL

HARASSMENT:

Immediacy of intervention
Low

Low

Level of
Involvement

High

Low-immediacy-Low-involvement
Behaviours
Examples:
Observer privately advices target to
avoid the harasser
Observer covertly tries to keep
harasser away from the target
Observer advices target to report the
incident but doesnt get involved
personally
Low-immediacy-High-involvement
Behaviours
Examples:
Observer later reports the harasser to
management
Observer accompanies the target
when she/he reports the incident
Observer confronts the harasser after
the incident

High
High-immediacy-Low-involvement
Behaviours
Examples:
Observer redirects harasser away
from unfolding harassing conduct
Observer removes target from the
situation
Observer interrupts the incident

High-immediacy-High-involvement
Behaviours
Examples:
Observer tells harasser to stop the
harassing conduct
Observer publicly encourages target
to report the conduct
Observer tries to get other observers
to denounce the conduct

SURVEY:
1. Survey: 10% of Employees Report Harassment at Work
Sexual and physical harassment in the workplace is widespread around the
globe and could be increasing. Nearly 10 percent of workers responding to a global
survey conducted by Reuters-Ipsos reported that they had been harassed sexually or
physically at work. The poll of approximately 12,000 people in 24 countries revealed
that workers in India faced the highest rate of sexual and physical harassment

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incidents. More than one-quarter ofthe respondents from India reported that they had
been harassed sexually by a co-worker or supervisor, while 25 percent of Indian
workers said they had been assaulted physically in their workplaces.
According to John Wright, a senior vice president for Ipsos, people age 35 and
younger were most likely to report being sexually harassed at work. More than 7
percent of all workers reported that they had been intentionally physically assaulted
out of anger by a co-worker or manager.
2. Industrial Employee Relations Review

CONCLUSION:
The problem of sexual harassment should not be underestimated. The above review gives a
clear view of it, its impact in workplace and how an observer reacts on it. Sexual Harassment
is overlooked by both the victims and observers. Many of them know that it is an unethical
activity but they dont react against it, may be cause of their personal reasons or situational

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demands. This can leave a huge impact on their lives in mental, physical and financial
aspects.
The victims feel themselves week thats why the harassers be a threat to them, the day they
realize their strength and raise a voice against them, then will they prove themselves strong
and supress such people. But suppressing them isnt all what we want, our goal is to eliminate
this unethical activity.

REFERENCES:

TO ACT OR NOT TO ACT: THE DILEMMA FACED BY SEXUAL

HARASSMENT OBSERVERS, LYNN BOWES-SPERRY Western New England

College, ANNE M. OLEARY-KELLY The University of Arkansas.
BEYOND THE INDIVIDUAL VICTIM: LINKING SEXUAL HARASSMENT,
TEAM PROCESSES, AND TEAM PERFORMANCE, JANA L. RAVER Queens
University, MICHELE J. GELFAND University of Maryland
SEXUAL HARASSMENT AS AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR: AN ACTOR-BASED
PERSPECTIVE, ANNE M. O'LEAHY-KELLY University of Arkansas, RAMONA
L. PAETZOLD RICKY W. GRIFFIN Texas A&M University
EFFECTS OF A DISSOLVED WORKPLACE ROMANCE AND RATER
CHARACTERISTICS ON RESPONSES TO A SEXUAL HARASSMENT
ACCUSATION, CHARLES A. PIERCE Montana State University, HERMAN
AGUINIS University of Colorado at Denver, SUSAN K. R. ADAMS
The Economics and Law of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Journal of
Economic PerspectivesVolume 17, Number 3Summer 2003Pages 141-157,
Kaushik Basu
Sex-Related Differences in Perceptions of Sexual Harassment of Women in India,
SURESH KANEKAR VIDYUT LATA DHIR Department of Applied Psychology
University of Bombay, India