This op-ed was originally published in The Straits Times on 26 January 2021. 

A growing number of people are speaking out publicly about sexual harassment in the workplace. But many individuals continue to be deterred.

A recent survey by gender equality group Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) and market research company Ipsos found that seven in 10 workers in Singapore who experienced sexual harassment in the past five years did not report their harassment to the official authorities.

Furthermore, given the prevalence of sexual harassment in Singapore, as this survey shows – two in five have experienced it in the past five years – more needs to be done to address this issue.

Commonplace thinking on reporting sexual harassment suggests the decision to report is influenced by individual attributes, such as the gender and age of the victim, or situational determinants, such as the severity of the harassment.

But by focusing on the individual, are we overlooking other important factors – those at an organisational level?

The Aware-Ipsos survey found that many victims did not report their experiences of sexual harassment because they thought reporting would impact their professional career, or because they believed that official channels would not take sufficient action after they made a report. Some of them feared reputation damage; others feared retaliation from the harasser and/or company.

Unfortunately, although it has been more than three years since the #MeToo movement was sparked by sexual assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, these organisational determinants have not received much public attention.

As a result, we have not been able to isolate concrete actions to make our organisations safer and more conducive environments for the tackling of sexual harassment.

Organisational factors

Based on our experience with individuals who reached out to Aware’s Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Advisory for advice, insights gleaned via Aware’s training arm Catalyse, and extensive research, we believe there are three organisation-level determinants that predict reporting behaviours.

First, when deciding whether or not to report sexual harassment, individuals perform their own evaluation of the trustworthiness of their organisations. To do so, they focus both on whether the organisation takes sexual harassment complaints seriously, and whether it appropriately sanctions harassers after a finding of harassment is established.

In our experience, trustworthiness and reporting are positively correlated, that is, the higher the trustworthiness, the more the reporting.

It is widely acknowledged that organisations, when dealing with sexual harassment complaints, often have to contend with a conflict of interest – between empowering the victim and protecting against litigation.

Therefore, it is important for individuals to know whether the organisation’s anti-harassment policies are procedurally fair, and if they are adhered to in practice, rather than being used to achieve favourable outcomes for the organisation.

The following usually make for fair procedure: documented policies and processes with timelines; appointment of impartial investigators and decision-makers; sensitivity in the personal treatment of victims and the accused throughout the process; available protection from retaliation; and perceived fairness of outcomes.

The second determinant of reporting is less tangible but equally important: the organisational culture on sexual harassment, which includes norms around sexist behaviour, so-called sexual banter, bullying and/or adherence to gender stereotypes. These norms are drawn from policies and procedures, as well as the informal actions of organisational leadership.

Organisations frequently treat reports of sexual harassment as standalone interpersonal problems removed from the wider organisational culture.

However, in making reporting decisions, individuals do not just think about the harassment itself, but factor in what they know about the organisation’s culture – whether it perpetuates or normalises harassment.

The organisation’s culture tells individuals not only how they can expect to be treated by the management and human resource department when they report, but also whether they are likely to receive support from co-workers.

Both these things are crucial: Imagine continuing to work in an office where your complaints of harassment are not taken seriously, surrounded by disbelieving or antagonistic colleagues.

Everyday interactions with colleagues are a crucial part of many jobs. It is not just that colleagues depend on each other to get work done – positive relationships with co-workers can help foster a sense of belonging and promote overall employee well-being.

However, when the group identity of co-workers is forged within a culture that normalises harassment, an individual might not be motivated to report out of fear of falling out of favour with the team. Making a report in this context – especially if the harasser is a co-worker – may be interpreted as a threat to group cohesion. This could result in retaliation from colleagues in the form of withholding of information, outright ostracism or anything in between.

The final determinant of reporting is related to the organisational set-up – the gender composition of the organisation, and organisational hierarchy.

Research has generally found “job gender context”, that is, the proportion of men to women in the workplace, to be associated with increased harassment when the number of male employees significantly outnumber female employees.

Why would that be the case?

Some researchers speculate that workplaces with a skewed gender ratio tend to be associated with hyper-masculine work cultures that are aggressive and competitive, ones that objectify workers and reduce women to sexual objects regardless of their organisational rank.

Another related reason could simply be that women find themselves more isolated in male-dominated organisations and therefore more vulnerable to harassment.

All organisations are hierarchical to some extent. However, studies have generally found that the more hierarchical the organisation, the more likely it is that those in power have a reduced tendency to pay attention to how other people see, think and feel.

That is antithetical to a respectful workplace, and the perfect breeding ground for harassment.

What can organisations do?

In combating sexual harassment, many organisations are content to take a passive approach: They do not bother with sexual harassment unless they have to.

Yet organisations have an economic – not just moral – imperative to prevent and manage workplace harassment. Civil and respectful workplaces are more productive and tend to have lower employee turnover, not to mention better brand reputations.

So what can organisations do? Before deciding on any course of action, we suggest that organisations carry out an anonymous climate survey on sexual harassment and collect data on how the organisational culture, policies and procedures are perceived by employees.

If the data reveals that employees think the organisation is not doing enough, or is biased in favour of harassers, or that the culture is insulting and inconsiderate, we recommend that the organisation take measures to incorporate civility and respect as core organisational values. These tenets could be embedded into performance reviews to indicate the organisation’s commitment.

To address reporting concerns related to co-worker retaliation, organisations could hire a third party to receive complaints, advise employees on their options and give employees an opportunity to raise concerns privately.

The organisation’s anti-harassment policy must specifically address retaliation and assure reporting victims, through practice, that they (and all other parties involved) will be protected when they come forward.

We also recommend that organisations minimise the power imbalance between leaders and subordinates, and make workplaces less hierarchical.

This would involve equipping leaders, through regular training, with more empathetic ways to guide their staff, including helping them articulate power less in terms of authority and more in terms of values and responsibilities.

Speaking up about sexual harassment is difficult in any scenario, but all the more so in the high-stakes world of the workplace. If we can build better systems, ones absent of the various hurdles typically faced by victims, we can start to change that.

Shailey Hingorani, Head of Research and Advocacy, AWARE