Abstract
A general model for estimating the organizational costs of sexual harassment in the workplace is proposed along with model-specific costing formulas. A partial implementation of the model is applied to sexual harassment incidence data for the Army gathered as part of a large-scale survey of the U.S. military services. Results indicate that the total annual cost of sexual harassment in the U.S. Army in 1988 was over $250,000,000. Organizational implications are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
REFERENCES
Bulzarik, M. (1978). Sexual harassment at the workplace: Historical notes. Radical America, 12, 25–43.
Cascio, W. F. (1991). Costing human resources: The financial impact of behavior in organizations (3rd Ed.). Boston: PWS-Kent.
Crull, P. (1982). Stress effects of sexual harassment on the job: Implications for counseling. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 52, 539–544.
Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. (1988). Quarterly statistical profile of minorities and women in the Department of Defense Armed Forces and the United States Coast Guard. Patrick AFB, FL: Research Division, September.
Faley, R. H. (1982). Sexual harassment: Critical review of legal cases with general principles and preventive measures. Personnel Psychology, 35, 583–600.
Faley, R. H. (1992). Preliminary partial estimates of the annual dollar-value of overall lost productivity due to sexual harassment in the active-duty military. Unpublished manuscript, Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida.
Fulghum, D.A. (1993). Comanche in Jeopardy in Army Budget Squeeze. Aviation Week & Space Technology, New York: McGraw-Hill, April 5.
Garvey, M. S. (1986). The high cost of sexual harassment suits. Personnel Journal, 65(1), 75–80.
Government Accounting Office (1994). DoD Service Academies: More Actions Needed to Eliminate Sexual Harassment, Washington DC: Author (NSIAD-94–6).
Gutek, B. A. (1985). Sex and the Workplace: The Impact of Sexual Behavior and Harassment on Women, Men, and Organizations. San Francisco; Jossey-Bass.
Gutek, B. A., & Koss, M. P. (1993). Changed women and changed organizations: Consequences of and coping with sexual harassment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 42, 28–48.
Gutek, B.A., Nakamura, C.Y., Gahart, M., Handschumacker, I., & Russell, D. (1980). Sexuality in the workplace. Basic and Applied Psychology, 1(3), 255–265.
Hinrichs, J. R. (1991). Commitment ties to the bottom line. HR Magazine, 4, 77–80.
Hom, P. W., Caranikas-Walker, F., Prussia, G, E., & Griffeth, R. W. (1992). A meta-analytical structural equations analysis of a model of employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(6), 890–909.
Martindale, M. (1990). Sexual harassment in the military: 1988. Arlington VA: Defense Manpower Data Center.
Miller v. Bank of America, 20 Fair Employment Practices Cases 462, 1979.
Mobley, W. H., Horner, S. O., & Hollingsworth, A. T. (1978). An evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 408–414.
Quinn, R. E., Gutek, B. A., & Walsh, J. T. (1980). Telephone interviewing: A reappraisal and a field experiment. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 1, 127–153.
Sandroff, R. (1988). Sexual harassment in the fortune 500. Working Woman, December, 69–73.
Systems Research and Applications Corporation (1991). Army manpower cost system active component cost-estimation model (Version 6.0 information book). Arlington, VA: Author.
Tangri, S. S., Burt, M. R., & Johnson, L. B. (1982). Sexual harassment at work: Three explanatory models. Journal of Social Issues, 38, 33–54.
Terpstra, D. E. (1986). Organizational costs of sexual harassment. Journal of Employment Counseling, 23, 112–119.
Terpstra, D. E. & Baker, D. D. (1986). A framework for the study of sexual harassment. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 7, 17–34.
Tett, R. P. & Meyer, J. P. (1993). Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: Path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. Personnel Psychology, 46(2), 259–293.
U. S. Merit Systems Protection Board (1981). Sexual harassment in the federal workplace: Is it a problem? Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
U. S. Merit Systems Protection Board (1987). Sexual harassment in the federal government: An update. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Author information
Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Faley, R.H., Knapp, D.E., Kustis, G.A. et al. Estimating the Organizational Costs of Sexual Harassment: The Case of the U.S. Army. Journal of Business and Psychology 13, 461–484 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022987119277
Issue Date:
Keywords
- General Model
- Social Psychology
- Social Issue
- Sexual Harassment
- Annual Cost