A Narrative Literature Review on Factors Influencing Sexual Harassment and Workplace Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Sexual harassment and workplace sexual harassment remain a major problem despite the increasing awareness and legal sanctions put in place. The literature is becoming richer in articles describing primary research that investigates the phenomenon of sexual harassment in various contexts. Data on the factors influencing incidence rates of sexual harassment and workplace sexual harassment has been making the dynamic between perpetrator, victim and experience clearer. However, it is difficult to track the patterns between the various influencing factors and the extent of their effects when looking at individual articles that describe the undercurrents of isolated geographical locations and professional fields of work. In addition, the interplay between perceptions of and attitudes towards sexual harassment and its occurrence rates has not been well highlighted. In this narrative literature review, I study several articles from primary research data to investigate the patterns and common concepts describing the factors that are at the root of sexual harassment and workplace sexual harassment, as well as the variations in perceptions towards it and the key features of that. The results of the analysis of this compilation of articles showed that the factors isolated by the various studies from different contexts, locations and work fields are in most situations and follow very similar patterns. The main factors found to be influencing the incidence rates of sexual harassment and workplace sexual harassment were the personal characteristics and beliefs of perpetrators and victims, the awareness level of individuals, gender stereotypes, power dynamics between genders, and the organizational culture and managerial attitudes in cases of workplace sexual harassment. It was also found that the perceptions of sexual harassment and what should be classified under it differed significantly between the genders. However, it was interesting to find that there were common patterns in the perceptions of witnesses and victims of the same gender, as well as the factors behind sexual harassment of both men and women.