ABSTRACT
The purposes of this essay are (a) to review existing academic research and integrate it with legal and organizational approaches to sexual harassment in the workplace and (b) to establish a framework from which to develop theoretically coherent and empirically testable techniques for reducing workplace sexual harassment. The essay begins with an overview of the development of sexual harassment as a workplace problem, followed by a summary and critique of legal, organizational, and academic conceptualizations of sexual harassment. Six areas of empirical research are reviewed: (a) studies of sexual harassment prevalence, correlates, and outcomes; (b) typologies of sexually harassing behaviors; (c) factors that contribute to perceptions regarding sexual harassment; (d) assessments of the proclivity to sexually harass; (e) responses to sexual harassment; and (f) strategies to combat sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is reconceptualized as a multidimensional phenomenon in which formal power and perceived perpetrator intent moderate behavioral manifestations of sexual harassment and its perceived severity. This framework offers general guidelines from which specific strategies can be generated and against which existing tactics can be evaluated.
