ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with employee understandings of illegality and then turns to employee support for punitive organizational action. It discusses the issue of whether employees will support the dismissal of the protagonist in situations surrounding sexual harassment. The chapter presents the findings on the role of social context and the importance of three distinct aspects of social context: organizational context, national context and individual difference. Three aspects of the social context, individual, organizational and national, contributed to differing perceptions of law. Perceptions of what employers do in response to law influences whether or not individuals will perceive conduct as violating the law. The promulgation of internal law, in the form of a sexual harassment policy, for instance, may make national law appear inapplicable. Characteristics of the organization, generally ignored in cross-national studies and in all but the most recent sexual harassment studies, are important factors in contributing to the substantive understandings of law.
