Date of Award
1990
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Business Administration
Department
Business
First Advisor
Daniel W. Kemper
Second Advisor
Joseph Ancona
Third Advisor
Jan Kniffen
Abstract
This thesis focuses on sexual harassment in the workplace and how it relates to personnel administrators' knowledge thereof.
As sexual harassment claims rise, businesses suffer tremendous financial loss. However, most researchers believe that many claims could be prevented if businesses implemented strong anti-sexual harassment policies, in addition to education and training for all employees. Personnel administrators are often assigned these difficult tasks without much thought as to how well-informed they may be about sexual harassment. If not very knowledgeable themselves, how practicable will their prevention programs be?
The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between personnel administrators' knowledge of sexual harassment and sexual harassment incidents. This investigator hypothesizes that such a relationship exists and is inverse in nature. Affirmation of this hypothesis would allow that les s knowledge about sexual harassment (low test scores) equates with higher incidents of sexual harassment and vice versa.
One hundred and two randomly selected participants took part in this study. The subjects were asked to complete a two-part survey. Part one asked for demographic information plus required the participants to reveal the number of sexual harassment incidents which have occurred in their companies within the past two years. The second part of the survey was an objective test consisting of twenty-five questions all related to the subject of sexual harassment. The test questions were based on research and actual court cases. Data were analyzed using the Pearson Product- Moment Correlation Coefficient.
Results produced very strong evidence that there is no correlation between personnel administrators' test scores and the number of sexual harassment incidents at their respective companies. Furthermore, there is no correlation between strong anti-sexual harassment policies and number of incidents reported.
Recommended Citation
Willenborg, Brenda J., "The Relationship Between the Number of Sexual Harassment Incidents Reported in the Manufacturing Industry and Personnel Administrators' Knowledge Concerning the Problem" (1990). Theses. 1562.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/1562
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