Sexual Harassment in Malaysian Hospitality Industry: Experiences and Consequences on Female Hotel Workers

Purpose of Research

The main purpose of this study is to address the gap in literature concerning sexual harassment issues in Malaysian hospitality industry particularly in the hotel scope through examination of the incidences that are directed towards female workers.

1. What is the understanding of female hotel workers about sexual harassment?2. How do female hotel workers experience sexual harassment?3. What are the consequences of sexual harassment?

Research Questions

Academic Definition

There is an absence of a commonly agreed definition of the concept that can accurately describe the behavioral forms and at the same time defines what conditions the phenomenon (Paludi, 1996).

(i) The particular types of behavior which are considered as sexual harassment (i.e. can nonverbal behaviors create sexual harassment?)

(ii) Whether an act can be classified as harassing in and of itself or whether further negative consequences are needed for the act to be a legitimate incident of sexual harassment

(iii) Whether sexism represents one of the many sexually harassing behaviors.(Pina, Gannon & Sanders, 2009)

Female Victimization

Women are more likely to be targets of sexual harassment, as well as targets of other forms of sexual violence, and to experience more serious consequences from these crimes.

UNISON (2008) in its high scale research also reported that up to 50% of female employees in EU countries have experienced sexual harassment.

In many EU countries including Italy, Denmark and Netherlands, women have higher profile of workplace sexual harassment cases in compare to men (Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform Ireland, 2004).

In some Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Japan, there is a prevalent sexual harassment problem in the workplace where the majority percentage of the victims are woman workers (Pradhan-Malla, 2005).

Sexual Harassment in Hospitality Industry

Hospitality employees are experiencing higher degree of sexual interactions in their workplace in compare to workers in society-at-large (Albano & Kleiner, 2007; Shani & Pizam, 2009).

Hospitality is one of the four main industries with notably high level of sexual harassment incidents alongside banking, civil service and education industry (AWARE, 2014).

Among hospitality managers, sexual harassment is considered as one of the most pervasive issues in the industry, where 80% of the male respondents and 90% of the female respondents believe that it occurs frequently (Woods & Kavanagh, 1994).

In Malaysia, Alagappar, et al. (2011) revealed that female hotel employees are also subjected to at least one form of sexual harassment behaviors with verbal harassment being the most frequent form, followed by physical harassment and psychological harassment.

Consequences of Sexual Harassment

3. Consequences to the society:

Sexual harassment impedes the realization of equality between men and women; it condones sexual violence and has destructive effects on the efficiency of businesses and well-beingof people, thereby hindersdevelopment andproductivity

(Haspels, et al., 2001)

It may elevate the pressure of social services and welfare, benefits and

welfare costs in terms of premature retirement, and highly possibly the

loss of otherwise goodand productive workers

(Cantisano, Domínguez,& Depolo, 2008)

Consequences of Sexual Harassment

“Ok, while I was working there, I didn’t feel motivated to do my work, I felt, uhh…because I felt victimized and depressed. And there’s no one to help you or to console you.”

“When I see that person maybe I will just keep thinking about all the bad things that he did to me. I won’t feel motivated going to work and just scared if that person does it again.”

Negativepsychological

effects

Reduced jobperformanceDoes not

affect turnover

Improve CommunicationManagement should clearly communicate to all employees that the issue of sexual harassment is taken seriously and that all forms of misbehaviors are unacceptable and highly intolerable. The perception of tolerance that currently exists among the staffs has to be taken into account and more efforts should be enforced to eradicate this. The management should also encourage everyone to speak out if they feel they have been harassed.

Example: Pamphlets, posters and code of ethics to be posted at places the staffs tend to gather such as the cafeteria and locker room to ensure high exposure.