Workplace sexual harassment: a qualitative study of the self-labelling process among employees in Denmark

Abstract

Purpose To explore how employees understand work-related sexual harassment and label their experience. Methods This study is based on 13 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees exposed to workplace sexual harassment. We analysed the data using a thematic approach drawing on frameworks of sensemaking in organizations. Results We identified four major themes. The first two themes, distinguishing between sexual harassment and unwanted sexual attention and labelling real life sexual harassment, outline the interviewees’ definitions of the two terms “sexual harassment” and “unwanted sexual harassment” and reveal the challenges of labelling sexually harassing behaviours at work. The last two themes; making the connection and negotiating boundaries and labels, explain the sensemaking process, i.e., how the interviewees come to understand and label their experience. Conclusion The analysis showed that the interviewees related sexual harassment with physical, coercive, and intentional behaviours, whereas unwanted sexual attention was seen as less severe and less intentional. The interviewees often doubted how to label their experience, and making sense of one´s experience could take years. Self-labelling is inherently a social process, and the validation and rejection of others play an important role. Finally, the #MeToo movement constituted a turning point for several interviewees’ understandings of events.

Keywords

• work
• sexual harassment
• self-labelling
• sense-making
• qualitative study