Sexual Harassment to Male Hotel Employees: An Assessment of its Negative Consequences

Abstract

Background: Sexual harassment in the workplace is an important issue that leaders should always be striving to address, but the public’s focus has always been on harassment by male perpetrators against women. Sexual harassment experienced by male employees has been easily overlooked by the public. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the effects of sexual harassment perceived by male hotel employees and its effects on their individual mental, emotional, and work outcomes. Methods: In this study, a qualitative survey was administered to male hotel employees over 20 years old regarding their experiences with sexual harassment. The reliability and validity of variables were verified through regression, and confirmatory factor analyses on the derived attributes and variables verified in previous studies. Results: The male hotel staff in this study reported negative effects of verbal, physical, visual, and psychological sexual harassment on their self-rated mental health (SRMH), whereas high SRMH positively affected the organization by increasing organizational citizenship behavior and self-efficacy and lowering turnover intention. The negative emotional experience of sexual harassment at work increased emotional violation, decreased organizational citizenship behavior and self-efficacy, and increased turnover intention. Conclusions: The seriousness of sexual harassment against men in the workplace has easily been overlooked, however, the findings here confirm that it is a severe crime for both male and female victims and has serious adverse effects on both individuals and workplaces. Consequently, hotel owners, leaders, managers, and other stakeholders are urged to acknowledge rather than overlook male sexual harassment in the workplace and take appropriate measures to eliminate such emotional boundary violations as harassment.

Keywords

• sexual harassment
• self-rated mental health
• emotional boundary violation
• self-efficacy
• organization citizenship behavior
• turnover intention