Page 185 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

CLEVELAND, VESCIO, BARNES-FARRELL
154
of men and women at work is the sexualization of work environments or
sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is generally categorized into three
major forms of harassment: verbal requests (e.g., sexual and relational
advances/pressures), verbal comments (e.g., personal remarks, objecti­
fication), and nonverbal displays (e.g., sexual assault, sexual posturing).
Estimates of the prevalence of sexual harassment vary, depending on the
precise definition of harassment and the methods used in specific sur­
veys (Cleveland et al., 2000). However, virtually all large-scale studies of
sexual harassment (cf. Schneider, Swan, & Fitzgerald, 1997; United States
Merit Systems Protection Board, 1995) have reached the same conclusion,
i.e., a large proportion of women experience some form of sexual harass­
ment at work. The prevalence of such experiences is important because
sexual harassment is associated with a wide range of adverse employ­
ment effects, including decreased productivity, diminished opportunities
for advancement, job loss, decreased morale, absenteeism, and job dissat­
isfaction (Pryor, 1995). In fact, it is estimated that sexual harassment costs
organizations hundreds of millions in dollars a year in lost productivity,
health care costs, and decreased efficiency (Faley, Knapp, Kustis, & DuBois,
1994). Sexual harassment has also been associated with adverse psycho­
logical outcomes, including stress, sleep and eating disorders, nausea and
crying spells (Loy & Stewart, 1984).
In summary, bias against women in work settings is not universal. For
example, gender does not appear to be a significant predictor of perfor­
mance appraisals. One implication is that when we look for explanations
of differences in men's and women's employment opportunities and ad­
vancement, it is unlikely that the evaluations commonly carried out in or­
ganizations will explain a significant proportion of the variance at a given
point in time (Cleveland et al., 2000). Rather we need to look to broader
societal processes to understand the differences in the working lives of
women and men.

UNDERSTANDING STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE,
AND DISCRIMINATION

A consideration of the antecedents of organizational discrimination re­
quires attention to both the intrapersonal processes involved in the per­
ception of people who belong to stereotyped groups (e.g., stereotyping
and prejudice processes that operate within individuals) and situational
characteristics (e.g., power relations, contextual norms, situational goals).
We begin with a discussion of the intrapersonal cognitive processes, not­
ing the consequences of stereotype-based judgments for behavior. We then