Sexual Harassment and Employee Engagement: Exploring the Roles of Gender, Perceived Supervisory Support, and Gender Equity Climate

Abstract

The creation of inclusive workplaces in which individuals can thrive constitutes an important goal for many organizations. Despite recognition of this fact, persistent adverse workplace experiences, such as sexual harassment, threaten to relegate inclusion to mere rhetoric. While previous research has identified several outcomes of sexual harassment, we examine the relationship between sexual harassment and employee engagement, a strong driver for improved service delivery, organizational performance, and employee motivation. Building on the job demands-resources model, we consider three moderators that may influence this relationship: gender, perceived supervisory support, and the gender equity climate. The results indicate that sexual harassment has a negative relationship with employee engagement, but that this relationship differs between male and female employees. However, we found no significant moderating effects of perceived supervisory support and gender equity climate. The article ends with a discussion of the findings and implications for theory and practice.