Professor Nadirshaw K. Dhondy

CERTIFICATE

I, Professor Nadirshaw K. Dhondy, hereby certify that Ms. Soniya Rahate, S.Y. M.M.S. Student of Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies, has completed her thesis titled 'Sexual Harassment at Work Place - An Anathema', for the academic year 2012-13.

The work of the student is original and the information included in the project is true to the best of my knowledge.

ACKNOLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my Professor Nadirshaw K. Dhondy who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic "Sexual harassment at workplace", which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things.

I am really thankful to them. Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project within the limited time. I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge.

Thanks again to all who helped me.

Table Of Contents

Prologue 5

Case Study Index 11

Prime Time Matter 12

Case Study: Sexual Harassment at Infosys 20

Case Study: Case Of Sexual Harassment In An NGO 25

Case Study: EEOC vs. Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing 34

Epilogue 37

References 43

Prologue

In an ethical environment, the foundation values of an organization are known and are well reinforced and practiced. This means that all of the people involved in such an organization that include the leaders, the stakeholders and all of the employee benefit. Leaders usually have the support tools and processes that enable them to boost ethical practices in an organization.

There must be an approach to the challenges that tamper with the kind of ethics an organization should have or has set. Leaders should therefore understand the all issues from the perspective of business, legal and value. There are very many ethical situations or issues that arise in the work environment and need to be prevented or stopped so that the environment is a better place for the employees.

These legal issues affect the business, the government and the society in general. When employees are at ease with one another and are comfortable in their working environment, the results are tremendous.

If the organization is business like, the outcomes are going to be better and profitability of the company for example is going to be much better. Every ethical issue affects the government in that it is the duty of the government to see to it that the wrong doers are punished through the set laws that are put in place by the government.

The way people relate in their work place also affect the society because the society is made by all these people in the work places and that moral being in them affect the society in general. Sexual harassment is one of these legal or ethical issues that are found at the work place. It has been occurring in the past and is happening even today.

It is therefore most probable that it is going to occur in the future and this calls for corrective measures that should be taken against it. If proactive stance are not taken on this issue the results are lawsuits that are costly, lost employee's morale, poor productivity and the public's image of a company will definitely be eroded.

In every organization, there are policies which are stated so that the work place practices and behaviors are well looked at. When such set policies and standards are not met, the organization is prone to very negative consequences that need to be avoided. In absence of good ethic, the resulting thing is that there will be legal matters that will come into existence and this is not healthy in any kind of business.

One of legal situations or issues that occur at the work place is sexual harassment. This occurs when one employee makes sexual advances to another employee or employees who are not willing and do not wish for that. These advances are unwelcome. The advances can also be verbal or any kind of physical conduct that is sexual in nature to the other unwilling person.

It is in itself a form of discrimination and in the United States it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sexual harassment is unethical and a legal issue that occurs at the work place making the environment there not conducive for the productivity of those involved. It has been reported time and again and it is present in our contemporary environment. It has many factors that lead to it and those that are involved are punishable by the laws.

In the work place, this harassment is taken to have occurred if when one rejects or submits to the conduct it implicitly or explicitly influence the employment of that individual, it interferes with how that person works and performs at work. Sexual harassment also makes one to feel intimidated and finds the work place to be offensive and hostile to them.

If a conduct is welcome, it is thus not a sexual harassment and this is why it is important for a person who feels harassed to tell the harasser either verbally or in written form that they are uncomfortable with what they are doing to them and that they should stop immediately. One may get fired, failed to be promoted, evaluated poorly, demoted, if they decline a sexual advance.

There are a times when the harassment does not result to change in the job's status but the performance of the employee is interfered with adversely. One might be forced to decline some of the professional opportunities offered by the organization.

Sexual harassment is a vice that should not be let to occur in any society particularly at the work place. Each person should be at a position to feel at ease wherever they are working so that the employers get the required results. It is thus evident that when one is harassed sexually at the work place there is poor productivity and the way people relate with each other changes very much.

The environment that one works in should be favorable so that the goals of an organization are achieved. Each one in the organization has a goal to play so as to eradicate this vice starting with the offended who should be able to let the harasser know that they are not comfortable with what is being done to then and that