Quid pro quo sexual harassment refers to situations in which organizational rewards are offered in exchange for sexual favors. It often occurs between an employee and a person with greater power in the organization, such as when a supervisor requests an action like a kiss or a touch in exchange for a promotion, positive performance review, or pay raise.

Sexual Harassment: Quid Pro Quo

Hostile environment sexual harassment occurs when an employee experiences workplace conditions that are hostile or intimidating, such as a work environment that allows offensive language or jokes or displays sexually explicit images. Isolated occurrences of these events do not constitute harassment, but a pattern of repeated occurrences does.

Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

A threat to withhold a workplace reward can be a form of sexual harassment when the threat is made because a sexual request is refused.

Sexual Harassment: Threat of Withholding Rewards

Workplace sexual harassment can include quid pro quo harassment, threats to withhold rewards when sexual requests are refused, and hostile environment harassment.

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Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct, including sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when it explicitly or implicitly affects employment, unreasonably interferes with work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Sexual Harassment

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

To combat workplace harassment, most organizations establish formal policies. These policies serve to define what constitutes sexual harassment and outline the specific procedures the company has in place for its prevention and for addressing incidents when they occur.

Organizational Policies on Sexual Harassment

In conjunction with formal policies, many companies provide training to their employees. This training is intended to educate the workforce on the company's sexual harassment policy and its procedures, ensuring they are aware of how to prevent and address such issues.

Sexual Harassment Training

Quid pro quo harassment, threats to withhold rewards when sexual requests are refused, and hostile environment sexual harassment violate organizational policies against sexual harassment and are illegal.

Illegality of Sexual Harassment

A new employee, Sam, notices that a senior colleague, Jordan, frequently makes comments about the physical appearance of other team members and tells sexually suggestive jokes during team meetings. Several team members appear visibly uncomfortable, and Sam now feels anxious about attending meetings, which is affecting their ability to contribute to team discussions. Which statement best analyzes why this situation could be considered sexual harassment?

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