Business Ethics

Proposal
Effects of sexual harassment on women employees at HABIB BANK LTD .

Submitted to: MAM SAROSH IMRAN Submitted by: NUZHAT AFTAB (036) NAZISH QAMAR (035) KIRAN FATIMA( 024) SARWAT FATIMA (044) Date of submission: 21/12/2011

Fatima Jinnah women university, Rawalpindi.

Purpose of the study:

The research objectives of this study is as follows

   

To explore the impact of sexual harassment on women at HABIB BANK LTD. To determine the relationship between gender discrimination and sexual harassment of women at MTBC. To find the effects of sexual harassment on the job performance and personal life and health of working women.. To give suggestions how to cope with such behavior and eliminating such behavior.

Significance of the study:

Sexual harassment at work place can be broadly described as repeated and unwanted verbal or sexual advances, sexually explicit derogatory statement or sexually discriminating remarks made at workplace. These would be offensive to a worker involved, particularly if they caused the worker to feel threatened, humiliated, harassed, and would interfere with the worker s job performance, job satisfaction, commitment, and undermine job security, or create a threatening or intimidating work environment. This research will be aimed at studying the phenomenon of experience of women about sexual harassment at workplace(HABIB BANK) .It will examine the prevalence of sexual harassment at the workplace, its relationship with gender discrimination,its effects on women job performance and finally how can women cope with such experiences.this study will examine the sexual harrasement experiences by the women employees in public and private organizations.

Scope of the Study: For the purpose of research we will collect data from HABIB BANK LTD.. This research will pinpoint the effects of sexual harassment on women job performance.

Literature Review:

1. According to Goodman (1981) sexual harassment of women workers has been a problem for as long as women have worked outside the home. He noted that "The history of sexual harassment dated back at least to the time women first traded their labor in the marketplace". Many of the essentials about sexual harassment, particularly its frequency, are as true today as they were at the turn of the century. However, as the concern expressed about sexual harassment is relatively recent, many people may not have yet recognized it as a serious problem. Indeed it is often difficult to differentiate between a sexiest attitude within the workplace at one hand, and sexual harassment on the other. Many people still regard it as a fuss about nothing , something that is inevitable consequence of men and women working together, or a harmless fun. 2. Barbara ,Gutek and Mary (1993) said that sexual harassment often has a serious and negative impact on women's physical and emotional health, and the more severe the harassment, the more severe the reaction. The reactions frequently reported by women include anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, weight loss or gain, loss of appetite, and headaches. Researchers have also found that there is a link between sexual harassment and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 3. Pakistan National Report (1995) is the first government level statement of the issue although it is not research based. According to this report, sexual harassment in the workplace and the street takes many forms. At workplace these sexual propositions, vulgar posters , scurrilous jokes and accidental touching and in the more serious cases rights, benefits, promotions, and job security are offered or withheld on basis of sexual favors granted or denied

Problem Statement: To determine the effects of sexual harassment on women employees at HABIB BANK LTD .

Hypothesis: If the women are subjected to sexual harassment then this will affect their job performance and physical health.

Theoretical framework:

It this research there are four types of variables dependent variable, independent variable moderating variables and mediating variable .Sexual harassment is independent variable which refers to the unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature by the males towards females .The dependent variables are effects due to sexual harassment which are anxiety, stress, less efficiency ,loss of self esteem ,less job satisfaction and work withdrawl.The moderating variable in this case is work environment and company policies that effects the relationship between sexual harassment experience and its effects.If working environment is good then this leads to low sexual harassment levels at work place so it will have less effects on working women job performance if organization s sexual harassment policies are strict then this leads to less exposure of the experiences due to sexual harassment which in turn minimizes the bad effects due to sexual harassment. The mediating variables in this case is the power relationships ,low moral values and cultural differences all these helps the independent variable to affect the dependent variable as in case of strong power relationships the supervisors or managers who have recently gained positions of power (possibly after decades of discrimination) may also try to prove themselves by harassing women subordinates. Some men even regard it as a fringe benefit to which their position, their power and their sex entitle them. Cultural differences about what is, or isn't, acceptable in our rapidly-changing society also makes it difficult to distinguish between the friendly and harassed behaviors at workplace.

Schematic Diagram:

1. Power Relationships

Sexual Harassment

2. Low Moral Values

    

Anxiety Stress Loss of self esteem Less job satisfaction Work withdrawl

1. Sexual harassment policies 2. Work

Population: The population include all the female staff at the hospitals ,banks and NGO s selected for research purpose.

Sample: We will took a sample of 10 women working in HABIB BANK WAH CANTT BRANCH in different grades. Sampling Procedure:

We will conduct this research by survey method. I took a sample of 10 women working in different organizations having different job levels. I distribute them a closed-ended Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire comprising of 20 questions and collect responses from them and analyzed the results whether the responses are in favour or against the problem statement.

Instruments For Data Collection : I will conduct this research with the help of survey method. First, I will make a questionnaire comprising 20 questions which help me in the assessment of research. The questionnaire is closed-ended.

Nature Of Questions Asked: The questionnaire consists of closed ended questions.

\ Data Analysis Tools: we will use inferential statistics methods for the analysis of data collected I will apply Z-test (because the sample size is more then 30) on variables to check their level of significance and degree of freedom along with their Z-values; it will be indicated in the table. The data will also be further represented on graphs and tables.

Research design:

Purpose of the study: This study will explain the relationship of dependent variables(stress, anxiety, work withdrawl,less efficiency)and independent variable(sexual harassment) it is hypothesis testing study, in this research I will determine the effect of sexual harassment on women employees .

Type Of Investigation: In this study I am interested to find out the relationship of independent variable (sexual harassment) on dependent variable (stress, anxiety, work withdrawl,less efficiency), that s why this study is co- relational study. Interference: This study will be conducted to establish the cause and effect relationship between sexual harassment and its effects such as anxiety,stress,work witthdrawl etc.. We will try to manipulate certain variable so as to study the effects of such manipulation to the dependent variable of interest.

This study is not based on lab experiment it is field study because we deal with human resource and we don t have much control over them. So in this study interference is not minimal because we will conduct the research in different organizations. Non Contreived Study: our study is Non-contrived (establish cause and effect relationship between sexual harassment and its effects )because this is co-relational and we have a excessive interference. This research will be conducted in the field not in labs so it is noncontreived study. Unit of analysis: The unit of analysis refers to the level of aggregation of the data collected during the subsequent data analysis stage. This research is on effect of \sexual harrasement on women employees that s why we are interested in women employees in the organization and would have to find out that how they are effected by sexual harassment . So the unit of analysis is the women employees . we will be looking at the data gathered from different women employees and treating each employee s response as an individual data source. Time horizon: In this study we gather the data just one time in the period of 1 month in order to answer a research question so this research is cross sectional study. Budget: For conducting this study we will use my personal finance for a specific period of time.

Bibliography:

Abbey, A.(1982). Sex differences in attributions for friendly behaviour: Do males misperceive female s friendliness? Journal of personality and social psychology, 42,830-838.

Barbara, A. ,Gutek, and Mary.K. P. ( 1993). Changed Women and Changed Organizations: Consequences of and Coping with Sexual Harassment .Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 42, 28-33.

Sexual harassment in the workplace in the European Union, European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs (1998) ( 243 page). Kohlman, M.H. (2004). Person or Position?: The Demographics of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace . Journal Of Equal OpportunITY