We all hear horror stories about sexual harassment -- in the newspapers, on television, on radio, even in the movies. It can be a threatening topic. Sometimes we hear that a person who made a legitimate claim was fired. Sometimes we hear that a person made a false claim, wrongfully hurting the reputation of a fellow employee. Some people at work may feel uncomfortable or angry even discussing this issue because they worry that they may accidentally offend a co-worker or supervisor.

What IS Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment -- a type of sex discrimination -- is prohibited by Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended, and by the New York State Human Rights Law and other states’ laws. Also, Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 has been interpreted to prohibit sexual harassment in the classroom. Harassment can be male-to-female, female-to-male, or same sex.

There are two types of sexual harassment:

"Quid Pro Quo"
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when submission to such conduct is made a term or condition of employment or submission to, or rejection of, such conduct is used as a basis for employment decisions. ("Quid pro quo" is Latin for "this for that.") Quid pro quo harassment is always from a supervisor to an employee, and is the use of authority at work to obtain sexual favors.

Demographic Changes. Dramatic population changes are taking place in the United States. The number of Americans of Hispanic origin jumped by 58 percent over the past decade, to 12.5 percent of the total population. African-Americans climbed to 12.9 percent of the total, an increase of about 16 percent. Asian-Americans have almost doubled their presence since 1990, to 4.2 percent of the total population. In 1970, one in twenty U.S. residents were either foreign-born or first-generation immigrants. Now the ratio is one in five.

New York State is a hub for many of these significant shifts in population. Statewide demographic changes include an increase in the number of Americans over 65, youths under 18, and single parent and same sex households. Census 2000 reports that much of the State’s diversity is centered in New York City: for the entire state, 75.3 percent of Hispanics and 75.3 percent of Asians who reported only one race lived in the five boroughs of the City. The growing Hispanic and Asian populations in the City has become ever more diverse. The community of those of Mexican heritage has tripled in size since 1990, and Asian Indians have almost doubled. The so-called “minority” populations themselves are extraordinarily diverse: a self-identified Hispanic or Latino may hail from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Chile, Columbia, perhaps Peru; a Black may identify as African-American, Caribbean or African; Asians may be from China, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan and so on. Each has distinct and unique national cultures.

These and many other social developments increasingly are reflected at the workplace. Jobs which once were traditionally homogenous – all white, or all female, or all young – are now kaleidoscopic. At the hospital, the woman wearing the green scrubs may be the surgeon; the man is identical scrubs may be the nurse. Cultural assumptions also have evolved. The teenager in baggy jeans and knapsack may be the newly wealthy CEO of a dot.com. The young male customer wearing a diamond earring may not be gay but simply fashionable. Casual dress Friday has become casual dress week. Email has become the communication device of choice, nudging out the telephone. Maternity leave is now frequently called parental leave, as more men take the opportunity to spend time with their family, often under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, enacted in 1993.

Current Events. The events of 9/11 underscore the need to address increasing cultural diversity at the workplace. Prior to the terrorist attack on New York City, probably the most publicly discussed current concern in race relations was racial profiling of African-Americans by law enforcement agencies. Today, federal, state and local government agencies are struggling to define how best to structure security measures against potential attacks by fundamentalist Muslim groups and other organizations seeking literally to destroy our country. As service providers and employers, these agencies must walk a delicate balance between determining appropriate measures and ensuring individual and community rights.

Government entities also must address the marked increase of discriminatory and hostile actions toward Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian employees, clients and customers, or even those merely perceived to be a member of one of those groups. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has reported that since September 11, 2001, discrimination complaints by Muslims have nearly tripled (to 427 from 171 in the same period the year before). Discriminatory actions against Asians and Middle-Easterners have included racial slurs, threatening phone calls and even homicide. Reportedly, after 9/11, a quarter of these discrimination complaints involved ethnic and religious profiling at airports and workplaces, and nearly 20 percent involved government agencies including local law enforcement authorities. (In response to the increase, the EEOC issued a document on October 1, 2001, “Employment Discrimination Based on Religion, Ethnicity or Country of Origin.” See, www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-relig_ethnic.html.)

Culture includes learned patterns of behavior, socially acquired traditions, repetitive ways of thinking and acting, attitudes, values and morals. Cultural programming specifies rules for acquiring and transferring information. It standardizes perceptions. It also defines attitudes for intragroup relationships and for dealing with nonmenbers. And it sets the institutional parameters that condition human behavior and stabilize social systems.

Culture standardizes relationships, so that people need not be constantly mindful of the implications of their behavior. They can make reasonably confident assumptions about the reactions of those with whom they interact. From the economist’s perspective, culture reduces transaction costs. The codes for interpreting external information, classifying forms of potential behavior as acceptable or not and perceiving social rank are all passed from one generation to the next through a system of reward and punishment. Successful cultural programming leads to ethnocentrism, a belief that one’s own culture is normal and, perhaps, superior. Frequently, other cultures are perceived as inferior.

Individually, differences may include age, gender, race, physical traits, parental status, sexual orientation, ethnic and religious backgrounds, socioeconomic status, birthplace and hometown, and social, even political affiliations. At the workplace, additional differences which inform our attitudes and perceptions may include seniority, experience, position, education, training, salary, belonging to a union, full or part time, permanent or temporary. All affect our interactions.

Often, cultural traits are embedded and unperceived by the individual with that set of beliefs. Cultural differences may include language and communication, appearance and dress, food and eating habits, time and time-consciousness, rewards and recognition, roles and responsibilities, values and norms, sense of self and of space, mental processes and learning styles, and beliefs, values and attitudes. Each of these traits informs our workplace interactions, at best enhancing the work and at worst leading to misunderstanding, miscommunication and failure to perform effectively.

Literature is replete with documentation of the ways in which our culture impacts our interactions. A recent striking study affirms that, at the workplace, race-related values influence how employees perceive and react to others, resulting in interracial conflict. In short, says the researcher, the African-American community highly values emotional expression, whereas those of Northern-European heritage tend to favor moderation of expressive behavior and discourage strong expression of emotion in a conflict situation. In a conflict situation between two individuals of a different race, where for example one worker feels slighted by another, these expectations and preferences may exacerbate the conflict. The study also found that individuals are less confrontational with offenders of their same racial group.

Issues arising in multicultural workforces and communities include incorrect assumptions about diverse cultures, expectations that others will conform to a “norm,” language problems leading to miscommunication and misinterpretation, biases against the unfamiliar, and finally, “traditional” American values coming in conflict with values of other cultures.

The possibilities are endless. An employee whose cultural background includes a high “casual touch rate” may inadvertently distress a client of the opposite sex who is a traditional Orthodox and Hasidic Jew and uncomfortable with such contact. The police in the Jon-Benet Ramsey case apparently failed to secure the crime scene swiftly because of their assumption, based on the wealthy neighborhood, that the child’s absence must be a kidnaping. A thin female supervisor off-handedly dismissed an employee’s claim of sexual harassment, saying that because the employee was “overweight,” the alleged harasser would have had no sexual interest. An African-American customer may be offended and feel disrespected by a Korean employee who avoids direct eye contact. English-speaking employees may resent bilingual coworkers speaking to each other in Spanish or other languages: while the communication may be utterly innocuous, it can feel exclusionary to the English speaker.

We may even offend with the best of intentions. John Molloy’s self-help book, “New Dress for Success,” reprinted in 1988, provides a chapter “Some Advice for Minorities,” which advises, amongst other things, “When selling to middle-class blacks, you cannot dress like a ghetto black”; “Do not wear jewelry and never wear Afro hairstyles or any clothing that is African in association.” Shawn Brooks, an account executive for the Eagles Radio Network in Philadelphia, and an African American was stunned in 2001 when his supervisor gave him Molloy’s book and he read that chapter. He later filed a successful discrimination charge with the Pennsylvania human rights commission.

By squarely addressing diversity issues and developing more culturally competent workforces, employers will reap myriad benefits. Morale will improve, as employees feel included and empowered. Constituents and customers will benefit from the municipality’s better understanding of community needs. Your organization will profit from increased productivity and from the increased vision of seeing situations through different perspectives. Following are some proven suggestions.

Enact anti-discrimination policies and procedures. While managing diversity is far more complex than simply prohibiting discrimination at the workplace, nonetheless promulgate such policies and procedures for your department. These set the tone for the department, inform your workforce what is expected of them, standardize in-house responses, and may limit potential liability against discrimination claims. If your organization has an employee handbook, confirm your commitment to diversity in that manual.

Train and educate your workforce. Provide on-going training to management, supervisors and staff on the principles of non-discrimination and cultural competence. Not only will training enhance employees’ communication skills, but possibly may provide some insulation against potential liability . In 2001, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling against an employer on an age-discrimination claim, noted that although the employer had an anti-discrimination policy, its failure to train its hiring managers evidenced its “[indifference] to whether its managers followed [the] law.” The training should address internal issues within the entity as well as diversity awareness when dealing with the public. Such trainings may range from EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) laws and cultural sensitivity workshops to skills-based workshops which enable employees and managers to become culturally competent and even more effective communicators.

Mentoring and Coaching. Establish programs to mentor and coach new or non-traditional employees. Such programs, which may cover a variety of cultures such as age, race, gender, provide numerous benefits. These include: increasing employee understanding of the organizational culture and its informal rules; increasing employees’ connections throughout the workplace and their ability to get things done; increasing employee loyalty and commitment; boost productivity with transfer of learning; cultivating leadership and raises the quality of job performance; heightening the organization’s reputation as a good workplace and assists recruitment; and accelerating inclusion of new or non-traditional members of the workforce. Also, the mentor provides professional and organizational assistance, often regarding the unwritten rules of the corporate culture, while the mentee provides a senior person with the opportunity to gain insight into other cultures in the organization.

Create a diversity panel. Designate a diverse group of employees, managers and staff, to address organizational diversity issues. As every workplace is unique, the solutions should reflect your organization’s distinctive needs and concerns. A panel or task force should accomplish several things: evidencing the commitment of senior level management; ensuring that employees are part of the solution; and addressing the specific needs of your organization rather than applying a cookie-cutter approach. Solicit the panel’s input in decision-making; this will assist in broadening the “we’ve-always-done-it-this-way-and-therefore-can’t-change” approaches..

Practice what you preach. Model behavior for employees. Management behavior continually reinforces what is appropriate and what is not. Reward employees and managers who display high levels of cross-cultural skills and competencies. Other employees will model themselves after coworkers or supervisors who are held in high esteem by management.

Update your website. A well-designed website which addresses diversity will enhance recruitment efforts, and send a strong message of inclusion to your present and future employees as well as to your community. Check the websites of major private businesses – many provide excellent examples of such design. Do not rely on standard EEO/affirmative action language; use language which addresses the broader spectrum of diversity.

Endnotes

i. Note that Hispanics can be of any race. The term “Latino” refers specifically to individuals whose ethnic heritage is South or Central America. For discussion of political ramifications of use of either term, see “Living in Spanglish,” by Ed Morales, St. Martin’s Press, pub. March 2002.

ii. Although much of the shift has occurred in New York City, change has taken place across New York State. For example, in 1990, the total population of Westchester County was 874,866. Of that, 10% (86,194) were Hispanics; 120,195 (14%) were African American. By 2000, the population had increased, by nearly 50,000, to 923,459: 16% were Hispanics (a 67% increase) and 15% were African American (a 9% increase).

iii. Reid, Karla Scoon, “U.S. Census Underscores Diversity,” March 21, 2001, Education Week, www.edweek.org. Sachs, Susan, “For Many American Muslims, Complaints of Quiet but Persistent Bias.” New York Times, April 25, 2002.

iv. “More Insulted and Attacked After Sept. 11,” New York Times, March 11, 2002.

v. “Bias Incidents Against Muslims Are Soaring, Says Islamic Council,” New York Times, May 1, 2002.

vi. Scully, Gerald W., “Multiculturalism and Economic Growth,” National Center for Policy Analysis, NCPA Policy Report No. 196, August 1995

vii. Davidson, Martin N., “Know Thine Adversary: The Impact of Race on Styles of Dealing with Conflict,” Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia, December 14, 2001.

viii. In 1992, African-Americans rioted in Los Angeles, most violently in Koreatown. This was fueled in part by cultural miscommunications. Korean storeowners would avoid eye contact with their customers and would place change on the counter rather than in the customers’ hands. Although in Korean culture, these actions signify respect, the opposite applies in African-American culture.

ix. Bruton, Mike, “Eagles radio employee wouldn’t go by the book,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 19, 2002.

x. Mathis v. Phillips Chevrolet, Inc., 269 F.3d 771 (7th Cir. 2001).

x. Davidson, Martin N., “Keeping Color in Corporate America: What Generates Organizational Commitment for Managers of Color,” Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia, January 4, 2002.

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