MANAGING THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT CRISIS AT MITSUBISHI MOTORS ABSTRACT The debate on what constitutes prohibited acts of sexual harassment continues to linger through the years. As a matter of fact, both national and international communities do not have exact definition of the term sexual harassment and this leads to a lot of confusion among employees affected. While some define sexual harassment in a broader sense as a form of discriminatory treatment and violence against women and weak people, the national laws concentrate more on prohibited acts. Nevertheless, they all agree that this outlawed behavior is unsolicited and causes injury to the victim that needs to be addressed seriously (What is Sexual Harassment?).
For many years, power relationships among men and women have changed through the varying political and social climate. It has been revealed that there are times when men manifest insecurity or feel threatened by the achievements of the opposite sex.
Reports also reveal that men who have easily gained their positions have the tendency to prove themselves by engaging their subordinates, especially the females, in sexual harassment situations. Some women are aghast to learn that these men consider this prohibited behavior as a kind of a fringe benefit because of the power that comes with their title and position. Furthermore power games continue to prevail and sexual harassment is one of the manifestations of this. This happens at a time when the women are most vulnerable–times when there is career uncertainty, limited job promotion opportunities, personal and job stress, and performance pressures (Sexual Harassment: Causes, Consequences and Cures).
The Research paper on Sexual Harassment Women Men Military
Sexual harassment is any kind of sexual behavior that is unwelcome and/ or inappropriate for the work place. (http; // web pg 1) There are four examples of sexual harassment: making sexual advances, making solicitations, making sexual requests, and making demands for sexual compliance. This includes verbal harassment and visual harassment such as posters, cartoons, and drawings. Sexual harassment ...
For the Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc., there had been complaints on sexual harassment and the company was able to deal with it effectively. Today, in its desire to monitor and combat sexual harassment, they have complied with the Consent Decree resolving the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) lawsuit against the company as reported in Peoria, Illinois and which was given to the Federal District Court. (Hendrickson, 2000).
The Mitsubishi case became the largest sexual harassment case in the history of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It required the company to pay $34 million to the victims who came out to reveal sexual harassment at work. Necessarily, the company was required to implement procedures in order to deal well with any complaints in the future. The Decree was able to put three monitors who regularly assessed whether the changes that were required were actually being used (Hendrickson, 2000).
EEOC Chairwoman Ida L.
Castro maintains that “While this report shows that Mitsubishi has made substantial progress in ridding pervasive sexual harassment from its workplace, the Commission will remain vigilant in monitoring its employment practices in accordance with the landmark settlement of two years ago.” (Hendrickson, 2000).
All this happened because a lawsuit was filed against Mitsubishi Motors by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after investigation revealed sexual harassment in the workplace. Sandra Rushing, an employee of the Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing plant at Normal, Illinois complained of sexual harassment and has since resigned because she pointed out male colleagues in the production line who touched her and purportedly used wrenches and air guns pretending like they were their extensions. These had been similar occurrences at Mitsubishi and there were other women who complained. One woman who feared losing her job if she complained outright and who didn’t want her identity known, told about her being slapped on the butt and the person put a banana in his mouth and such insinuations in front of the group she worked in. Civil rights attorney Patricia Benassi discovered 30 other women who complained of being sexually harassed making her file a lawsuit against the company in December of 1994. There were times when these women were addressed as bitch. Other complaints included sexual graffiti written on the fenders of cars and dirty jokes, pornographic materials that made these women squirm in disgust and anger.
The Essay on Stock Options Employees Tax Company
Since the late 1980's more and more people have been given the opportunity to purchase stock options. As of 2001, ten million employees have chosen to purchase stock options. Another survey established that 97 of the top 100 e-commerce companies gave the choice of options this year. For these reasons, it is important to understand what stock options are, the different types of options, and their ...
There were also pictures of male employees who hired prostitutes during off-site sex parties, took pictures of those wild parties and who had scattered the pictures at work spreading them all over places where the women employees could see them.. Author Martha Neil dwells on the fact that sometimes, the threat of workplace harassment may be diminished by the removal of an employee either by transfer or by separation. Indeed, the best interests of the majority of the employees are most important to a company. The cost of separation as well as the risk of future litigation for dissatisfied employees is but a small price to pay for the safety of the entire work force. In addition to this, the stress on the co-workers would also be tremendous and can be the cause of future health problems if the situation was not addressed that way. For employees whose continued presence at work might lead to sexual harassment, there needs to be an assistance that must constitute a win-win situation wherein the employee receives benefits, can lead a new life and erase the hostility and stress he or she feels at work.
Regional Attorney in EEOC’s Chicago District Office and lead counsel for the government in the Mitsubishi case argues that the test of success for EEOC in this case is two-sided: that is, monetary relief for the harm done considering the $34 million that was given out, the biggest in a sexual harassment case; and the other is the beginning of more concrete steps to stop sexual harassment in the workplace. The monitors who were placed at Mitsubishi made sure that rules were carried out. EEOC had achieved a successful step towards the minimization and eradication of this problem here and possibly in other companies (Hendrickson, 2000).
The Essay on Sexual Harassment
You wouldnt think that giving someone a compliment, like Hey you look sexy today, would be considered harassment. However, in todays world anything is possible. Sexual harassment has become a big issue in society and sometimes a person can take it to the extreme. There are many things that can be considered harassment, there are many ways to prevent it, and there are things you can do to help ...
The Consent Decree was specifically a key area in this case as it helped in making sure that they spend time in the workplace and assess actual happenings. Nevertheless, Mitsubishi has been admonished not to be complacent here because any case can ensue once they lax their guard. Besides, stricter controls need to be implemented in order to make Mitsubishi secure in its progress to eliminate this problem altogether. Besides, the Commission will remain vigilant as it monitors employment practices according to the landmark settlement that was gained several years back (Hendrickson, 2000).
The monitors who are to be credited for the difficult task are Nancy B. Kreiter, Research Director of Women Employed in Chicago; George F. Galland, Jr., an attorney in the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland; and Joyce E. Tucker, formerly a Commissioner of EEOC and now a member of the consulting firm of Tucker, Spearman & Associates of Alexandria, Virginia. (Hendrickson, 2000).
Their report concluded that they have continuously been in close contact with the management of Mitsubishi and that they have gathered all the documents pertaining to the issue and have observed and evaluated the sexual harassment training for associates and supervisors, confirming that the compliance with the Consent Decree is now under control. The monitors agree that the challenge is to institutionalize these systems so that when the Decree has expired, that does not mean that the control of the issue has also expired.
More than ever, Mitsubishi management needs to inculcate the right virtues for all employees at all times, whether there is a Consent Decree that is monitoring the workplace or none at all. REFERENCES Hendrickson, J. (Sept. 2000).
Monitors say Mitsubishi in Compliance with EEOC Consent Decree; Sexual Harassment Firmly Under Control at U.S. Plant. Retrieved July 24, 2007 at: http://www.eeoc.gov/press/9-6-00.html Sexual Harassment: Causes, Consequences and Cures. Retrieved July 24, 2007 at: .
What Is Sexual Harassment? Retrieved July 24, 2007 at: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/svaw/harassment/explo re/1whatis.htm.
The Essay on Sexual Harassment 11
OUTLINE. 1) Unwelcome sexual behavior is a problem. a. Men and women explain it differently. b. People don't know what is legally considered sexual harassment. 2) What is sexual harassment? a.Definition. b. What is unwelcome by one may not be unwelcome by another. 3) Sexual harassment is not a problem. a. Exaggerating the seriousness of harassment.b. The definition of sexual harassment should be ...
