When it comes to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, employees demand leadership accountability. Research suggests what leaders should do: communicate to employees that sexual harassment is a high-priority issue within the company. A study found that the way leaders do this can indeed shape peoples’ attitudes toward sexual harassment — setting the tone around whether it is or isn’t tolerated. In an online experiment, researchers found that participants who read about a leader downplaying the issue within the company were less likely to rate sexual harassment a high-priority problem there; while those who read about a leader who took sexual harassment seriously were more likely to rate it a high-priority problem. This pattern held no matter the participants’ gender or political affiliation.
When it comes to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, employees demand leadership accountability. Consider the recent Google walkout, which employees staged to protest the lofty exit packages paid to men accused of misconduct. In response, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, and Larry Page, chief executive of its parent company, Alphabet, apologized.
