An examination of department of defense environmental factors that contribute to reporting sexual harassment

ABSTRACT

This study examined the influence of inclusion on the relationship between unwanted workplace experiences (UWEs) and negative perceptions of the sexual harassment reporting climate (NPRC) among 77 United States military units. De-identified archival data from the Department of Defense’s Defense Organizational Climate Survey (DEOCS) were analyzed. Results show that, while perceptions of inclusion did not moderate the relationship between UWEs and NPRC, it did predict NPRC. Our research reveals that the more inclusive a unit is, the more likely members in that unit will have positive perceptions of the sexual harassment reporting climate. Additionally, unit group cohesion (GC) levels were found to positively predict levels of inclusion among units. Implications regarding the implementation of more team-building exercises to both raise GC and perceptions of inclusion – as a potential way for military units to improve sexual harassment reporting climate – are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual harassment
• sexual harassment reporting climate
• inclusion
• group cohesion
• military unit climate
• DEOCS

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their insightful feedback that helped to strengthen this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data requests should be directed to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (https://www.defenseculture.mil/Contact/).