A descriptive study of situational and individual influences upon individuals' responses to sexual harassment

Recently, Thacker and Ferris (1991) proposed a theoretical model in which they suggested that targets' responses to sexual harassment would be influenced by the nature of the working relationship between the target and the harasser, the type of harassment, and gender. The purpose of this study is to investigate these potential influences, as well as duration, another situational influence, upon two types of target response: complaint/refusal and avoidance/going along. Respondents are employees of the Federal government. Findings suggest that both situational and individual influences have differential effects upon target response. Implications for the design of user-friendly sexual harassment prevention policies are discussed.