Center for Institutional Courage, Inc., Palo Alto, California, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Jan 25;18(1):e0278830. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278830. eCollection 2023.
Workplace sexual harassment is associated with negative psychological and physical outcomes. Recent research suggests that harmful institutional responses to reports of wrongdoing-called institutional betrayal-are associated with additional psychological and physical harm. It has been theorized that supportive responses and an institutional climate characterized by transparency and proactiveness-called institutional courage-may buffer against these negative effects. The current study examined the association of institutional betrayal and institutional courage with workplace outcomes and psychological and physical health among employees reporting exposure to workplace sexual harassment. Adults who were employed full-time for at least six months were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform and completed an online survey (N = 805). Of the full sample, 317 participants reported experiences with workplace sexual harassment, and only this subset of participants were included in analyses. We used existing survey instruments and developed the Institutional Courage Questionnaire-Specific to assess individual experiences of institutional courage within the context of workplace sexual harassment. Of participants who experienced workplace sexual harassment, nearly 55% also experienced institutional betrayal, and 76% experienced institutional courage. Results of correlational analyses indicated that institutional betrayal was associated with decreased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and increased somatic symptoms. Institutional courage was associated with the reverse. Furthermore, results of multiple regression analyses indicated that institutional courage appeared to attenuate negative outcomes. Overall, our results suggest that institutional courage is important in the context of workplace sexual harassment. These results are in line with previous research on institutional betrayal, may inform policies and procedures related to workplace sexual harassment, and provide a starting point for research on institutional courage.
工作场所性骚扰会导致负面的心理和生理后果。最近的研究表明，对不当行为报告的有害机构反应——称为机构背叛——与额外的心理和生理伤害有关。有人推测，支持性的反应和以透明和前瞻性为特征的机构氛围——称为机构勇气——可能会缓冲这些负面影响。本研究考察了机构背叛和机构勇气与报告工作场所性骚扰经历的员工的工作场所结果以及心理和身体健康之间的关系。通过亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 平台招募了至少全职工作六个月的成年人，并完成了在线调查（N=805）。在全样本中，有 317 名参与者报告了工作场所性骚扰经历，只有这部分参与者被纳入分析。我们使用了现有的调查工具，并开发了《机构勇气问卷-特定于工作场所性骚扰》，以评估工作场所性骚扰背景下个人的机构勇气体验。在经历工作场所性骚扰的参与者中，近 55%的人也经历了机构背叛，76%的人经历了机构勇气。相关分析的结果表明，机构背叛与工作满意度、组织承诺降低和躯体症状增加有关。机构勇气则与之相反。此外，多元回归分析的结果表明，机构勇气似乎能减轻负面结果。总的来说，我们的结果表明，在工作场所性骚扰的背景下，机构勇气很重要。这些结果与之前关于机构背叛的研究一致，可能为与工作场所性骚扰相关的政策和程序提供信息，并为机构勇气的研究提供起点。
