The Interplay of Power and Legal Consciousness: HR Managers' Insights on Multi-Level Barriers to Reporting Workplace Sexual Harassment

Abstract

Sexual harassment (SH) is a widespread phenomenon around the world. Consistent empirical studies as well as cross-national mobilizations continue to highlight its pervasiveness and its negative impact on the victims and the workplace. While the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace is well documented, the related reporting remains extremely low. The current study aims to shed light on the multi-level power dynamics preventing the reporting of sexual harassment in the workplace. To do so, we adopt a critical lens coupled with the legal consciousness framework, which encompasses three key processes -naming, blaming, and claiming-that are pivotal in understanding sexual harassment reporting. Adopting a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with HR managers in Lebanon. The findings show that power dynamics, at multiple levels (individual, organizational, and societal) prevent victims from reporting and reveal how relationality can foster silence by prioritizing group harmony over individual justice. Our main contributions lie in unpacking the multi-level power dynamics preventing reporting, and further fleshing it out in relation to naming, blaming and claiming. From a practical perspective, our findings highlight the need for context-specific, intersectional interventions that challenge internalized norms and for the engagement of external stakeholders to foster inclusive, ground-level responses to sexual harassment.