Personnel Screening to Reduce Risks of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Perpetration

Sexual harassment and sexual assault are increasingly an area of employer concern. Although employers commonly use noncognitive personnel screening measures to reduce counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), the potential for such measures to reduce perpetration of sexual assault and sexual harassment, specifically, has received little attention. The current paper describes two studies to evaluate the potential value of including both domain-general (overt integrity test admissions, academic biodata, self-report personality) and domain-specific measures (explicitly referencing attitudes toward gender and relationships) in employee screening. Study 1 demonstrates that domain-general and domain-specific measures correlated with anonymous admissions of prior sexual coercion and sexual harassment intent among both males and females. Study 2 demonstrates that domain-specific measures (self-report attitudes towards women and depersonalized relationships) are also correlates of intentions to engage in broader CWB, even when individuals are directed to present themselves in a way they believe would maximize chances of personnel selection. Overall results support the use of such personnel screening measures as part of an organizational strategy to address sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other workplace deviance.