The Effects of Sexual Harassment in Workplace: Experience of Employees in Hospitality Industry in Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The issue of sexual harassment has certainly become more prominent in the last decade. As the increasing number of cases reported, many countries have taken statutory action to recognize it as an insultive conduct and at the same time to punish and prevent it. In the hotel industry particularly, sexual harassment has frequently reported as a key problem. Working in the hospitality industry often involves an employee with a number of different people in the course of delivering service. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between aweraness of sexual harrasment in relation to the employment in hospitality industry in Terengganu. A total of 260 respondents were selected from the employees in various hotels and resorts in Terengganu. Three predictors, offensive behavior, sexual coercion, risk on human factor, were found to have medium to strong correlation with the dependent variables namely employment. The regression analysis also shows that offensive behavior, sexual coercion, risks on human factor are positively and significantly related to employment. The researcher suggests that human resource managers in the hotels and resorts should formulate, in consultation with Malaysian law and labour relations experts, in order to improve sexual harassment policies.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p689